While the author’s flat is unique, just lifting my head I see the moldings above typical pre-war closets might serve the same literary purpose...(The Alaskan commenter who suggested copper wire might be spot on)...
One word--Roxanne.
This is the most unintentionally funny thing I've read this week. That isn't "molding"! Molding doesn't stick out that far from the wall, and it isn't strong enough to hold the weight of books. Those things the author is calling "molding" are SHELVES! And the way they are reinforced indicates that they were intended to hold heavy objects ... like books. She DOES have book shelves.
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I've been arranging by emotional attachment for years. At this point there are two libraries: one in my apartment, one in my childhood bedroom. Each bookshelf (and each shelf on it) has a specific grading of how much I like it and how much it means to me, although once a shelf is chosen I do alphabetise within it. There are of course separate bookcases for literary and academic (I'm a professor of English), and then it gets broken down into time period and historical focus.
Then there is the special shelf, in both my homes, reserved for the absolute all time favourites. Nobody can touch it, let alone borrow from it, That is what I stare at when I'm stressed, the spines of the books I love most are perhaps the most soothing things of all.
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I keep more and more of my books on the cloud, in a system of collections that makes Dewey Decimal look like a Dempsey Dumpster. I lost a lot of my reverence for the bound book once I learned about electronic highlighting and bookmarking.
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The essential point of any organizational system is the ability to find what you want. For my home library of a couple of thousand books and counting, Dewey is overkill. I separate by fiction and nonfiction, and for my nonfiction I have my own list of genres that reflects the books I read and own. Your system doesn't have to be my system. I own 300+ cookbooks and therefore need to divide them; I don't own a single book about engineering or home repair.
Things like organizing by color and putting the spine in back are about using books as decor, not about organization. My concession to appearance is only to divide the hardcovers from the paperbacks and to segregate the oversized volumes, which only fit on certain shelves.
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@Alexis
Like the author, I too live in an apartment, and I hate losing track of anything. I have fiction divided into 19th Century and 20th-21st Century, then alphabetized by author. Non-fiction is categorized: humor, biography, history, poetry... But I have to donate some non-keepers annually to library book sales or every wall would be covered in bookcases.
I am a professional librarian and I've been collecting books since I was about 7 years old (and still have some of those) While I do have some shelves it drives my wife to distraction that most of the many thousands of books we own are piled in stacks all over the house. It's somehow very comforting to me to visit piles and remember why I acquired that particular book in the first place.
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I buy nearly a book a week. But after moving three times within two years--all in small NYC apartments--I decided to donate 90 percent of them. THey're SO HEAVY! And take up SO MUCH SPACE!
At first, I felt pangs of withdrawal. Then a light-hearted ease.
I still buy numerous books, but in electronic form. They're much easier to carry and store. If I have a special affinity with the book, or with its design, then I'll get the print version. Rare books, indeed.
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@Trex
Nooooooooooooooooo.
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And electronic books don’t gather dust!
How about a spine bookshelf from the Container Store? I love it because I can see all the books! My books are not organized at all & it seems to work out.
May I share your frustrations? As if there is a rational way to store books while, at the same time, made available to read by extending one's hand. Go see the boxes I have up in storage, trying to be recovered and put to good use...without upsetting the pristine order one's spouse deems prudent and necessary for real living spaces. Perhaps your last observation, needing a bigger place to fancy books' free will...short of utopia, is the way to go. Can one become 'greedy', wanting what we already have but in another dimension? I guess we must be careful not to complain for what we already have, and not appreciate it until we lose it by neglect. The lack of space for new books, in my case, has been solved, even if partial, by frequent visits to the Public Library: that way, one reads a book and returns it for more. It also taught me to not delay reading (just watch the books on my shelf waiting for the 'ideal' time to be picked up), as it has a due date to contend with.
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I am so relieved to read this! Or scroll this, if reading this piece on my phone still counts.
My books are organized by: authors I know, writers I wish I knew, books that I keep because they belonged to someone I loved, and then the section on books that need rereading every now and then so should be really easy to get to even if they are dusty but I can always blow hard on the top of the book before I open it.
The arranging of books by their colors, so popular on design blogs, is almost as enraging as seeing bookshelves filled with turned-around books, installed with the page edges facing out. This provides that perfect off-white background, so essential to some room decor, that actually also reveals a deep truth about the occupant. Or a shallow truth.
How clever am I? It’s all that reading...
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If you can find the book you are looking for, then you have a good system.
