Home Library

What’s your home library like? My book of favorites is a mess of battered paperbacks that I know I’ll go back and reread again so I don’t let go of them. I have a bookcase of reference materials beside my desk so I can reach and grab at any time. And I also have some crowded shelves that I need to thin from back when I was picking up books just because they looked interesting and I thought I might like to read them. (My shelves are organized enough that I know where a book is likely to be by bookcase.  Examples forementioned: books I love go here, books I use go here, scripts I want to scan into digital files and then ditch are over there, etc.  And then the two bookcases of stuff that I need to sort through and thin out.)

The problem is, my life has changed. I no longer spend so much time reading books that I pick up and read one just because it looks interesting. I have to really want or need to read it to spend the time on it.

I think my casual “that looks interesting” reading is now done on the internet.

And yet I still find myself ordering a book from Amazon or picking one up at the book store just because it looks interesting, and then, months or even years later, it still sits uncracked on my shelf.

I really need to get past this need to acquire and to own and to hold books unless they are books that I lust after.

But while I’m doing that, I also ran across something really cool. I don’t loan a lot of books because the ones I would loan are the ones I love and wouldn’t want to lose, and I learned better than to loan them when they stopped coming back.

But if I loaned books, I’d be tempted. I mean, these fit 3x5s and everything. And they’re so cute!

Library pockets:

I am tempted to buy them the same way I’m tempted to buy books that look interesting, except that I’m sure they would go into my drawer until I needed them and that would be, probably never.  Or I’d stick them in a few books but not loan those books out.  Or something.

More like them, and other library supplies here.

So tell me about your books, your home library.  Stacks everywhere or neatly shelved? You’ve read them all a gazillion times or many are to-be-reads?  You can find any book at any time or you’d hunt for days to find one?