Feb
Saturday Salon: Books Books Books
I love books.
It’s not that exciting a proclamation, I know. I mean, of course I love books. And of course you love books. And everyone else hanging around The Ballroom loves books. And Miranda’s hot heroes really love their books. In fact…some of them really love naughty books. Her heroines too. I’m looking at you, Celia Seaton.
There’s lots of discussion these days on ebooks vs. print, and while I’m pro-eReader for most things (the exception is research volumes, because I like to highlight and flag and scribble in the margins, and it’s not easy to do that on my eReader). I think we can all agree that, when it comes to book, there’s something pretty special about the object itself. But for the purposes of today, I’m not talking about what’s actually written inside the book. I’m talking about the books themselves. The paper and ink and musty smells…the leather bindings, the creased pages, the book proper.
I have few hard and fast rules in my life (well, I do have Six Commandments of Dating, but that’s a different post for a different time), but this is one of them: I do not trust people who do not have books in their houses. You know the people I’m talking about–the ones with the perfect, pristine living rooms, art on the walls, plants thriving on tabletops, and not a single book. Nothing makes me judge faster.
So, for fun, I thought I’d share some of my favorite bookshelves today. Like this one, a secret passageway set inside a ceiling-high bookshelf (which inspired a scene in my current work-in-progress)!
Uhm. Are you kidding me? Who doesn't want a secret passageway bookshelf?
And this one, from the Los Feliz Residence, a modern architecture gem in the Hollywood Hills. Added bonus, this one has a ladder! I long for a bookshelf that requires a ladder.
I could write an awesome novel in that chair. I know it.
And, as a New Yorker, I have dreams about this staircase bookshelf. Literally.
This is a stairwell where I could live quite happily.
But, honestly? There’s only one bookshelf that makes me drooly. Mainly, because I dream of this office. And I dream of filling that circular space with romance novels. *sigh*…someday…
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It’s your turn, Ballroom visitors! Time for you to wax poetic about books…or bookshelves…or book nooks. Describe your dream home library…or, better yet, post a picture!
Feb 18, 2012
1:44 am
Sigh. I want all of these. At the moment, we have piles of books everywhere. Literally, piles. And that is a correct usage of the word literally. In fact, we are currently in the process of figuring out what our storage system will be. We have a staircase area that we considered making a bookshelf, actually. But that secret passage way bookshelf is making me think again… Not that I have an extra room that I could have the secret door lead to.
Btw, I really want to know your 6 commandments.
Feb 18, 2012
11:11 am
And don’t you feel like the secret door needs to lead to something awesome? Like, an orangery? Or a hot tub?
Feb 18, 2012
4:33 pm
I do. I really do. Sigh.
Feb 18, 2012
6:39 am
WOW, I would love to have any of those librarys or bookshelves!! Especially the one with the secret room behind it, a good hiding place to curl up with a nice romance and not be bothered, or have a real romance in… Like Sabrina, I have a lot of books and nowhere to put them, and I also have an ereader which is my new best friend
What are your 6 dating commandments?
Feb 18, 2012
11:12 am
Oh, readers change everything, right, Laura? I buy so many more books now that I have one. But despite that, I still buy more print books than ever, too. My husband can’t get over it.
Feb 18, 2012
4:34 pm
You do notice that Laura asked about the 6 commandments as well…
Feb 18, 2012
11:03 am
Those pictures are awesome Sarah! I have to admit for me, space is at a premium when it comes to books. My bookshelfs are stuffed, like three deep. Which makes it hard to find books sometimes, to say the least, lol. It’s gotten so bad that I’ve had to use cardboard boxes to store them in. The problem is, they come from my parents’s restaurant, and they are beer boxes. So, if anyone were to see my room, they would get a VERY problematic and wrong impression of me, as they would see stacks of Sapporo boxes,lol.
I agree that there is something very special about holding a book in your hand as you’re reading it, but I have to admit, the ease, portability, and space-saving aspects of an e-reader are appealing as well.
Feb 18, 2012
11:15 am
Oh, the doubly (or triply) stacked bookshelves! I know that world well, Lisa. I’m in it in my office these days, romances stacked two-deep on all my shelves.
I love the Sapporo box visual. When we were moving from our old apartment to this one, my husband would pull boxes from under the bed or in the closet and open them to find them stacked full of romances. This went on and on until, finally, he made me prune. That was so hard!
Feb 18, 2012
11:23 am
Since I got my Kindle books have become much more about keepsakes for me. To me a house with a library is an ultimate goal for me where I can fill the shelves with all the books that really mean something to me. A bit like a photo album I suppose, wall to wall memories.
