The best way to make me happy is to do one of two things: give me a book or give me time to read it.
As a secondary present, you can be assured that I will always be willing to take a bookshelf off of anyone's hands. I have recently been the beneficiary of not one, but two, bookshelves for free. I love free. Cheap bookshelves are great but free ones are an unbelievable blessing on our household. Or just for me, anyway.
When we moved back to Prince George into our new home, I got the great idea that I would have a dedicated library and all of my vast collection would live in our basement on tidy and organized shelves. As you may imagine, tidy and organized is not my baseline for any aspect of my life however the main issue preventing a beautiful home library from growing in my home was my considerable lack of bookshelves.
I have three fairly large bookshelves but, sadly, my books are double-stacked on each shelf. The books are crammed into any available space paying no attention to alphabetical or thematical organization. In addition to the ugly mess on the shelves, new books are constantly being added to my collection and there was seepage of the books into the upstairs living area. In short, books were growing in our house like mold.
Then my cousin texts me to see if I want a free bookshelf.
Manna from heaven.
I say yes immediately in case she changes her mind and then she even delivers it to me. And it's pretty!
I lug it up the stairs right to my bedroom where I then have to climb over my bed so I can move six stacks of books from the floor along the wall. Once the bookshelf was in place, I then loaded the books on the shelf like a ninja. It was beautiful and completely full. I may have a bit of a problem.
More recently a friend was moving and offered me another bookshelf, for free, and I cannot believe my good fortune. For once in my life, I may have enough room on my shelves to consider organizing them in some fashion.
Perhaps I will organize them my colour to make a book statement.
Just kidding.
That will never happen because organizing books by colour is for people who don't read their books. I prefer my moderately insane catalogue system. The books that you reread often and really enjoy have to be close to one another so they can be friends and encourage other books to be good.
Books in a series should be close but never in order and the first book in a series will always be missing because you have lent it to someone (because it's amazing and you need to read it). You may get that book back one day but not before you have replaced it so you will have a duplicate copy.
The pretentious books that you bought when you were nineteen fully intending to read and discuss loudly in a coffee shop while wearing a beret and smoking a Gauloise, should go on the top shelf.
In the event that a pretentious friend needs to reread Lolita, you have it at the ready and you appear to be the rockstar of book-lending friends. Textbooks that you will never reread but have a hard time parting with (Norton anthologies for me and chemistry texts for my husband), these go on a bottom shelf along with the home renovation books for building gazebos that you have no idea why you own.
Mediocre books should go away but you may like to keep them as a warning to new books that only good books are reread and bad books should be thrown across the room in a fit of fury. If you are only a mid-range book, you will be on a low shelf and forgotten about.
There is a system and it is very scientific. I will never have beautiful bookcases but I can always find a book that I am looking for and what more does a bibliophile need.
