Downstairs family room – five floor-to-ceiling bookshelves housing Pepper’s books and my entire sf/fantasy collection. I have these piled two deep in each shelf and two high. I also have science and history and debunking there. One half-size standing bookshelf doubling as a room divider with mysteries, sea stories, and Disney videos. One half-size bookshelf filled with Penguin classics (and a few other classics). One half-width floor to ceiling case in the corner with miscellaneous.
Downstairs back room – one built-in bookcase with technical books (science, math, electronics) that don’t fit in my office at work. One floor-to-ceiling with Religion and Philosophy.
Den – two half-size bookcases with books I need for writing (mostly mythology and classics) and Humor. Also a computer desk with computer books and reference books.
Kitchen – floor-to-ceiling case with cookbooks and home repair books.
Living Room – half-size bookcase for MilliCal’s books.
Bedroom – two full-size bookcases, one for Pepper Mill’s books and one for mine (Richard Burton collection, more humor, James Bond).
MilliCal’s Room – half size bookcase with overflow, including a LOT of Time/Life books (Nature Library, Science Library)
Attic – a LOT of boxes of books (my entire Plays collection, travel, technical books, more history, miscellaneous.)
In my livingroom, an Ethan Allen mahogany unit, five pieces of floor to ceiling bookshelves. I keep hardcovers here (jammed) because it’s sort of on display. Upstairs, a wall unit built onto one wall for paperbacks (several deep and jammed). Throughout the house (mostly in cellar), I must have upwards of 20 boxes of books with no place to call home. I stick loose piles in drawers, under vanities, in closets, under beds, in nightstands. In the garage I have two big tough-storage bins packed with overflow hardcover books. I wish I had room to properly house them all.
I converted half my (finished) basement into a library. I’ve got five bookcases of varying heights, four of which are filled and the last is about 2/3 filled. I’ve got a leather wing-back chair and ottoman, with a small table nearby, in which to enjoy my books. There is a sliding glass door out to the backyard garden, and off in one corner is my telescope. Much as I’d like to decorate the walls, I’m reserving all wall space for more bookcases.
One 7’ tall case is filled completely with computer books, some going back to my college days of the late 70s. It’s amazing how much computing has changed since then…
One 5’ tall case plus one shelf on another case is filled with general reference books: dictionaries, atlases, old text books, books on physics and astronomy, etc. The rest of the other case is reserved for fiction and great literature.
Fully half of one bookcase holds “fun and games”: humor, puzzles, etc. The other half of that case is cookbooks. The last case holds a shelf and a half of books on horse racing, and two shelves’ worth of books on chess.
Why is it so organized? My wife threatened to start throwing out my books if I didn’t get the library completely clean soon (this was about a year after we moved into the house, so I deserved the ultimatum). Sooooooo, I simply got things a little more clean than even she had anticipated
Oh, the other half of the basement? It’s my daughter’s bedroom. Right now, the two “rooms” are separated with cubicle dividers, but I’ll put in a “real” wall and door in the next year or so.
Wow, that’s almost exactly what I picture having when I own a house. Subsitute a computer workstation by the windows for the buffet with alcohol and cigars, though.
