Wednesday 30 October 2013

Books, Books Books..............

As I may have mentioned before, I have a love affair with books. I have hundreds of them, too many to count. Over the last 40 years I have collected many, many and although I buy very few these days unless they are 1p on Amazon or found in a charity shop, I still love browsing them.
Many people have a different attitude to books, reading them once and giving them to charity (for which I am eternally grateful), and much as I have nothing against this - each to their own - I am a collector of them and am happy to re-read most of them over and over again, which is why I don't throw them away (obvious exceptions are books that I didn't enjoy). In my youth, I had three bookcases crammed full in my bedroom, which I left there when I went away to Music College. The time came when my parents wanted to clear the room and because, being a student, I didn't have room for them, most of them went to charity - something I am still sad about 20 years later, as there were some gems that I have never had again. I have never made that mistake since.
I love the feel of them, all sitting together on a shelf - Stephen King, squashed up against Daphne du Maurier and Howard Spring, with the tiny Collins Gem Book of Card Games at the side, (I am not terribly organised with them, enjoying the higgledy-piggledy nature of them) - all containing their own stories, their own people, just waiting to be brought to life when I reach to get one down. For some reason that is why an e-reader doesn't appeal to me. Yes, they are useful and mean you don't have to store books, they are light, easy to take a whole library away with you, yes, there are plenty of advantages and I have tried reading a book on one (my mother's), but to me they don't have the soul of a book. I love turning the pages by hand, I love the paper with the nice font written on it, and the feel of a book. I even love the way they all look together on a shelf. If I ever have any money (unlikely) I would convert my garage into a library with floor to ceiling bookshelves on every wall.
As it is, I have books crammed into every space.


In the bedroom, here you will find a real mix, comedy, thriller, murder mystery, romance, horror.


By the bed, all the books I may reach for in the night if I can't sleep, usually short stories and ghost novels.


In the spare room, on the right is my collection of the complete Agatha Christie in beautiful hardback edition (£25 on e-bay - bargain) and classic novels, and on the left a real hotchpotch.


Oversized books are in the kitchen, mostly cooking and gardening, a bit of DIY and anything else too big to fit elsewhere.


Even one of the kitchen cupboards has recipe books crammed next to jars of pasta and rice.


Jane Austen stands behind the day's post.

So it was that the time had come for me to find a new place for the piles of books that had developed around the house that had no home yet. I decided to build a new, small bookcase yesterday, to slot nicely in the hall and hold small sized paperbacks.

Total cost - £12

Bought enough wood, measured it out to fit precisely and screwed it together and put a nice, decorative front onto it.



Stained it dark oak, so that it matched the other colours in the room, then polished with a good wax polish.


And problem solved.


I am delighted with it, very low cost, and now these poor souls have a home. What's more, they are in order (for now).
Of course there is still no room for any more books that may just find their way into my home. Oh well, I am sure I will find another spot when the time comes......


22 comments:

  1. Hi this looks like my house,if a bookcase can fit it goes there lol.
    Lisa x

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    1. I am already wondering where the next one will go.

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  2. A kindred spirit. Most of what I have packed to take to our new house this week has been books. You don't realise how many you actually have until you pack them in boxes and stack them!!

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    1. Yes, when I moved in here I had boxes and boxes - they are always the heaviest boxes too!!!

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  3. I share your passion! We're lucky to have a wonderful place called Barter Books near us. Built in an old Victorian railway station, they are a haven for secondhand books and a fabulous place to browse away a rainy afternoon. You can take in your unwanted books to 'sell' and they put the money on your account to spend on yet more books! On our last visit we bought a selection of Agatha Christie books - great fun!

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  4. Oh i have to agree completely with the look and feel of a book - even the smell for me is powerful whether they be new or old :) Your new bookcase looks fab - well done for creating a new home for them :)

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  5. I also like the smell, the feel and the look of books. They also make a room or a house feel much more cosy and warm. Most of ours were bought at charity sales. However with time they accumulate dangerously, many of our shelves have double rows.
    You say you like ghost stories - do you know M. R. James? He is the best.

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    1. Oh yes, I was thinking about Whistle and I'll come to you my lad, only the other day.One of the books by my bed is the Collected Ghost Stories of M R James as it happens.

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    2. Whistle and I'll come to you my lad with the ghost at the window is a very good one. An other favorite, perhaps because it involves a book, is The Scrapbook of Canon Alberic. Of the very same period, there are some stories by Saki that you would also like if you like M R James (if you don't know them already). Two very good ones are Tobermory and Shredni Vashtar.

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  6. I still have a whole Agatha Christie and Ngaio Marsh collection in the attic, yet to find a home downstairs. Mind you, we have now got better at getting rid of them otherwise they would take over. I too dislike e-books. Gave my Kindle to DB who enjoys reading on it.

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    1. My great uncle had 20,000 books when he died and my mother has probably not far off. It's in the genes!

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  7. with you on the e-reader, that and the fact im clumsy and have dropped books in the bath! had a cull a couple of years back due to illness and 1,000 books turned into 250. however they are precious to me, and will remain so. got the book bug from mum who encouraged us to raid the library before our road trips around Europe each summer. so glad she passed that onto me.

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  8. Wow, Dan, thats a heck of a lot of books! I tend to only save the ones I know I could read again and enjoy. I do buy most of mine for pennies though in CS so dont feel too bad sending them back again.

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  9. We have a kindle, it's just not the same as handling a book but handy to pack for holidays. I don't use it at any other time.

    I have whittled my book collection down in my mission to declutter and only keep absolute favourites. Along with a group of friends we pass our books around.

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  10. You did a great job on the fit and finish of your bookcase - it's perfect for the spot. We have two walls covered in book cases at our house but trying not to do the same in every room - I am a librarian and don't want the house to look identical to work!

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  11. So ... I am not the only one with too many books. But remember the maintenance. Books as objects do deteriorate. Make absolutely sure that there are no insects quietly damaging your books. Keep an eye on dust and humidity. In your old age you could run a Book Exchange, an Aussie tradition.

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  12. I think it looks great, books are like friends you can always count on, if you run out of space you can always go uP!

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  13. A man after my own heart! I usually only keep books that I will read again...and again...and again. I have series that I have read a dozen times and never, ever get tired of them..nice shelves!

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  14. How neat. I think I've posted about all our books. We seem to be addicted to cookbooks, how to books and gardening books. I just love to sit down and read through something and learn a little bit here and a little bit there. We've got books in both places. Organizing though? Um, no, maybe someday, ha.

    I love books stacked up on tables, such a cool look.

    Nothing like curling up or snuggling into a blanket with a book on a cold/rainy day. :-)

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  15. Great post. We are a family of book lovers and have thousands of books....last count just before we moved from Scotland in 2007 was over 2500!!!! Not sure how many we have now. We have bookcases every where and in previous houses have fitted book cases into the downstairs looks!!! Even the removal men comment on the number of books we have. I'd love to own a 2nd hand book store. We visited Barter books. Fantastic setting and lovely to browse but very expensive. One of our favourite places is the 2nd hand book shop in the old granary at Gatehouse of Fleet.......cafe comfy sofas and hundreds of books.....bliss.

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