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Clearly the writer does not live on the Ring of Fire. A secured piece of copper wire would alleviate some of the concussion threat. And frankly, I am happy to see somebody address the issue of books displayed by color. It appalls me. Even a librarian friend fell prey to such abuse of her precious friends in her own home. Sheepishly, I will admit the section featuring all turquoise bindings was a “Wow!" moment in the otherwise white interior.
Nice apartment if you can get it.
There is not one bookshelf in your apartment, there are many. And some are seriously overloaded. Their height puts the titles out of view, which effectively eliminates the most appealing way to select a book: serendipity. You might as well store your books in boxes in the attic.
Lucky for you, your shelves are anchored to your walls' supporting trusses. Do-it-yourselfers in modern apartments may not be aware that drywall alone cannot bear such heavy weight and sooner or later their books will come crashing down. One hopes, not on some dinner guest's head.
For those who go this route, upping the liability section of their home insurance is advised. The rest of us will devote a wall to a large, accessible bookcase, where dinner guests can enjoy perusing our volumes rather than wearing them.
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I do like the organizing by sentiment; I'd not heard of it, but I've sort of done it anyway, to the extent I have a system. The ARCs though--are they really worth hanging on to? I've got a ton of them and never know what to do with them; seems so wasteful to throw them out or even recycle....
I love having insight into organization techniques that do not deal with book-as-object. My books are mostly in bookcases. I have fiction and nonfiction cases, poetry, classic children's literature and the rest of the kids' books, SF & fantasy, writing craft, textile craft, and an entire case of Best American. I also have a "favorites" bookcase. It is the best of my best.
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From the vantage of my philistine caste this indeed seems a virtuous way of living!
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Having never been able to dispose of any book, a literal literary hoarder, this is a fantastic idea! (Now, to get my better half to agree...)
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Books? We're in the Era of the T.V. Addict President people. We don't need any stinking books! (Except if you require a thick one for a doorstop.) MAGA.
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There is no way you could have books precariously suspended over your head like this in Southern California. Once a year the lot of them would be dumped on your floor, or your head.
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I spent years rearranging my book shelves in an attempt to impose order, as more books came in than went out (though if I had kept every book I ever bought, there would be no room for furniture--or me; what I got rid of might say more about my evolving tastes than what I've kept). So finally I gave up on that and went digital--i.e., I created a digital database listing every book and its location (e.g., "DR-B-3" means "dining room, second column of the built-in bookcase, third shelf down); thus new books can go anywhere there's an open space because if I forget where it is, I can search for it on my database. (Yes, I have time on my hands, and I don't knit or paint watercolors.)
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I'm glad the writer doesn't live in earthquake country! Those books up high would make some injurious flying debris.
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ah, the many uses of those moldings...
i used mine to have model railroad tracks circle my studio apartment. the little trains (N-gage) were a great diversion, the cats went crazy, the gentle noises of the trains helped me fall asleep.
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get rid of the barometer and put in a bookcase...bet I could find more space as well...although, eventually you'll need a bigger apartment...
The hardest aspect of downsizing to a very small apartment is the lack of space for my books. I have no molding such as the author of this article and putting shelving up high on the walls is impractical because I am short. I now keep only my poetry and medical nonfiction books and donate the rest to the library of my apartment community. It is hard to let go!
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@Pdeadline I solved the problem by converting the wall between the living room and the hall into a floor to ceiling bookcase!
I can remember those ledges being used in exactly the same was the author describes more than fifty years ago. Of course they are shelves, and what one does with them is wide open. I remember dishes, vases, dolls, and books and more books.
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So if you call it a moulding it isn’t a shelf? It looks like a shelf, and it works like a shelf, but it isn’t a shelf? ok
Nice article on how to “shelve” your books.
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I only keep the books that are "keepers" by my own definition. This essay makes me wish I had those ledges in my flat. I love the system and the look.
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I lived in San Francisco for 30 wonderful years and my first thought on seeing her books were that it wouldn't be safe in SF! During the Loma Prieta earthquake, I ran for a doorway as file cabinets slid open & empty soda cans flew from their artfully arranged pyramid atop a cabinet. Better to have the books in rows on the floor than near the ceiling in earthquake country.
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I agree. A book doesn’t do anyone any good if it’s just sitting on a shelf. I give them away, unless I plan to reread them, or believe I will refer to them in the future. And that happens rarely, since there are so many good books out there that I’ll never have time to read, and most of the books I want to refer to later can be reference on line.
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