A Year Without New Books

From Kate’s Writing Crate…

          

          About five months ago I reviewed Howards End is on the Landing by Susan Hill. In this memoir, Hill goes looking for her copy of Howards End on her landing, but it isn’t in that bookcase or in the many other bookcases in several other rooms. By the time she finds it, Hill comes across about 200 books she hadn’t read yet. Deciding to read these books, Hill decides she will not buy any new books, unless required by her publishing job, for a year.

          

         I’ve been reorganizing some of my books and realized I have a few hundred of my own that I haven’t read or started but haven’t finished.

How does this happen?

It’s easy. While I read every book I received as a gift or bought through the Scholastic catalog in school when a child, as an adult I can buy or borrow more books than I have time to read. As I’m a voracious reader, most friends and family members give me gift certificates to bookstores for birthdays and holidays and it doesn’t take long to fill a shopping cart/basket.

Although I read and write for a living, I have to read most books on deadline. When looking for novels to review, I have to read two or three to find one to I’d like to review. For non-fiction, I don’t have to finish reading the book before I decide if it is review-worthy so I save a little time there, but end up with a lot of partially read books.

I don’t get rid of them because sometimes these books are review-worthy, but I can’t complete reading them with enough time to write the review by deadline so I save them for the future. Sometimes I need to digest books so a few months after I read them I decide to review them. No wonder books pile up.

Not surprisingly, I have decided not to buy any books for a year. This moratorium started on November 1^st.

So far so good! All these unread books caught my interest or they wouldn’t be piled up in my home so it’s not painful to concentrate on them. As I read and review them, I’ll lend or give them to friends or donate them—unless I truly love them. These books will grace the shelves of my personal library.

Unfortunately, the pain will come when I hear or read about fantastic new books or favorite authors have new releases. Luckily, I can make a list or pile these books in an online shopping cart. In only fifty weeks, I’ll have room to pile them up at home again!

New Bookcases I've Discovered

From Kate’s Writing Crate…

 

 (This is NOT a paid endorsement! Just sharing thoughts on bookcases.)

 

          I’m surrounded by books which are well organized in bookcases if I’ve read them or they’re reference books. However, books I’m reading/reviewing are in piles on my desk, next to my reading chair, and next to my bed.

I’m one of those readers that have twenty books, usually many more, going at the same time. I switch between them depending on my mood or deadlines. They include: the books from my Personal Writing Classes, reference books for writing projects, and books I’m reading for fun or reviews. Then add in books recommended by family and friends, books I’m rereading, and new books I’ve chosen for myself.

I want all these books nearby so I can grab the one I want easily. I’ve tried a table on wheels, but the piles fall over. Bookcases on wheels are expensive and not built for paperbacks so there’s a lot of wasted space.

Then I saw a shoe rack on wheels and realized it would solve my problems. Paperbacks are displayed beautifully spines out at a downward angle—I can quickly find the book I want. The top shelf can hold taller books. No piles. No toppling over. Easy to move. I love it!

The four-shelf shoe rack works well in my office and by the bed. The larger 10-shelf shoe rack is great for paperback storage. The books can only fit on every other shelf, but it’s big enough (57” tall, 35” wide, and 9.5” deep) to hold over 200 books—30 to 50 paperbacks per shelf on five shelves or the top shelf can hold taller books. Because the rack is easy to move, it doesn’t have to sit against the wall facing out. If you get more than one, you can have them face each other or put two or three in front of each other and pull them out to find the book you want.

I also discovered Origami bookcases. These metal bookcases are fully assembled, but arrive flat. You unlock the latch at the bottom and pull the sides apart and lock the back support and the top shelf into place to use. They are 67” tall, 24” wide, and 10.5” deep.

Like most fixed-shelf bookcases, they are not designed well for books. Paperbacks can only be stacked, two deep to fill the depth space or five stacks across with no titles visible, and can easily fall out the back. Even for taller books, there is a lot of wasted space as each shelf is about 12” tall. I found the best usage of space is to have two piles of taller books stacked at each end of each shelf with three to five books upright between the piles.

