I worked on Clean House, but not on that episode, thankfully. I have hundreds, nay, thousands of books, and yes, I've read them all. I use many of them, and I like them.

But I do get rid of beach/airplane paperbacks by "releasing them into the wild", ie leaving them in Starbucks, etc.

I get mysteries from the library, because why would I want to reread a mystery? I know whodunit.

I have books in about every room--in bookcases or stacked on tables. The one makeover show where books were included in the design was the Indianapolis Extreme Home Makeover this spring where they built a craftsmen style home with beautiful built-in waist-high bookcases surrounding the living room, as part of the design in the bedroom, and then, because of the man's job, an adjacent neighborhood center/library. It was beautiful.

I'll be honest: The staging shows bore me senseless, and I simply won't watch them anymore. They're such "one note wonders" that it's amazing they're still in production. I think we all know that the so-called "professionals" feel we should present a home to potential buyers in a certain way. If we don't already know that, then frankly, we just haven't been paying attention.

I also grew really weary of the shills that shuffled through these homes, pre-staging, and didn't have a clue whether a room was a bedroom or an office, a dining room or a den. Hey people: Who freakin' CARES? See, this is how it works -- you buy the house, and you do whatever your little heart desires with the space, regardless of how the seller has purposed the rooms. It's space. You fill it and use it as you see fit.
("Idiots", she mumbled softly under her breath.)

"No one needs more than ten to twelve books."
Yeah, well, no one needs to tell me how many books I need either. So there.

;-)

The only thing worse than no books (a blind house) is a house full of those fake leatherbound books (a house with fake glass eyeballs). Gah!

Outing myself as a lit professor, I can attest that even with upwards of 5,000 books in one little house, it can work. Books are so warm, so friendly, so welcoming! I can't imagine life without a few dozen or more in each room.

Favorite places for unexpected bookshelves:

-- built in along the wall going up stairways.

-- set in along the outside (or inside) of stair bannisters

-- from shoulder-height to ceiling above sofas and breakfast nook benches.

-- set in to the wall on the side of the toilet invisible from the door (often the shower wall).

-- in kitchen soffits above cabinets

-- dining room walls! (I'm right with you, OP)

I remember thinking how naked the built-in shelves looked when I toured my future house -- they were staged with about 3 coffee table books and some hideous geegaws -- and how I had to envision rows and rows of my own books on them.

I love a house with a lot of well used used. But there's a place for the "fake leatherbounds" even in those homes. They are wonderful in my case for holding drink coasters (small book) and tv remotes (large book). A table with a drawer didn't work well because the chairs swivel and the table didn't clear the arms. The books were my solution so I'm defending them :-)

10-12 book in the house?!! I have more than that on my nightstand :-)Obviously I'm not designing to sell.

I have many bookshelves in the living/music/library/game room and more in the office/homeschool/library/dining room. They are the only rooms with walls to accomodate them.

I'm so waiting on some more pics of bookshelves! Right now after remodeling and working on my LR i'm still at a loss for what to do with all my books!

We plan on doing a couple of built in bookcases, but right now they are stored in two LARGE boxes, and some in an upstairs closet.

The Boxes reside in the following places:

Beside the french doors in the kitchen
Beside the fireplace in the den

I'm so tired of looking at boxes and digging for a book! Not that I really have time to read!

Here are two photos from my former place (note especially the green carpet).

Dining room

Study

I'm the one who is going to turn my dining room into a library/dining room. I have books everywhere in my house! I have the bookcases in my sunroom (being moved to the dining room). Two bookcases in the family room, one for kids' books and games, another for all our travel books. In the living room, I have books stacked on the lower shelf of an end table, and books stacked on the floor in the space under our TV console (to hide the wires that hang down behind it!). I have built-in bookshelves on one end of my kitchen that house pottery and more books. All my kids' rooms have either freestanding or built-in bookshelves, overflowing with books. And finally, in our master bedroom, we have built-in bookshelves full of books.

Hmm. Maybe I have a problem.

