Paging the Bookisti

A simple question for those of the "book" tendency who have their
supplies delivered by Amazon articulated lorry.

How on earth do you store all your books? Do you have rooms converted
into libraries? Do you simply just have piles of books everywhere or do
you give your books away when you've finished with them?

I'm pretty much out of space and I was wondering what the best "storage
management" techniques are.

Do your worst.

 

I have books stacked in several bookshelves round the house, books
stacked horizontally on books on the shelves, books stacked on the
spare bit of the shelf in front of books, books still in the box they
moved house in and a few books stacked by the bed.

Herself keeps trying to get me to adopt a "one book in, one book out"
policy. I sense issues here.

Some books come from those insidious cheap bookshops and only get read
once before, eventually, finding their way onto charity bookshop
shelves.

I'm not bookisti really, though I did recently pay tens of pounds (I'm
not saying how much) for a slightly tatty SF book.

Ideally, I'd have a proper library but the study is a bit cluttered
already, not just with books, and I think there would be Words if I
tried expanding storage in other rooms.

 

Lots and lots of shelves, in most rooms in the house. The occasional cull.

--
platypus

"Merely corroborative detail, intended to
give artistic verisimilitude to an otherwise
bald and unconvincing narrative."

 

So I read now and then, I can handle it.

You've been spying again...

With great difficulty. A room full of book shelves of various shapes
and sizes, a bookcase in here, a long windowsill in my bedroom which
ends up covered in books, a dining room table that frequently needs
books removing from it, likewise the hall table, bookshelves in the
kids rooms, bookshelf in the study which now contains mainly computer
games and old videos, cookbooks in the kitchen cupboard. I think the
only room without books is the bathroom and that's only because I have
a high fibre diet

Yes. It's full. I'm vaguely considering putting my bed in the library
and the books in the (twice the size) bedroom.

Yes. Though I try and keep them on the bookcase in the living room or
in the library, they tend to sneak around as above. Every couple of
days I herd them.

Every now and again I'll have a clear out, but I'm a sod for getting
more in charity shops. Also whenever my friend (who isn't as bad as me
yet, but she's 10 years younger) has a clear out I end up with half of
them - I have just acquired a huge pile of Anne Rice novels, I've
never read anything by her after 'Interview with a Vampire' but I
liked Poppy Z Brite's Lost Souls so thought 'what the hell'.

Buy a bigger house. Use the local library more. Read books once then
pass them on. Once your unread pile gets into high double figures tell
yourself you're not allowed any more books until you've read them. Get
a responsible adult to accompany you whenever you're near a bookshop.
Block any sites that sell books.

Be ruthless. Read something then decide if you'll ever read it again.
If not it goes. Use bookcrossing http://www.bookcrossing.com/ and send
the ones you liked but didn't love off to someone who'll appreciate
them.

I'll be interested in the answers as well.

 

Oh yes all of these in the library, plus piles on the floor.

If you haven't read them for a year then they can go. Be ruthless.

Oh I forgot the ones by the bed as well as on the windowsill.

Oh dear and you've just started breeding as well, you'll just have to
educate her.

The first step is admitting you have a problem

Which one?

Be firm.

 

Paul Corfield wrote;

There are many strategies, here's a selection;
1. Give several months contemplation to what you consider important or
meaningful in your library and your motives for keeping books, then
dispose of that which does not fit..
2. Recognising that all fiction is ethereal, emotional and ephemeral,
keep only that which relates to science, technology, craft and possibly
some aspects of philosophy.
3. Commit more of your income to larger premises.
4. Give up reading.
5. Convert your library to a less voluminous, more permanent medium.
(Easier said than done)

Some might argue that a particularly 'well written' work has value
_because_ of it's form of words, regardless of subject, but this is
covered by number 1.

I once did number 3, but now choose to do numbers 2 and 5, with
occasional pinches of number 1, but I'm told I'm a strange bugger.

 

I've got plenty of bookshelves around the house, plus I do stick books
back on Amazon on a fairly regular basis, otherwise I'd have trouble
opening the front door.

 

Unless its a techie book give/thrw it away. If ts a techie book, it
lasts as long as you have the technology, then give/throw it away.

 

Not quite with you here old chap; is she suggesting that at some point
you'd be finished with a book and get rid of it? Naaah, shirley nobody
could think like that...

"Women - know your limits."

--
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A flock of Billies from Ikea and a few plastic boxes to ease the trip to
the local Oxfam "Books and Records" shop.

They seemed quite happy with most of it on Saturday, except perhaps for
the Nissan Micra Haynes manual that was more oil than paper. The biog of
Brunel was sold before we left the shop

 

well, 6 months after moving house, I've finally unpacked all of our
books; there aren't /that/ many, but it just took a while to get
around to it.

We have 4 x Ikea "Billy" bookcases, plus a set of ~1.5m wide built in
shelves, all in our dining room. This isn't quite enough storage, as
some of the books are sitting horizontally on top of the vertical rows
- I'll be buying another shelving unit for the front room, and this
will probably be enough for the time being; ultimately I'll move the
technical books into my office, when that's ready, freeing up space
downstairs for more non-techy books.

 

Basically, yes


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A good ol' fashioned book burnin'!

 

Two long standard depth bookcases on the landing. A tall job with extra
deep and high space for SWMBO's proliferating Art books (the sort some
buy to leave on coffee tables, but she refers to) in the dining room.

More modular, pikey, dexion type units in the 'computer room'. These
could really do with being cleared of old Systems Analysis, HCI and
Software Development text books. Must bung them on freecycle.

My personal strategy these days is only buying hardcover titles that I
think I will want to read more than once. That doesn't stop me reading
the odd hand me down paperback BTW.

--

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I have a library/study that used to be the second bedroom. Currently
covered with "Billy" shelving from Ikea and with enough extra space to
last me another few years.

By which point I'll need to buy a bigger house in order to start a
family and keep my study.

 

hmm. Got something against Jews, have you? This is an equal-
opportunity lynch-mob - round 'em *all* up.

 

# Are there any queers, in the theatre tonight

--
Krusty
www.MuddyStuff.co.uk
Off-Road Classifieds

'02 MV Senna '03 Tiger 955i '96 Tiger '79 Fantic Hiro 250

 

What about the Irish?

 

at the minute, the redneck name fits, as I knocked my own front tooth
out with a hammer, doing DIY at the weekend.

 

And the Commies. Can't forget the Reds.