Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Other People's Bookshelves

I would be most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who think decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves.

Recently, over at Modern Mrs. Darcy, blogger Anne Bogel confessed that she can't resist inspecting the bookshelves of anyone she visits.  The comments revealed that not only do lots of other people do the same, but also that many of us love to show off and discuss the books on our shelves.  Common ground is found, conversations are launched, and new ideas are discovered.  

Anne invited her readers to join the discussion and post pictures of their bookshelves.  So here's my contribution . . .



This bin sits in our living room. It's where we keep books that we've borrowed from the library. We also keep library books in the sofa cushions, under the children's beds, and on the floor of the minivan.  As you can see, my children are on a My Weird School kick these days.  Regular readers of Modern Mrs. Darcy may also notice one of Anne's recommendations.

I also keep library books in a pile beside my bed.  These are generally parenting and housekeeping books.  That is, books that make me feel like a bad parent and a bad housekeeper.

Most of our books live in the basement:

I can't show them all to you.  There are far too many since my husband and I are literary pack rats.

Here is a collection of Bibles in various languages and versions:



We have to double-shelve some of our books.  Here is a collection of books that I only bring out at Christmas.  The rest of the year, they hide behind Christian living books:



  We usually don't bring guests to the basement, though.  The books we like to show friends are in the living room.  Here are some very old books including several that my grandmother used when she was a girl in school:



Finally, here is our collection of signed books.  Every Saturday, we check the literary events page of the newspaper to see who is coming to town promoting their books.  Sometimes we go on our own, and sometimes we drag our daughters along so that they can experience real boredom by standing in long lines.  



Here's a sample of just one of our autographed books.  This is Susan Cain's Quiet:



Thank you for indulging me, dear readers!  This has been fun!  Be sure to check out the other bloggers participating in this link-up!

24 comments:

  1. Oh my! Your autographed books are to be envied! I love old, well-loved vintage editions of things too. You have an amazing collection.

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    1. Thank you MJ! You're too kind! I'm lucky to live near a big city, so authors frequently stop here on their book tours. It makes building the collection easier.

      And thanks for being my very first commenter! YAY!

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  2. Wow! I am more than impressed! I always think we have tons of books until I see other people's collections. Part of the thing is that I rarely buy a book, I just borrow them from the library. Most of our books actually belong to my kids or husband. My husband gets a LOT of books given to him. Anyway, I love that starting quote. Stopping by from MMD.

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    1. Hi Bernadette!

      I know I have toooo many books. We can't help ourselves. We get most of them second hand, and it's hard to resist when they're so cheap.

      I get a lot of books from the library, too. I work at a library, in fact, so I bring far too many home. Right now, I have--brace yourself--about 100 items checked out on my card. *gasp*

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  3. You met Susan Cain???!!! I'm so jealous!

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    1. I only kind of "met" her. I bought the book, stood in line, and she signed the book for me. It was super cool, though. She gave a fascinating talk beforehand. It was pretty similar to her TED talk which I think you can see on YouTube.

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  4. I love that you have a shelf of autographed books - that is so cool!

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    1. Thanks, Jen E! We love it, too. It's been really fun for us.

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  5. Your shelf of autographed books is so cool! I would spend far too long reading through all of those if I was a visitor :)

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    1. Thanks, Moira! It's only too long if the guest stays past my bedtime. Otherwise, we're happy to peruse right along with them.

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  6. Wow- I love the idea of checking the local papers for book signing events. Since we live near Chicago I bet I could find a lot! Thank you for sharing...and I would visit your basement any day.

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    1. Amy, I live near Chicago, too! We have lots of great literary events here. You can see what's coming up by checking the Saturday Chicago Tribune. Some of my favorite readings/signings take place at the Harold Washington Library. Maybe I'll bump into you there some day.

      Tonight, I'm missing Ree Drummond. She's promoting her holiday cookbook in Naperville, but I have other commitments. Waaaa.

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  7. I loooove your collection of old books - I go looking for them when i'm op-shopping or at markets. Thanks-you for sharing, you have a wonderful collection of everything!

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    1. Thanks! I love to hold those old books in my hands. I feel connected to the people who loved them long ago--like my grandmother, for example. Plus, books used to be made of better materials so they feel nicer in our hands.

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  8. "Literary pack rats" -- I love it! You know, I just realized I've never been to a book signing. I should make a point of doing that sometime soon. This has been a fun visit to your blog! :-)

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    1. It's been a pleasure having you visit! Come again any time.

      I just posted a piece about book signings. You might find something useful there for when you decide to attend one.

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  9. I love the idea of putting library books in a bin. We always are putting them in random places, then have to track them down before the due date.

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    1. Well, we have the bin and we sometimes put library books in it, but as I suggest in the post, we actually have library books everywhere. It's a good thing I work at our library or we'd have to take out a mortgage to cover our fines.

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  10. Susan Cain signed your copy of Quiet??! I'm impressed. :) I wish I could get a closer look at your signed book shelf--it's huge!

    I'm swooning over your grandmother's books.

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    1. Anne, Thank you so much for visiting my little blog! I just posted a follow up so that you can get that closer look if you want to.

      Susan Cain was a very nice (as you might expect her to be, having read her book). You can follow her of Facebook, you know. Maybe she'll visit your neck of the woods one of these days.

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  11. I love the quote on the top! (That was NOT my mother's sentiment, I am sure, but that's how I turned out myself...) "Literary pack rats" is the term I'd use for my dad, myself, and my husband. We all love browsing in second-hand bookshops.

    The shelf of autographed books is wonderful. And so are the old books.

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    1. Thank you! I'm so glad you stopped by for a peek!

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  12. yay! I love how many books you have! My husband collects bibles also! I just found the link party and am having fun browsing peoples book collections!

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  13. Thanks for stopping by, Danielle! It's a pleasure to have you. This has been a fun link up.

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