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Books and more Books!? - Page 2

post #21 of 36
4/4/07 at 6:46pm
OED......always wanted one of those!

This has been a weakness for us too. I have a ton of fiction books that I've never even read and have been keeping them forever with the intention of reading them eventually.

Well, recently I was browsing the shelves looking for one to read and after picking up several I realized - there are quite a few mixed in there that I am not even interested in anymore! Or that I read ages ago and loved, but am not likely to read again, etc.

So, I am ready for another purge. Still love books and am not going to get rid of everything by any means, but I think I have room to reduce.

Maybe take a harder look. Maybe a shelf a day. See if there are some duds mixed in with the ones you love that you can let go of.

Oh, we are planning a move soon and that is an inspiration as well. Last time we had SO many HEAVY boxes of books I want to be darned sure the ones we move are worth it!
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post #22 of 36
4/4/07 at 8:44pm
No advice, I hoard books too. Oh and guess what ds is getting for Easter and his b-day....more books.
post #23 of 36
4/4/07 at 11:54pm
I'm in a similar boat. I had been selling books and have a large inventory and a lot of them I don't want to part with. In addition I collect cookbooks and have 643 of them : We are trying to really downsize so I've had to struggle over this decision.

My first process was what book category do I read least. Fiction, Biography, etc. I then went into that category and asked myself is this a book I could borrow from the library? If yes, it went in the box. If no, I held onto it.
Next question, it this a book I will want to buy in the next year? If no, it went in the box. Is this book out of print? If yes, I held onto it in a separate box.

For me this started to work because what I realized was there were very few books I'd buy again, and lots of books I could borrow. When I realized in one category I was willing to part with 65% of the books I was amazed. I then took them to a used book store, asked the difference between store credit and cash. I went the middle ground and got $40 in cash and $60 in store credit. Now some of the books I may want to replace in a year I can and I have some reward $ for the work in getting rid of some of my books.
post #24 of 36
4/5/07 at 12:14am
I have two problems in this area (aside from my own absolute weakness for books...including cookbooks...I hear you, cupofjojo).

Problem 1: I am writing a dissertation. About an author. So I have everything he ever wrote (which is a lot), plus books by authors that were influences on him, plus books about him or his work, plus books about literary criticism, plus "Writing Your Dissertation In 15 Minutes a Day," etc.

Problem 2: My husband works at a used bookstore! He is an incredible scout for things that I need for academic reasons...but he has even less ability to say no to a book than I do. We enable each other!

Really I don't mind this. We have almost zero other stuff; our house is liveable. My daughter will be able to read anything she wants from our library and I love seeing our books lined up waiting for me to come read. I have read a lot of the books--more than half--but there are many things still waiting for me, either because I haven't had time since we bought them or because they belonged to my husband before we moved in together and I haven't read them yet. The promise of new stories is like a miracle to me. There's almost nothing as exciting as thinking that any of these books, which I haven't met yet, could be as lovely as some of my favorites.
post #25 of 36
4/10/07 at 5:07pm
We have TONS of books, too. I swear I have a book fetish. I am trying to get rid of some before we move.

