Building enough bookshelves

by Lauren

“I would be most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who think decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves.” Anna Quindlen

While I can’t speak for Anna Quindlen’s children, I think that those of us here seem to have gotten it right! Thanks to everyone who sent in their bookshelf photos. I’ll start here with mine, and then follow me after the jump for some from DGLM agents and blog readers!!

As I mentioned, I added a new bookcase to the family recently, so the first is haphazardly organized and covered in knickknacks, photos, and mementos. The second actually has some organization to it: Baby-sitters Club and Little House books on the bottom; galleys in the middle; and the top shelf is a combination of books I represent (which I really have to get better about bringing home, because there’s a lot missing), books I sell rights for, and books I’m eager to read that are ready to move up to the majors: the bedside table pile. I actually moved the bedside table pile on top of the bookcase for photo purposes—that’s the pile on the left that’s topped with my brand new Room by Emma Donoghue galley. Those are the books I’m in the middle of or desperate to read next. The pile beside it are the books that I don’t own (though some of those are intermingled elsewhere as well) and have to remember to read and give back. At a glance, it seems about half of those are Jim’s!

At home on the shelves

by Lauren

One of my deepest home decor desires is to line my walls with bookcases.  I grew up in a house where bookshelves were everywhere you looked, but New York City apartment living isn't necessarily ideal for the literary pack rat in me.  I'm probably not going to fulfill my dreams of Beauty and the Beast-style rolling ladders any time soon. 

That said, I've happily just added a new bookcase to my collection, so for right now, my shelves just barely hold all the books in my apartment, so long as I don't bring home the stacks of books obscuring the window by my desk here or the ones boxed up at my mom's.  The box of Babysitter's Club books I just bought from a stoop sale (Books #1-44 plus various specials for $20!  A total bargain!) really ate up all the space I had left after moving the floor stacks onto the bookcase.

So when I read the comments on Rachel's post last week, I was envious of the enormous size of your to-be-read piles.  Those numbers don't count all the already-read books you probably possess!  Do any of you have a real personal library?  Or walls upon walls lined with shelves?  Just massive stacks threatening to topple?  Books strewn about here and there, to be picked up on a whim?

I'm a big fan of the New Yorker's Book Bench blog's 1,000 Words feature, where people send photos of books out in the wild, so I'm asking you, dear readers, to send photos of your lovingly curated or totally ramshackle collections.   Email your photo as an attachment to news@dystel.com with the subject line "Book Shelves", and then comment below to tell us about your personal library!  We'll feature some of our favorite photos here on the blog—and I'll see if I can't convince some of my colleagues to share their own images.  The person who sends in my favorite photo (or the first person to demonstrate their ownership of the enviable rolling bookshelves) will get a copy of something from my bookshelves--making room for me to bring home the copy of Sebastian Junger's War I just got.