What I do love about these bookcases: they are fully assembled, easy to move when folded up, the shelves don’t buckle like particle board, and they are a great price for the quality.

 I’m always looking for good bookcase ideas. Let me know if you have any.

 

 

The Inky Fool--a blog by Mark Forsyth

From Kate’s Writing Crate…

          I recently discovered a witty blog entitled The Inky Fool: On Words, Phrases, Grammar, Rhetoric and Prose by Mark Forsyth. As a reader and writer, words have always fascinated me—and now so does this blog.

I love to learn new words and tsundoku, from Japan, is my latest favorite since I read about it in Forsyth’s post on January 7th. He shares: “…I’m not entirely clear whether tsundoku is the act of buying a book and not reading it, or the pile of books thusly abandoned on a bedside table. Or maybe it’s both.”

His funny discussion about his two tsundokus inspired me to look at mine. However, I confess I have more than two.

To be perfectly honest, I have a small tsundoku next to the bed and another on top of a bookcase near the bed. There is a medium-sized tsundoku on a table in my reading corner as well as on a chair, but my biggest tsundoku is on the shelves of a bookcase dedicated solely for this purpose in my office.

I never had a name for these piles before. Now I can tell anyone—living here or visiting—who makes disparaging comments about them that they are, in fact, tsundokus. If there is a name for them, then they have the right to exist!

I need to read so books are constantly coming into my living space. I try to keep them in organized tsundokus. The ones I want to read the most go near the bed or in my reading corner. The rest I place in the bookcase for future browsing when I’m looking for something new to read or review for this blog.

While most of my tsundokus may look chaotic, they aren’t. I can keep track of the location of these books as I only buy ones that truly interest me. So while they may sit around for a bit, I will read them…but not right now as The Elements of Eloquence: Secrets of the Perfect Turn of Phrase by Mark Forsyth, The Inky Fool, has captured my attention.

 

Readers Create Their Own Libraries

From Kate's Writing Crate...

          I read about a woman visiting a friend who was upset because her friend's books were not in alphabetical order. The woman couldn't figure out how her friend could find a specific book.

          It never occurred to me that people would alphabetize their books. I did a quick survey of my family, friends, and co-workers to check on my hypothesis and no one alphabetizes. Why should they? Home libraries are not for public consumption.

          My library is a reflection of how my mind works. My books are placed according to how I see them relating to other books I read.

          Few people would be able to find a specific author, but, as I rarely let others browse my bookshelves, my system only has to work for me. Furthermore, I know where 99.9 percent of all my books are--unless someone borrowed one without permission which is a punishable offense.

          I have multiple bookcases for fiction, non-fiction, classics, writing books, reference books, recent purchases, and books loaned to me. Within those bookcases, I organize my fiction by similarities, not authors' last names, because I read fiction by mood. I do have mysteries in one section, chick lit in another, and beloved childhood favorites and YA fiction in another. Paperbacks are on higher shelves than hardcovers---and are also piled in a small, little-used closet, and spine up in the shallow drawers of two old bureaus.

          Classics/poetry are put on shelves they fit on either by height or whole shelves if I have the complete set by an author like Mark Twain.

         Memoirs again are organized by topic/mood.

          My Writer's Crate is filled with writing, reference, and inspiring books. Writing books are sorted by topic, then most useful or best-liked. Reference books are arranged most to least used. It's a working library for a writer and editor--not much in there for general readers.

          My entire library is in constant motion. I have as many as 20 books going at the same time so they move to my desk, reading nook, or bedside. Writing books are rarely read straight through. Some books cannot hold my attention for more than a few pages at a time while others I cannot put down. Reading until 2AM is not unheard of if a book warrants it--as all book lovers know! Plus I reread favorites.

          New books and books loaned to me go in one bookcase which I browse like a bookstore when nothing else interests me. When I finish a book, I return it or donate it to a public library or lend/give to a friend or place it with great thought in my library. When shelves are full, reorganization is needed--sometimes along with adding another bookcase.

          I love looking at my bookcases. To me, they are every bit as beautiful as a favorite piece of art. Shiny new covers brighten up the muted shades of older and used books in these interactive installations. Who knew readers were also artists?


How do you organize your books?