BOOKSHELVES... OR THE ART OF BOOKS AND DISPLAY....

My name is Vicki and I have books. We have books.

Lots of books. Books in bookshelves, books on top of bookshelves, beside bedside tables, on top of bedside tables. Books on desks, on shelves...books in cupboards.

Books in the kitchen, in every bedroom, in the lounge room, the dining room.

In fact if I go to your house and discover no books, I don't know if I can trust you. I mean, really...not one book...what sort of person are you?

However the tidiest selection of books are in daughter's bedroom...or the visitor's bedroom. Everyone from my sister, nieces, nephews, friends and their kids, but mostly grand daughter...this is where they stay- hence the collection of picture books.


(won't mention the two bags of books under the bed in this room.....I've just started delving into these and therefore no room..as yet...for them)

The books in cupboards are in a mess, but because they are in cupboards I really don't care. Unless I REALLY need that book...NOW....and can't find it.

Then my lack of tidyness....neatness...or merely discipline comes to the fore.

Most of my bookshelves look like this...


Books are on the shelves, but there are others on top of them, some to the side, some underneath. And I struggle to come up with some sense of what goes where.

Now the books in the lounge room, for the most part, are easy to determine. Garden books....as well as the well thumbed and slightly falling apart What Bird is That? This bookcase, just by the front door also houses our Bony collection and assorted junior books that I couldn't get rid of when the kids grew out of them.

However the picture above is the bookcase in the bedroom, right beside my desk.

And no matter if you look up...or down....there is no sense or reason for their placement.


It's also a resting place for odds and sods. My work badge, assorted change, a heart shaped stone found on a beach, mask bought from Venice, small blue paperweight....and a couple of yellow feathers.

I have tried....attempted....have actually several times tided all these shelves. Placed them just so...well not really just so, merely in a more neat configuration. However they never last that way long at all.

It's just not in my nature to be tidy. (hangs head in shame but heh there are more important things in life than cleaning and tidying ---give me a HELL YEAH)

To me a bookcase that has everything just so means that people in the house don't read the books. They are there only for display and I'm afraid to me, that is weirder than not reading books at all. (One exception is daughter's house who has a large collection of books, mostly classics, and they are arranged by publication and I KNOW every one has been read at least twice!)

Don't get me wrong, there are days when I get to, and tidy, neaten up and try to arrange them so they look okay...but it never lasts.

Even if I occasionally dream of having shelves that look like this...


I know in my reality it will never....ever....happen.

But a girl can dream...
Vicki 

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