You Can Never Have Too Many Bookshelves
Highwaters came over today and helped me douche my house. It’s part of our Housecleaning Exchange Program, where we come to one another’s house and enable the other to see the things that really can be thrown away, or donated, or placed somewhere better. She has a one bedroom apartment and I have a two bedroom saltbox, but she’s a good sport and devotes scads more time to my abode than I did to hers. (I’m thinking of paying her back by handcrafting a new windshield for her car. I’m sure I can find instructions on marthastewart.com, no?)
What we optimistically thought would take a few hours instead took all day, and we paid the price with blackened fingernails and dark gray dust-boogers, but the result (four bookshelves set up in the living room instead of my bedroom) is pretty awesome. I don’t know where all these books came from (well, actually, I do), but three boxes/bags of books to trade in at a local used bookstore later, I’m still finding fresh stacks of books with no place to call home. And I’m out of wall space for bookshelves.
It’s an enviable problem. I like walking into the living room and seeing my book wealth. It makes my home seem so much more inviting and warm when I see my paper and cardboard friends all assembled, waiting for the party to start.
Cheers to Highwaters, and our freshly shelved pals.
Wanda Rizzuto said,
November 25, 2007 at 6:36 am
When are you coming to my house? You wouldn’t believe my toilet.
Suzy said,
November 25, 2007 at 7:15 am
I used to have bookshelves covering all of my walls. After years of this, I realized it destroyed any possibility of decorating in a more creative fashion. I got rid of the bookshelves and put up crap like plaster butterflies and mirrors with resin frames. I changed these things many times through the years and realized I should have just left the bookshelves because I’m not exactly Martha in the decorating department.
Beth said,
November 25, 2007 at 8:11 am
A handcrafted windshield. Wow! Perfect idea!
When the officer pulled over highwaters, he complimented her crime, “Yeah, you can’t have a stained glass, leaded windshield, but that is a seriously awesome gangsta Jesus you’ve got there. Nice!” And then he held up a little gang sign he saw on the MTV, and tore off my work order citation.
You’re super welcome for the help, heathenly. Like you, during my room’s transformation, it was cool to see the result, and really nice to see you happy about it.
bibliomom said,
November 25, 2007 at 8:48 am
What a great exchange program! My problem is that I could get so much done if I didn’t have the kids around and on the rare moment when I’m here without them I don’t feel like doing anything. It’s a horrible cycle.
dashofpanache said,
November 25, 2007 at 9:21 am
Bookshelves, pshaw! Those are only cool if they also double as secret doors to secret rooms.
(j/k)
dashofpanache said,
November 25, 2007 at 9:23 am
also, I should probably think before I hit the submit button, because I’m tagging you. If I don’t, the meme will kill my (non-existent) children.
pandemonic said,
November 25, 2007 at 10:17 am
Can I hire you guys as a team to come clean my house? I’ve never released the books from their boxes when we moved here three years ago.
Sarah said,
November 25, 2007 at 1:54 pm
You can always do what John and I do when the books start to take over our 1-bedroom place–stack them 2 and 3 deep on all the bookshelves in the bedroom so that the ones in the living room look normal. Oh, and box up a bunch to put in storage because he just can’t part with them. Then again, neither can I.
stevo said,
November 25, 2007 at 5:12 pm
Books deserve to be set free. I wish I had some more.
thelittlefluffycat said,
November 25, 2007 at 5:20 pm
Boooooooookkkkkkksssssss…….ooohhhh…..when you’re done with Wanda’s I got dibs onya….
kmcdade said,
November 26, 2007 at 11:09 am
I totally agree with your title. The housecleaning thing sounds like a great idea.
Joel (the frog with cat ears) said,
November 26, 2007 at 11:49 am
House cleaning? Book purge?
jojovtx1800 said,
November 26, 2007 at 1:23 pm
Ha, I inherited all of my grandfathers books when he passed, I have hundreds that will likely never see the light of day.
goodfoot08 said,
November 26, 2007 at 4:03 pm
“make a windshield.”
If she loves you, a lanyard should suffice.
I think having someone help with book sorting is a great idea. You not only get a cleaned up space and a box of books to donate to the local used book sale for a good cause, but you get someone who you respect telling you how cool your books are. For quite a few years, this passed as a form of sex for me, until I moved into my own space. It was at that time, I worked across the street from a summer long book sale and I upgraded my book shelves with poetry books. The horror and science fiction is now in boxes. I now have someone who comes over and tells me how sexy my book shelves are. Then we sometimes get to real sex.
tigereye said,
November 26, 2007 at 8:53 pm
I’m in the middle of the gargantuan project of culling the weak from the herd: boxing up books I read and didn’t like enough to keep, books I got for free and will never read, books I started and couldn’t finish… I have every book ever written about the 2000 election, or I did before I donated half of ‘em to the local literacy project.
I wish you guys could come here and pick through ‘em. Some were popular, just not with me: Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, Son of a Witch, a whole fantasy series I never read. And I still haven’t removed enough to fit the floor stacks of books on the shelves.
Scout said,
November 28, 2007 at 2:26 am
Neat exchange program! I could benefit too but I probably would not like the exchange part!
pmousse said,
November 28, 2007 at 6:38 pm
You can never, ever have too many bookshelves. When I moved into my house a decade ago, I had built-ins made in as many rooms as I could. They still look great.
Annie said,
December 12, 2007 at 11:03 pm
This is s great idea–another person does not have the emotionally attachment that one has to their own things. My bookshelves take up everywhere in my little space, and yet…I can’t let go! Wish I could have a cleaning exchange in Bklyn.
A
Erica said,
April 4, 2008 at 7:44 am
i think our bookshelves are one of the nicest parts of the house personally…i love bookshelves and you’re right…you can never have too many