Saturday, August 07, 2010

Shelf Shots

After my huge book shopping binge in July, my small apartment was overrun with books. Not the best time to be watching Hoarders Season 1. Doesn't that show freak you out? I was getting all sweaty and nervous about clutter issues; I feared that it was time to either double-shelve or worse, "cull the herd".



Rescue came in the form of Jeremy, who is leaving Korea and has a ton of stuff to unload, including a 2-shelf and a 3-shelf bookcase. I asked for the 3-shelfer, but Jeremy thoughtfully pointed out that the shelves can be stacked. Wobbly as my spatial and math skills are, it didn't take me long to appreciate the beauty of a 5-shelf situation.

Long story short -- Jeremy hauled shelf and I crossed his palm with paper. After he left, I hummed and shoved some stuff around in my own little warped bookwormy version of Apartment Therapy:

The new shelves, stacked. I put my still-incomplete Pulitzer prizewinners collection here in chronological order. As you can see, I've now got room to grow the Pulitzer collection. On top of the shelf is The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, a Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, a booklet that lists local train times and subway schedules and Leonard Maltin's 2010 Movie Guide. The book next to the yellow pillow is Savage Night by Jim Thompson.





Here's a closer peek at the top of the bookshelf that's in my header. This mixture of books includes books I've borrowed, traded, found and bought in recent months. Also a mixture of unread and partially read.




The shelves below this one house my DVD collection, but the top one is the special place for my full-color collector's edition of Little House on the Prairie books. I think it's pretty clear by now that I'm a "bonnet head".





The Bookshelf Formerly Known As Pulitzer was moved over by the patio door. On top of the shelf is Jeremy's little wooden display thing, which holds my dolls from Mongolia, a matyroshka doll I found in Incheon's Chinatown and two toy turtles. On the next shelf are the Louis L'Amour Sackett series and my reading journals. On the shelf below are some TBRs. A little more than 2 empty shelves make me a happy bookworm, but you know what they say about nature (and it goes double for Bybee) abhorring a vacuum, right?

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Brilliant man, that Jeremy. :-D

Susan said...

I don't know whether to be a little scared that you have a cardinal on your bookshelf, as that's only my favourite small bird in the world!! lol Hawks are my favourite big bird.

I love that you abhor a vacuum, shall we make a bet on how long it takes the shelves to be filled? :-D not very long, I think! Thanks to Jeremy too for making my book-twin so happy with her redesigned book-shelf filled apartment!

Sam said...

Empty bookshelves require bookstore visits. You know you can't stand looking at all that empty space...go on, admit it. :-)

Eva said...

What fun! I'm also currently at the point of either finding another bookcase or culling things! I'm hoping for the former. :)

Matty said...

Your apartment is so neat. How could you even compare yourself to the people on that hoarding show? You don't have nearly enough cat feces on the floor!

Unruly Reader said...

Placing books on a new book shelf is even better than chocolate. I feel like re-organizing my shelves here...

Michele said...

"Cull the herd".....that is hilarious!