It's true confession time. I have a book addiction. There. I've said it. Admitting you have a problem is the first step to recovery. And I must accept that I cannot keep buying books at this rate, without off loading a few … or a hundred. Maybe you already figured out about my addiction. But I've been in denial.
I had an intervention a few days ago by my friend The Clutter Fairy, Gayle Goddard. She already knew that books were the one thing in my house (except the people I live with) that I could not throw away. But if we ever want to move to a smaller place (and we do), we've got to pass on some of these books (my husband, bless his bookish heart, is as bad as me, but he won't admit it … don't tell him!). We have bookshelves everywhere. Three in our bedroom, plus stacks of books on our bedside tables and even this tower of books (see left photo). Then we have three bookshelves in the game room, two large ones in the living room, two built-in bookshelves in the family room, not to mention the coffee table books and the bench books and the cookbooks in the kitchen and the many shelves in the office where I'm sitting right now. You get the picture - books are our main household accessory.
So - with the prodding of Gayle - I had a great idea. I will start a library somewhere - maybe a Little Free Library or just a few bookshelves at favorite place - Memorial Assistance Ministries or Yellowstone Academy or Project Rowhouse. I have donated to the library, one of my favorite places, in the past, but I want to give my books to actual people. I am going to start sorting my books to see which ones I can share. But if you have any helpful ideas about where I can share my collection of books, please let me know.
Thanks to my e-subscription to Shelf Awareness, I just read a delightful
column called "People of the Bookshelf" in The Global Mail. Written
by one of my favorite authors, Geraldine Brooks, she confessed her secret
dedication to preferentially shelving her own personal collection of books.
Brooks said she arranges her books "as she would guests at a dinner
party," putting together authors that she thinks might be able to strike
up a pleasant conversation. She said she likes to "imagine them, shelved side by side, comparing notes on the mores of
their respective eras."
I just went through a similar dilemma when we added
beautiful new built-in bookshelves in our "book nook" at the top of
the staircase in my home. I had the shelves built for our collection of
children's books. Even though my children are now 17 and 20, I can't bear to
say goodbye to books that have been around since my father was a little boy,
and I was a young girl. There are books given to my children by their late
father and grandparents. These are books I have wonderful memories of reading
to my girls over and over.
Last week, I spent an emotional evening placing these precious
books in the new shelves and I must confess I was a bit obsessive about their
arrangement. I wanted Maurice Sendak next to Charlotte Zolotow. Then I put all
our dog books together; I put Rosemary Wells' McDuff tales next to Alexandra
Day's Carl books. I gathered every book about bunnies (and we had a lot) and
placed them on the same shelf. My collection of fairy books took a place of
honor. And my sister and my beloved Edith, the Lonely Girl, books by DareWright were placed in their own safe top shelf. I found it extremely satisfying to put all these special "friends" together in one place.
Now the rest of the books in the house are not as
organized. My husband and I have bookshelves in several rooms filled to bursting
and stacks of books on our bedside tables overflowing to the floor below. But
if I could just have some more bookshelves built, I could organize the rest of
my books…
So I want some feed back from you, my silent readers. How do you arrange your bookshelves? Email me or post to this blog. XOXO
