Since I was recently asked how I store my books, and since it's Friday and I'm feeling frivolous, here's a little book tour. Most of my books are kept here in my book room. This is a small room (appearing smaller no doubt because of the angle of my camera), perhaps 12' x 12'. It opens off my living room. I'm literally standing with my back to the opposite corner (and am on a chair so I can look down on the piles). The cinder block shelves to the left hold NF titles--biographies, women's studies, and travel books mostly. The piles next to that are hardcovers and mysteries that I posted about a few days ago. And the bookshelf on the right has lots of fiction. And those books are double shelved--meaning there are books behind the books. As you can see I am very cramped for space and books long ago overflowed the shelves. In a world where I was wealthier, this would be a bigger room, I'd have enough shelves for all my books and it would be much more aesthetically pleasing. However, beggars can't be choosers. I'd love to give the room a makeover, but in order for it to be more attractive, I think I would have to seriously weed out books to make space, and I just can't bring myself to do that.
This is the other corner (the bookshelf I just mentioned is to the very left--you can see the edge of it). This taller bookshelf has most of my classics, my Viragos on top, along with some of my Persephones, some reference books and most of my Dorothy Dunnett collection. My classics have overflowed on to the floor in front. The shorter shelf on the right has poetry, plays (not many of either I'm afraid), short story anthologies and books about books, as well as my Horatio Hornblower books, and novels about King Arthur and Camelot. And, yes, the carousel does move and play music. It was stored here during Christmas and needs to be returned to its correct home. I'm afraid I didn't take a photo of the opposite wall. It only has one small bookcase (books on Italy and coffee table books on top) as my niece has a large stack of toys in front of the books and I was too lazy to move them. There is also a closet on that side and the doorway into the room--so not much to see really.
This bookcase is in my bedroom, so all the books are unread. It has gotten far too full and I need to move some of them downstairs to my bookroom. I wish I could say all the books in my bookroom have already been read and enjoyed, but they haven't. Many, many have been read, but...do you see why I always have so many books started? The two stacks on the top of the bookcase and on the left are more classics. The middle stack is NF. The next stack is the rest of my Persephones and fiction, and the stack on the far right is all new hardcovers (well, some are not so new anymore--I hate it when I don't get a book read and it comes out in paperback, which is why I've been so addicted to the library--better to borrow those new books from them!). The books on the shelves themselves are mysteries and more NF. I've also got some books in the floor to the right that are hiding. There's a window next to the bookcase, and it has yellowed some of the edges of the books--I hate it when that happens! The bin on the floor holds some of my needlework. And oops, meant to move that cat toy! No doubt they cats were lurking in the background--not in the mood to be photographed.
And this is my nightstand, which you've seen before. This used to be my grandmother's table and she also kept books stacked on top and on the shelf below! My grandmother was a great reader (though I think she was mostly very fond of Regency romances!). The stacks on the right and underneath are nearly all fiction, but there's some NF as well. The stack on the left are all books that I've gotten from the UK. I'm not at all sure why I've segregated them (in my bookroom they're all mixed together). There's no reason they can't happily commingle. Things are on the messy side, I'm afraid. You'll have to forgive me, I wasn't expecting company!