This is my very first bookshelf ever, and it’s doing some heavy lifting in making this space ours. From the beginning of our companionship, we somehow got away with books stacked where ever we could find the land – windowsills, fireplaces, room corners, on the dining table, in chairs of their own, … The idea of dismantling shelves for our yearly moves made us choose to be without, and it was the right call for then. We wandered all life, and are now settled into an extreme nesting phase. I don’t want vacations. I want to be home, have intimate gatherings and to garden on the weekends. We thereby went all in on the house furnishings and this bookshelf was our first purchase. We had stowed away a reference from our past waiting for this day: my poet friend Marian’s living room. She is the only person in the world, that I know, who has her couch facing her enormous bookshelves. We don’t live a lifestyle where our seating needn’t face the television. Too many shows to watch and games to cheer for. We did buy the exact bookshelf she owns though, and it fulfilled a different fantasy : a home library wall of our own. Some notes :

  • A personal library is a serious endeavor. It is not a storage. It’s not a place where books go to hibernate, but a promise to educate myself.
  • A personal library does not end in the confines of my house. I plan to install a little free library outside my home so that I may share my books with our neighbors.
  • Only the books that need to be re-read get to live in the house with us. The rest should be borrowed from the library. The ones that don’t get read shall be given away.
  • I wont be styling my bookshelves. I don’t have that sort of energy right now. As long as my shelf aides exploration and reading, it’s a job sufficiently done.
  • I need a white shelf, to tone down on the visual clutter from the graphics on book sleeves.
  • Books should not be categorized by genre as long as i can find the book I need in under 5 minutes. It helps with spontaneously stumbling upon other forgotten books and casual browsing.
  • Shelf should touch the ceiling. Someday, I will style my shelves with plants and family heirlooms.
  • Anyone who comes home is free to borrow what ever book they want. Its financially painful to replace some but I want to be that person who shares her books.
  • I shall someday get a rubber ink stamp made for our books with a name for our home library, just so that there is a small imprint of ours on all the books.
  • I want to start wearing this pin, when I know that I would be meeting new people. Yay or Nay ?

Her shelf : our inspiration.