Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Maybe It Is Possible To Have Too Many Books? Naaaah.

The Great Book Migration, it is finished! Well, there are one or two little things still to do. I've got a small bookcase that's now completely empty, which I think I'm going to fill up with magazines or something... later. But otherwise, everything is now where I want to it be. Yay! I guess that's what happens when, instead of three days of intermittent, leisurely activity, you for some reason opt for one sweaty, day-long marathon session of hammering and dragging and hauling and re-arranging.

I must say, I am quite pleased with the results. I very much like having the non-fiction in the computer room. It just feels like it belongs here. And, as predicted, adding an extra three bookcases allowed me to accommodate everything beautifully.

Here's what my dining room looks like now:



That's just one side of it, of course. There's two more bookcases on the opposite wall: one the same size as these, and another that's a bit wider, but has only three shelves. (I couldn't use a bigger one there, as it would have blocked a light switch and a thermostat control.)

This room now looks much more like a library than it does like a dining room, certainly, but I regard that as a good thing, because a) I think any room can be substantially improved by becoming more library-like, whatever its function. (Well, OK, maybe not the bathroom, but only because the books would get soggy.) And b) I almost never actually dine in there, anyway, so I might as well get some use out of it.

Note the nearly empty bookcase on the right, which was pretty much the entire point of the exercise.

So, I am happy, yes, but also very tired and very achy. My current plan is to spend the next couple of days lying on the sofa reading more books to put on my new shelf space.

17 comments:

  1. I`m buying stock in whatever brand of bookshelves your buying.

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  2. I need a complete picture tour of the bookshelves. I keep telling my wife that we don't need to sell any books.. we don't have a problem with only 8 book cases...

    General Betty Wan Booknobi, you're my only hope.

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  3. Maybe when I've recovered from today. But, man, that would be a lot of pictures. :)

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  4. Oh, I will say, though, that a quick count reveals that I now own 24 bookcases of varying sizes. And that's not including the built-in shelves currently housing the To-Read Pile, or the shelves in the closets which hold magazine and comics and other random non-book publications.

    So, yeah, you're fine. You should pick up a few more!

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  5. I think eating in a room like that would make fast-food takeout seem like a candlelit dinner.

    Incidentally, the school librarian e-mailed me that she won't be back for three weeks. Arrgh! I guess I'll just have to reread the same book a couple of dozen times before then (or, you know, actually learn where the city libraries are in Chattanooga).

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  6. Now, see, to me having only one book would be an emergency of the highest order. I'd be frantically searching for libraries and bookstores, overnighting things from Amazon...

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  7. So just how many books is that, number-wise? And how many are read/unread?

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  8. Just in that picture? At a very rough estimate, I'd say maybe about 450. And all of those are ones I've read. The unread books are shelved elsewhere, by themselves.

    In my entire library, I have 3,088 books, of which currently 432 are unread.

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  9. Wait, make that 435 unread. The mailman rang my doorbell with a package from Amazon about ten seconds after I posted that comment. :)

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  10. Far be it from me to suggest anyone part with books -- heaven knows I have plenty -- but you have 2,653 books you need to hold on to?

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  11. Hey, we all have our obsessions. And I like living in a house filled with books.

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  12. Mehee...I now no longer own the most books of anyone I know :)
    The perfect excuse to go get some more :)

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  13. Yes! Let me be your role model! :)

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  14. Some people say "role model". Others pronounce it "enabler". :)

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  15. Ooh! I just noticed the Harry Potter series on the top shelf of the last full bookcase on the right. Shall we play a game of "Guess the Book by its Spine"? Are there any others which your loyal readers can identify?

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  16. Heh. I was wondering if anybody'd want to play that game. You are correct on the Harry Potter. :)

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