Friday, June 22, 2012

Organization is the key...?

Well, I did as I said I would and put together a post about my book projects. :) For once I was not thinking about writing books--only about organizing and sorting them. Here are the basics:


^ My shabby little fake-wood shelf before... (wasn't it depressing?)

...and after. :) Looks much more respectable, doesn't it?

I organized the shelves in my own little way. From the bottom up there are...miscellaneous books/Sarah's school books. Next shelf: Beloveds. Middle Shelf: Classics. After that: Antique Books. Top Shelf: Lamplighter/overflow classics. :)



My falling-apart copy of The Fellowship of The Ring--that's dedication you know; reading a book in that state.
I had forgotten I had bought a reprint Sears Roebuck's Catalog from 1902. :) It's the most marvelous thing for price-checking when writing a book set in that era....funny illustrations too. :)


Long underwear... haha!


My personal antique copies of books. :) There is nothing that delights me more than reading old books that I know were read and loved and cherished even before I bought them. :) I've got Anne of Green Gables, Anne of Windy Poplars, Little Women, Under the Lilacs, two of The Waverly Novels, Strawberry Girl, Hans Brinker, A Garland for Girls, Gulliver's Travels, a quote book, Moby Dick, and A Man Called Peter. :)


and my dear A.A. Milne books. :) I love the bumble-bee print covers. :)


My most cherished Literary Collection: 8 Dickens novels I bought with some graduation money. :)


This is actually Sarah's book--all of the letters Beatrix Potter wrote to little children--so sweet!


Detail of one page...


You want to know where I christen all my characters?
Yep. I admit it. Many of them have un-illustrious births in the Everything Baby Names Book. :D


My little book-loving statue. :)


This is the Antique Shelf after adding Sarah's books--some Thornton W. Burgess books, Eight Cousins, Jo's Boys, and others. :)

I hope you enjoyed seeing a little of my literary collection. :) After the sorting of the shelves I got rid of the books I never have liked. *feels slightly guilty.* ;) That means all these books left on the shelf (or nearly all of them) are tried and true and well-loved. I plan to expand my collection as I grow older, but for now it's probably just as well that I don't have any more books. As it was, Sarah is innocent of all charges of Book-Hoarder. Most of the titles on this bookcase are mine. :P Actually, I have a refurbishing project to do on a little cupboard that I hope to turn into a bookcase--I'll let you know how it goes! :)

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

You've stolen my brain. I did the exact same thing today. I re-organized my dear bookshelf.

You've stolen my brain!

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Violet said...

I love your bookshelf tidying - it is so much tidier than my own and reminds me that I must tidy up my bookshelves sometime too! :) I had a good laugh at your baby naming book - that is exactly what me and my friends do when trying to work out names for characters in our stories!

Anonymous said...

I'm not really sure why they title them baby name books. TO me they are name books and people use them when deciding what to name their children for the rest of their lives. I should compile one and name it "All Names Adult and Anti-Juvenile" ;-) I actually really like naming books. Very handy critters. (but not very good for my ego to be looking at a volume full of little babies and storks and pink hearts and the like.)
Wyatt Fairlead

Rachel Heffington said...

Haha! Good point, Wyatt. That is funny...we should start a campaign. :)
@Violet, aren't they handy things, aren't they?
@ Mr. Ahmed, thank you! It's always nice to hear that people are enjoying what I write.
@Katie--great minds think alike, don't they? :) So glad to have you back in the bloggy business recently!

Kirsten Fichter said...

Haha! I use a baby names book to christen some of my characters, too! Most of the time I pick out two names that I like and combine them to get more of a unique feel. :)
And my family's copy of The Fellowship looks like that! If we took out the loose pages, Bilbo wouldn't have a birthday, and Gimli wouldn't have to walk blindfolded across the elven rope bridge! :)

Rhoswen Faerie Wrose said...

I love it! Perfectly organized! Great books!
And I have that same Dickens collection! (except Hard Times) B&N editions, as well! Only....mine are on Nook. :-P

Maria Tatham said...

Rachel, this was fun! It's interesting to see the books you love enough to keep.

Unknown said...

I love my bookshelves - and my ever growing B&N classics collection is my pride and joy :D Is that Wives and Daughters or Pygmalion that I see on the shelf - the big pink one? Oh, I love book shelves!!!

Rachel Heffington said...

Sharp eyes, Jo! :D It's Wives and Daughters. :) Do you love the B & N classics too? Yay!