But does anyone know any good resources for bookshelves? Or how to make built in bookshelves? But NOT horrendously expensive? Our crappy Target ones are only 6 mos old and ready to bite the dust.
post #26 of 36
4/10/07 at 6:11pm
Thread Starter 
dnw826,
Duct Tape is our Friend!!!!!
post #27 of 36
4/10/07 at 6:32pm
I have been weeding out all paperback books. We do still have a few that are really old and have sentimental value, but that's it. The rest are all hardbacks. Now I need to go through the hardbacks and weed some of them out. I'll probably get rid of the ones I didn't particularly love first and go from there.
post #28 of 36
4/10/07 at 6:59pm
Have you looked at Ikea for bookshelves? They have reasonably priced ones starting at $29.99. They are unfinished and I'm not sure about the quality as I have never seen them IRL.
I got our mission-style bookshelves at Staples when they were on sale for around $60. (we didn't have a local ikea yet)
post #29 of 36
4/10/07 at 7:22pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by greengmax View Post
Have you looked at Ikea for bookshelves? They have reasonably priced ones starting at $29.99.
The Ikea Billy series is great for bookaholics like us We have the add-a-shelf units that go on top so the shelves go to the ceiling. Plus the corner units mean no wasted space there. I think we have about 30-35 bookcases... as one pp said "every available wall". For us that includes hallways and ends of staircases! And all bookcases are currently overflowing with more books stacked sideways in front of other books. My dh works for B&N and is kind of out of control. There are a lot of worse habits he could have though... I keep telling myself that
post #30 of 36
4/10/07 at 9:07pm
: Billy Bookcases are great. We have 12 of them. Some have the doors on the bottom so we don't completely look like book junkies
post #31 of 36
4/10/07 at 9:38pm
Next time you see a used book shop going out of business (which happens all the time if you live near a major metro area!), jump on that. We got a bunch of our bookcases from a bookshop that went under; they're 9 feet tall, extra wide (I think 4 ft), and solid wood, and we paid about $70 each (which is SO much more worth it than what we paid for our crappy Target bookcases (which we have a bunch of, too).
post #32 of 36
4/11/07 at 5:19am
While we've done a lot of decluttering, we just embrace the books.

Our home's 'dining room' is actually our library. We have an eat in kitchen and not that big of a house, so we felt two eating rooms would be redundant, and...we love books! We did floor to near-ceiling bookcases in the dining room, plus a large bookcase in the kids' playroom.

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/s...=1176279364724
post #33 of 36
4/11/07 at 10:31am
Quote:
Originally Posted by jpudsey View Post
dnw826,
Duct Tape is our Friend!!!!!
No, not for these. The shelves don't even seem to be long enough to meet the walls of the bookcase. So you put books on them, the board bows and then falls down. No hope for these.

I will be moving near an IKEA this summer, and I was looking at their bookcases but had never met anyone with them. I will have to get them, thanks!
post #34 of 36
4/11/07 at 10:50am
How are the Billy bookcases for quality? We had Ikea bookcases, and the shelves nestle onto these little metal pins (and there was one stationary shelf that helped with stability, I assume). We put our encyclopedias on it, and were frightened one night when the entire shelf broke and collapsed and all of the heavy books fell...inches from our infant. The encyclopedias are now stacked in a closet, on the floor.
post #35 of 36
4/11/07 at 1:52pm
We are remodeling and have built floor-to-ceiling, wall-to-wall bookcases along one wall of a wide 15-foot-long hallway. It only took 12 inches out of the hallway width and will hold a ton of books. This is where all our books will live (except that the kids will each have a shelf in their room). I think this will feel less cluttery than having little bookcases in each room. You can accomplish the same thing much more economically with Ikea bookcases and borrowing a few extra inches in any room where you have it- there are some cool photos in their catalog or website of a whole wall of bookcases with a sofa in front of them. I've always liked the idea of a combo dining room/library, so that would also work if you have a formal dining room (we don't).

I've purged a lot of books and we are heavy library users, but I love books and I really want my kids to grow up in a rich learning environment. So far it's working- my 7 y.o. loves to read. He reads all sorts of random stuff, not necessarily things we would think to look for in the library, so I think there is great value to having lots of books in the home!
post #36 of 36
4/11/07 at 2:50pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by ~Nikki~ View Post
How are the Billy bookcases for quality? We had Ikea bookcases, and the shelves nestle onto these little metal pins (and there was one stationary shelf that helped with stability, I assume). We put our encyclopedias on it, and were frightened one night when the entire shelf broke and collapsed and all of the heavy books fell...inches from our infant. The encyclopedias are now stacked in a closet, on the floor.

Any adjustable shelf bookcase, not just cheap and not just Ikea, will have the pins.

We've been happy with our Billys.