At the moment these precious books make do with all the shelf space I can make in my room and out in the hallway too. Pride of place goes to my 21 Famous Five books that I’ve owned since I was 8 (the first full series of books I ever read for pleasure), My copy of Jane Eyre given to me age 11 by my English teacher (it had been her university set text and has all her scribbled notes in the margins), my copy of Lorna Doone given to me by my grandmother, My books that have been signed by the various authors, and my copy of M.M. Kaye’s Far Pavilions as it was the first book to make me cry.
Any library would suit me fine, in my mind’s eye it is a quiet haven where you can escape the world. My old school had the most amazing library with floor to ceiling windows that made it so light and airy. It was so still just being in there made me feel calm and serene.
But if I let my imagination run wild I would have to pick this one….
Belle was a very lucky girl.
Feb 18, 2012
2:00 pm
Haha! That’s my FAVORITE scene from Beauty and the Beast, Lucifer’s Lady!
And I’m with you…I dream of a house with a “library.” No TV, just big, comfy chairs and books everywhere. Le sigh.
Feb 18, 2012
8:04 pm
Ahhh I was really young when that version of Beauty and the Beast came out and it certainly had a lasting impression considering I am now in library school!
Feb 19, 2012
3:58 am
WOW!!!! I was JUST about to post this as well! I am glad I read your comment first! This is immediately what I thought of when I thought of a library and books
Great minds and all that!
Feb 18, 2012
12:08 pm
Since I don’t know how to post pictures, I’ll just describe my library. My books are precious to me. Since I’m an empty nester I use my guest room for my Library. I have 4 large bookshelves in there. They are all romance novels. I started reading about 11 years ago, nonstop! Johanna Lindsey has her own shelf. So does Bertrice Small, Linda Lael Miller, Julie Garwood, Stephanie Laurens, Sandra Hill, Virginia Henley, Julia Quinn, Eloisa James, etc. You Sarah, share a shelf with Grace Burrowes and Eileen Dryer. Everyone thinks I’m crazy ,but Jack.(my Hubby). There are probably 400 books in there. I LOVE them! I got a Kindle Fire for Xmas, but I only put free or 99cent books on it.
Feb 18, 2012
2:58 pm
susan, oh, to be a guest in your house! Positively dreamy!!
Feb 18, 2012
3:24 pm
I would love to have you as a guest, Katharine!
Feb 18, 2012
12:28 pm
Hello Sarah!
I’d love to have an enormous room for my books like in those pictures, but those stairs and ladders terrify me lol. I would probably be too scared to climb them to reach the books from the top shelves. However, I really like crazy shelves like this one:
Feb 18, 2012
2:01 pm
Oooh…that is a GREAT reading bench! I want that!
Feb 18, 2012
12:44 pm
When I downsized about 7 years ago, almost everything was tossed. Except my books. I have over 300 romance novels alone, the book proper type. Then there are the ones on my Nook and old Sony e-reader. I have book shelves all over my house, even in the guest bath. I find it hard to toss a book. I even have my college text books. Ya never know when you need to figure out Algebra again or how to read an income statement. My son have volunteered to turn the guest room/office into my very own library. The book shelves will be built into the wall between the studs. That is an effective use of space. On the exterior walls (can’t go between the studs there
) we are building out the wall ultimately creating window seats. It’s really a cool looking room. When our local Borders when out of business I was there buying up as many romance, travel, photo, and all sorts that my check book would allow.
My new library will have the rocking couch that is currently in my den, natural light from the two windows, and a floor lamp that looks like a Tiffany but only 1/10th the cost.
Now I just have to wait for my son to come back home to finish this project. He loves books too and has his own macho library.
Feb 18, 2012
2:03 pm
Your son sounds wonderful, Lady Susan! Able to build a library and a bibliophile as well? Someday he’ll make a woman very very happy!
Feb 18, 2012
1:39 pm
Lovely pictures all! Of course my bookcases could never be such a work of art because they are always such a mess. No, I’m not taking a picture. Instead I give you my favorite library, the Peabody in Baltimore. I like to think on a grand scale.
Feb 18, 2012
2:03 pm
Gorgeous. And it looks like it’s set up for a wedding in this picture? What a fabulous place for one!
Feb 18, 2012
2:55 pm
OMG, I want a secret passageway bookshelf! I love this post, Sarah, and the bookshelves in the pictures… holy cow! My dh and I are planning a floor-to-ceiling bookshelf (with a ladder!) for our living room. When it’s finished we’ll have a party and invite everybody over to try out the ladder — though not Juliana, or Simon will be bound to scold.