Our architect put built-in floor-to-ceiling bookshelves and a large window seat between them, for reading--in our dining room. She also lined a new long hallway from the front door with built-in bookshelves. And in the new family room, more built-in bookshelves. We agreed to all of these, and the effect is, to me, warm, inviting, and welcoming. To stage this house without books would be a bewildering assignment.

Heck--we even have bookshelves in our master bedroom closet.

My sister-in-law's house was staged for appearing in a magazine, and one of the things the designer did was add books here and there, throughout. My SIL objects to books--"clutter"--and I thought it was interesting to see how much more inviting her house looked with fresh flowers, fruit in a bowl, and books stacked here and there, throughout the pictures in the article.

When I moved two years ago, I sold/gave away/donated over 300 books. Didn't make a dent. I'm afraid to count how many books I actually have. It's the price I pay for being an English major and former teacher.

My living room is now a foyer/dining room/library, with three bookcases. But there is still a bookcase in the once dining room/now living room. And 4 large bookcases in the den. And one in the kitchen for cookbooks. And a small one in the bedroom for my all time favorites.

There isn't a bookcase in the bathroom, because there isn't room.

I think books add a sense of warmth and individuality to a room. I am also one who doesn't like clutter so most of the books in our house are in the process of being read. There is usually a book by the leather chair I am in the middle of reading. I have a basket of kid's books in the living room as well as well as individual bins in their rooms that has grown with them. When they were babies most were board books, then picture books now there are chapter books mixed in. I have a vintage automobile management book that my father gave dh in the entry. We have a couple of decorating and sewing books in the den. Most books are everchanging in our house.

We only have one bookshelf and once that gets filled up I donate the ones we don't read to the local library. We go to the library pretty often so I figure if I need to look at it again I can check it out. It also gives me a sense of community and my kid's enjoy finding books they have donated too.

I think that those staging and organizing shows are helpful for the folks who really do need to sell their house and haven't had success in this market--maybe they can get some basic ideas from these shows.

But they ARE totally opposite of how people "live," and that's when I start talking back at the TV with such things as, "Who SAYS you have to get rid of all those books! If you want them, you say to the show people, 'The books must stay--Make it work!' "

And those people who need to be told a room's purpose? I lump those in with the ones who see apricot-colored bedroom walls and decide they don't like the house. Just paint over it, people! (I have to admit, I also yell at the TV: "Maybe you're too stupid to be a homeowner!")

I love going to people's house and see books everywhere! I envy those who have shelves and shelves of books :) I mostly borrow from the library (esp fiction) but if money was not an issue i've bought a lot more books! i just wish i have time to read more! i tend to read the library books first since i need to return them, so a lot of my own books i haven't read...

When I'm in a house with no books I feel a sense of emptiness, no matter how cluttered it is, and wonder about the people who live there. They may be good people, but what richness do their inner lives have? I need books around me in my home to feel happy and grounded, entertained and stimulated. You can't have too many books but I don't see how you can live without books. I'm afraid those staging shows on TV buy into the dumbing down of America and unfortunately contribute to it by assuring us all that not to have books is normal and, indeed, desirable.

We're a nerdy family... ;) My husband and I are both teachers and my whole family loves reading. We have tons of books. You'll find them in most of the rooms in our house, but not everywhere. We have a bookcase in our bedroom and in each child's bedroom, including the twins' nursery. We have built-ins in the living room w/books. We have more in the office. But the books are in our living areas.. not in rooms designed for a specific activity. For instance, there are none in the dining room or laundry room. We do have cookbooks in the kitchen.

I don't see anything wrong w/ books in dining rooms or any other room, it's just that it makes the most sense to me to store them in a room you'd actually read them (or use them such as cookbooks in a kitchen). If you would read them in your dining room, laundry room, etc. then it certainly makes sense to keep them there.

However, if they're purely decorative, personally, I wouldn't place them in rooms w/ a designated function such as a DR.

A while back, on this forum, someone asked where to purchase 'pretty' leather bound antique type books to simply decorate the bookshelves!

oh my, that poster got some very choice advice, reactions. Apparently, now you can buy 'fake' decorative inserts for your shelves that look like books. The idea is repugnant...

