Saturday, May 02, 2009

Saturday Soliloquy-- My To-Be-Read Shelves

This week hasn't been one for introspection and remembrance of things past. The end of one month and the beginning of the next is a busy time for me at work, and it sometimes carries over to my time at home. I've been bitten by the Change Bug. I've put up new artwork on my blog and changed the photo slide show at the bottom. (If you want to see photos taken while a British contingent of our family was here, scroll on down to take a look.) But even with these normal changes, I felt like doing more...so I have been.

I've been going through each book review I've posted on this blog since the beginning last June and categorizing them by author, title, genre and setting. Now that that's done, I'll continue working because the end result of this task is to have shiny new tabs at the top of my blog: Reviews by Author, Reviews by Title, Reviews by Genre, Reviews by Setting. Hopefully I can accomplish this in a week. Don't hold me to that deadline, though!

In the meantime, I kinda sorta forgot all about the Saturday Soliloquy, so I've been watching an episode of "The Last Detective", doing needlepoint and wondering if I was going to give it a miss this week. I decided not to because I thought you all might like to see what I'm talking about whenever I refer to my TBR shelves.

If you're anything like me, when you walk into someone's house and see bookshelves, you're drawn to them like they're the most powerful magnets in the world. You're compelled to scan the spines searching for familiar titles and hoping new ones will jump out at you. You can't help pulling a few out to take a look at the covers, and you're mentally making a list to look for the next time you're at the library or a bookstore.

I don't have a physical count of the books on my TBR shelves. I only know that there's just one security blanket in the world that's more comforting than those shelves: the garnet red Irish knit afghan my mother made for me when I was twenty-one. Want to take a look at my TBR shelves? You're bookaholics--of course you do! Follow me....



I know that you'll be tempted to scan titles, so all the photos are clickable so you can view them full size. I have a long run of seven five-shelf bookcases along one wall of my living room. The two bookcases on either end used to house my antique china and glass collection until my TBRs went out of control. Now the top three shelves of this bookcase hold Authors A to G. Yes, I have them shelved alphabetically by author!





These bookshelves hide the back of my daybed and house TBR Authors G-Z. The daybed is perfect for curling up with a book and either watching the world go by out the picture window, or dreaming by the fire in the winter. It has a trundle bed and certainly served admirably while we had a house filled with family for two weeks. The black office chair serves double duty. I can wheel around on it when I'm choosing my next book to read, and if I'm scanning book covers for LibraryThing, I can load it down with a huge pile of books and wheel it a short distance here to the office where my scanner and computer are.

At the far right on the top of the bookshelves, you'll see a light next to one of the lamps. That's left on at night so if anyone wants to travel from the sleeping end of the house to the food end of the house during the wee hours, they won't run the risk of stubbing toes, knocking over lamps, bouncing off bookshelves or falling into the daybed. I have a bad habit of wandering the house at night without my glasses. I never turn lights on, and ever since Denis installed this nightlight, I haven't fallen victim to the "blind staggers"!



This is the first section of books to the left behind the daybed. There is a preponderance of mysteries, but I think you'll see other genres there as well.



This middle section looks as though I've created enough gaps to shelve some of the books lying on top. That's always a good sign. (I have room for MORE!)



And here's the third section. Sheesh! I look at these photos, see certain titles and start jonesing to read them. I wish I could clone myself five or six times!



This final photo shows that even the lamps are themed...hand painted with books, of course. The two books beside the lamp are my ARCs. I have one here in the office that I have to include in my Mailbox Monday post, and then it will join these. I've been doing a much better job when it comes to refraining from requesting ARCs. Too many, and I begin feeling as though reading them is Work. I also really don't want to read and review the same books as many other bloggers. I don't mean this in a snobbish way...not at all! There are so many books out there to share with others that I prefer reading a bit off the beaten path--especially if the destination is a bit of a mystery!

Hopefully you enjoyed perusing my TBR shelves. You've either found several books you've read or want to read...or you've decided that I waste my time on a lot of drivel. To each his own, I say. Life would be extremely boring if we all liked the same things!

Next Saturday I may go back to being profound...or I may send you off on another journey through my bookshelves. I have many more that you haven't seen yet!



19 comments:

  1. I have a TBR pile which is active and a whole load of things that are buried in the rest of the shelves that I haven't read yet.