I do like my e-reader for the gym and (much more importantly) reading while eating (no more butter knife holding the pages open!). But a room filled with actual physical books is heaven. I lived that heaven during graduate school when I spent a few years researching my dissertation in the Vatican Library — not the one they take you to on the Vatican Museum tour, with walls covered with frescoes by Raphael, but the place where they keep the actual books.
It’s lined with books that are hundreds of years old, and new books, books on everything you can imagine, many of them in the open stacks but even if they’re not you can request them. I spent the first few weeks there downright dizzy. And, so inspired, I wrote my first romance novel ever there. Yes, I did this on time stolen from my fellowship money, but I was so incredibly poor and worked so hard during those years, I hope no one will judge me for it.
Feb 18, 2012
3:05 pm
I love that you wrote a romance novel in the Vatican. There’s something so perfect about that. It’s the greatest “where I wrote my first novel” story. Possibly, ever.
Feb 18, 2012
4:37 pm
Seriously, that’s awesome.
My parents have a floor to ceiling bookshelf that was supposed to have a ladder. The ladder was never built and contractors long gone. (Lesson to learn from!)
Feb 18, 2012
3:39 pm
This is from my submission to a comic book website called Robot 6 called “Send us your shelf porn.” It represents about half of the bookshelves I’ve had to build to accommodate our collection. Not quite as fancy as Belle’s, but it does the job.
Now all I need is to be independently wealthy so I can spend my time reading these.
Feb 18, 2012
4:38 pm
That’s awesome.
Feb 18, 2012
4:39 pm
OMG!! They are all so fabulous!! I’d love a room with built-in shelves and I don’t even care if they are fancy like some of these, although I wouldn’t mind. I love my books and hate that most of them are still packed in boxes since we moved in, 10 yrs ago. Arrrrgh!!
Fun Saturday post, Sarah. Thanks for all the inspiration everyone. I love these pics. Might sit here looking at them all day … better than doing laundry by far! Happy Saturday Everyone! : )
Feb 18, 2012
9:55 pm
Sarah -
When I was growing up we didn’t have a secret door-way to the library room but we did have a “pocket door” that magically disappeared into the walls on either side. As a child I thought that this door was as magical as the books contained behind it!
We lived in a simple house in a normal neighborhood but to me not only that library but any library was magical. Fortunately the library in our town was just a short walk away so I spent hours there over any vacation days from school we had. In what I could only decribe as magical at the time was that the library was near the local playgrown and lake. While my older sisters took in the joy of playing tennis or badmitten the library would always call to me.
My husband may not have a library in our home but we do have floor to ceiling in our family room on either side of our fireplace. One of the first sets of books that we bought as a couple was a set of encylopedias. When our sons were growing up from the time they were 3 they were sent for the appropriate numbered book on the shelves whenever they had a question. My older son was fascinated by George Washington when he was 5 and read the entire poortion of the encylopedia on George W. (or at least the words he COULD read.
Of course other rooms in our home have bookcases as well. The kitchen has one for novels and one for cookbooks, each bedroom has a bookcase and of course there are books in the bathrooms!
For any of you who don’t have a library you don’t need to fret and instead think of having lots and lots of bookcases!
Feb 19, 2012
11:19 am
Oh! oh! I have one. Professor Higgins’s study in My Fair Lady as far as I remember was fairly *covered* in bookshelves. It was my fantasy to have such a library when I watched the movie for the first time when I was about 13.
Feb 19, 2012
5:48 pm
I have always thought that it would be great to have a library and in the middle of the room, would be two big picture windows with long velvet burgunday drapes that can open or close over the cushioned window seats. In between the two windows is a fireplace and in front of that fireplace is two burgundy wing back chairs – either with matching foot rests OR reclining (preferably reclining). The rest of the room would be filled bottom to top with bookshelves. There would be a ladder on each of the remaining three walls. The one wall would be like your first picture – with the door that moves – you have to get in the room somehow. That would be my dream library.
Feb 19, 2012
8:10 pm
Wow thanks for that awesome description! That sounds simply divine!
Nov 7, 2012
8:31 am
**Drooling**
I think that’s just about any bookworm’s dream Library, but that just brought it to a clear picture =)
Nov 2, 2012
11:31 am
[...] A secret passage in a gothic library that opens to reveal…a table for tea? How very Bronte. (from The Ballroom) [...]
Nov 7, 2012
8:29 am
Oh, boy.
I am so incredibly close to tears right now!!!!
They’re soooo prettttyyyyyy!!!!
But the first is my favorite!”!!!!!
Jan 6, 2013
10:16 am
[...] A secret passage in a gothic library that opens to reveal…a table for tea? How very Bronte. (from The Ballroom) [...]