On the Booklovers’ Shelves: Objects In Photo More Numerous Than They Appear

220px-Rear-view-mirror-captionWe’ve probably all seen the safety warning on the passenger side mirrors  of  cars. Wikipedia says it’s not just a US phenomenon, that other countries do this too. You know the phrase, “objects in mirror are closer than they appear”.

Sometimes it’s not real until after you’ve backed into the car behind you, usually while parallel parking. C’est la vie.

However, I’m here about books. And bookshelves. And the objects in this photo are more numerous than they appear. We moved from the Atlanta suburbs to Seattle in December. In spite of my current preference for ebooks, it hasn’t always been so.

hall shelvesNot to mention, I’ve been collecting books for decades. Every conceivably available wall in our apartment has a six-foot tall bookshelf “decorating” it. This picture isn’t of a room. It’s the hallway. We (my husband is just as much of a collector as I am) have over 2,000 books. And we just moved them across the country. Again.

We haven’t even got them back in order yet. We will. Eventually.

But I’ve noticed a strange, and possibly even frightening thing. It has to do with where I work.

I’ve probably mentioned this a few (dozen) times. I’m a librarian. Even when I don’t work in an actual library, I’m still a librarian. But not all of the libraries I’ve worked in have had the kind of collections that interest me as a reader. For example, university libraries don’t buy a lot of romance or fantasy. It’s just not what they do. It’s not even what they are supposed to do. But that’s a story for another day.

fiction stacksRight now, I work in a big public library. The place I work in has a lot, make that lots and lots and lots, of just the kind of thing that I read. (It’s probably the equivalent of trying to diet and working at a bakery)

So if I see something interesting and discover it’s book 3 in a series, instead of “just saying no”, or even having second thoughts about whether I want to buy book 1 and book 2, what do I do? I look to see if my library has it. They usually do. Instead of saying “no”, I not only say “hell, yes”, but I say “hell, yes” to all three books! My TBR stack is growing exponentially. And it wasn’t exactly under a whole lot of restraint before.

I’d say I was looking for the local chapter of Biblioholics Anonymous, but that would mean I want to quit. And I don’t.

14 thoughts on “On the Booklovers’ Shelves: Objects In Photo More Numerous Than They Appear

  1. O wow, as a child I wanted to be a librarian, and live in a library. So you have kind of a dream job Marlene! The living in one has come kind of true, as I own many thousands of books, and all the dry rooms in my house are filled with bookcases. And in the attick are numerous boxes filled with those I can’t get rid of, but won’t read again.
    Yes, buying books is an addiction, and I think only when I can’t afford it any more, I will quit buying books. I love adding to all the series and authors I enjoy.

    But I think if I had easy access to a library like yours, I would lend the first book to see if I like it, and then buy the whole series :). Too many duds on my shelves that will never be read at all. And no, I can’t let them go.

  2. oh gosh I need another bookcase fast it might look like that soon. Right now I got books in boxes and on small dressers cause I haven’t been able to get another bookcase 🙁 lol my husband is going nuts because of it.

    1. We have spare bookcases under the bed just waiting to be assembled. We know we’re going to need them someday. Or maybe I should say that we’re afraid we’re afraid we’re going to need them someday. LOL

  3. LOL… I feel ya… I despair if I ever move b/c I think we have about that many books too. If I ever hit the lottery, I’m gonna open a bookstore… a used bookstore, as I’ll probably be reading all the books first!

  4. I love public libraries. And mine does a wonderful job of helping me limit my personal, overflowing library. Thanks for the post.

  5. Our public library system is one of the biggest in the world and it’s definitely fed my book addiction.

  6. My brother still teases me about the time I got locked in our city’s main library at closing time because I was so engrossed in a book I didn’t notice when they turned out the lights.

  7. I love liberais, love the smell of book in it! My local library isn’t much but still love it.

  8. Hi Marlene!

    It was when I was just 8 and the summer before I began 5th grade that I fell in love with the local library. My Dad had a library at home but it was full of “his” books and not something I was ever interested in.

    That summer the first time I walked in the librarian asked what NowI was looking for and I said “books about women” and she introduced me to the worlds of great women and the achievements they had made over the centuries. This was back in the 1950’s when we were still be told in school that careers in medicine and science weren’t the “done” think but once I read those books I not only realized that there could be more in my future than I imaged I was hooked for a lifetime.on reading!

    Fortunately I married a man 43 years ago that loves books as much as I do. Even though I have never been accused of being organized my book cases (multiple) are organized not only by genre but also alphabetically by author!

    One of the first my husband and I did after we were married was to buy the Great Books of the Western World which did indeed open up the world to us both!

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