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  2. I loved snooping through your TBR books. And yes, show us more! My TBR stash is only a fourth of what you have. Good luck with that! :D

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  3. I just have one bookcase for my TBR books - arranged a-z by author like yours. But as I look at them and read them they somehow rearrange themselves!

    I've done an A - Z Author index to my blog too this week and am still wondering whether to do a Title Index too - so time consuming though, when I could be reading, but I do enjoy it.

    Your photos are great and the Reading Lamp is amazing.

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  4. That is a lot of books :)
    Can I have them all ;)

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  5. hmmm...love all those books...and love that you find have all those TBR books comforting...but most of all I love that picture of the wee reader at the beginning of the post. so cute...

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  6. Can I move in with you? :)

    Love those shelves and that lamp - oh, that lamp! - and that gorgeous picture at the beginning of this wonderful post.

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  7. Oh, I'm glad to see there is someone else who arranges their books alphabetically by author ... I do the same thing, and my non-fiction is a modified Dewey decimel system. (I know ... I used to work in a library. That's my excuse. :)

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  8. I had such fun "visiting" your shelves in this post! I usually find myself in an organizational mood once a year - and I appreciated reading how you have chosen to organize blog reviews as well as physical book shelves.

    I LOVE the lamp! I simply must be on the lookout for something like that to put in my "book nook"

    And the new header picture is incredibly warm and inviting.

    Thanks for a great way to start my Saturday!

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  9. I had to show your pictures to my hubby so he'll start giving me such a bad time about my TBR pile!

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  10. I love being invited into other bloggers' homes and being able to take a look at the TBR stacks. Thanks for the visit to your home - I loved browsing through all your books.

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  11. And I thought my TBR pile was huge - yours is about 4X the size of mine! I loved the peak at your shelves.

    I have an award for you here.

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  12. Thank you for inviting me into your home today and especially to scour through your bookshelves. Seeing your creative book lamp was a bonus. So much fun poking around your place.

    I like the new picture below your header. I miss the people on the bus but I like the variety. I'm looking forward to your new tab system. I'm feeling the organizational bug too. It must be a spring thing.

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  13. Hagelrat--I have a few tucked away like that, too. Thanks for stopping by!

    Claire--I probably will show you all more of my shelves, but I think I'll have a Mother's Day soliloquy next week!

    Margaret--I'm glad you liked taking a look at my shelves. Since we're both working on indexing our reviews, we must be suffering from the Spring Organizational Bug!

    Blodeuedd--Yes, you can...if you're willing to wait until I've read them AND pay for the shipping! ;)

    Caite--I have to admit that I was a cute little bugger. Thanks!

    B&B's Mommy--Yes, you can move in. You'll have your own bedroom and bath...until the next round of family and friends come for a visit. Then you might find yourself out on the air mattress in the pool! LOL I used to work in a library, too. I don't use DD, though. My books are alphabetical within genre. Thanks for stopping by!

    Molly--I'm glad you like the new header picture. I can hear the drone of the lawn mower across the street when I look at it and smell the fresh cut grass.

    Kathy--Did it work???

    Kara--I'm glad you enjoyed your visit with my TBR shelves!

    Belle--Thanks for the award! I'll be blogging about it soon--promise!

    Margot--I'm glad you enjoyed your visit. Next time I'd better serve refreshments for everyone! :) I change the art once a month and try to have it match the season as much as I can. Spring and organization seem to go hand in hand, don't they?

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  14. I loved this post. Thanks so much for showing me around some of your books. What a fabulous idea. I may have take photos after I do my big bookshelf dusting this summer.

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  15. Thanks for sharing Cathy - I love 'peeping' at other's bookshelves!!

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  16. I enjoyed the book tour! That was funny about clicking the picture so it is big enough for us to read the titles. You know us too well!

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  17. Beth--I'm looking forward to taking a look at your shelves!

    Luanne--It's that "inner Peeping Tom" thing again, isn't it? ;)

    Terri--I think it was a matter of knowing *myself* too well! LOL

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  18. You knew we'd want to peek at the titles, thanks for making the photos clickable :)

    I should arrange my TBR by author. My "read" books are organized by author (fiction) or subject (non), but the TBR stack is really just a stack(s)

    The book lamps are perfect!!

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  19. Dawn--I just followed my own instincts. I knew that if I'd come across a post like this, I'd want to be able to look at the titles, too! LOL

    With all the comments on the lamps, I should post about them soon!

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