Well, of course it is YOUR HOUSE and you should do with it what you want, but since this is a decorating forum it stands to reason that at least some decisions about a room are made for aesthetic reasons. It is the old argument: "Does form follow function, or does function follow form?"

DH and I both love books and we have hundreds of them. We are fortunate enough to have an office, craft/music/TV room in the basement with lots of bookcases. The basement is off limits for the decorating police and most guests, but it sure is functional.

I agree with Gin that it makes more sense to have the books in the room where you read them. So, if your DR is for home schooling then by all means have books in the DR. But if you also want it to be an attractive room, you need to consider how you are going to house the books.

someone asked where to purchase 'pretty' leather bound antique type books to simply decorate the bookshelves

Dorothy Rodgers, the wife of Richard Rodgers, was a prominent New York decorator in the 1950s. There is a story that she once had a client, an actress, who asked, "How many books do you think I'll need?"

I am amazed at how many people have huge collections of movies displayed on shelves, but no books! I love movies, but I don't own any. We have books everywhere, in a kind of orderly chaos, but I can get any book you want in a second or two.

We have two main areas for book keeping - the dining room shelves, and the office/library.

I'd love to convert my dining room to a combination library/dining room. About ten years ago, a magazine showed NPR correspondent Linda Wertheimer's library/dining room. It was a lovely place to linger with a good book or newspaper & coffee.

My favorite room of all time is the library at Sissinghurst. It held the extensive book collection of Harold Nicolson and Vita Sackville-West, arranged by topic on creaky shelves. There were worn oriental carpets, some paintings, and varieties of odds and ends furniture all scattered about in that haphazard way that looks put together at the same time. If it were my home, that's where I'd take my meals. I wouldn't want to leave the room. :

Billy Baldwin said the best decoration in the world is a room full of books.

We own a lot of books and have always had them anywhere we had enough wallspace to throw up a shelf - living room, dining room, hallway, office, bedrooms. I'm very much looking forward to the installation of a massive built-in bookcase in the dedicated 'library' in our house (grand name for a 6-1/2'x11' room) but books will still migrate and find permanent homes in the rest of the rooms as well.

WE too have books, and love to read. However for some reason personally I don't care for bookshelves in the masterbed room, there for we don't have bookshelves in there. Now the nightstands have books - probably too many.

I was commenting on this to a friend who said - just get rid of them, you've read them now donate them. That's not going to happen. She has several romance type of books but nothing else - she's very unattached to things - except - get this - bed linens. Now she could start a store with the bed linens she has! Guess my point is these are our homes if we like books I say fill all the walls!

We just donated eight bankers' boxes full of books. We had the floors replaced, so all books had to be boxed up and I took the opportunity to purge. I went through them all carefully and am happy with what was kept. What was let go was mostly fiction and non-fiction that had been read or "read-at" but not deemed wonderful enough to keep. Also not making the cut were various crafting or coffee-table type books gotten as gifts or through work (used to work for Oxmoor House, part of Southern Progress/Southern Living). The house certainly feels lighter now.

On a side note, when I started dating my DH I noted that his department was decidedly void of books, save for biographies of Tanya Tucker and Anthony Perkins. There were no books at his ex's house, either. It worried me a bit. But fast-forward seven years and it turns out he is a voracious reader of suspense/mystery and I am the one simply flipping through magazines before I drift off to sleep.

I have two banker's boxes full of his books I was going to donate, but he wants to find a place to trade them in for more.

I love my books so much. Last year I watched one of those 'anti book clutter shows' Clean This House - afterwards I sold of 27 books in attempt to declutter...I have been kicking myself ever since - boy I regret it now so much and think about that mistake often....even a year later.

I prefer to have our books in the rooms where we would actually read them but I can understand those who have limited space, resulting in books stored in rooms normally devoid of them. I say use your rooms as you see fit. : )

kkay_md, I love the look your architect created. We are planning something similar in one of our upstairs bedrooms. We already use it as a home office/den so it just makes sense to us to have most of our books in that room. We do have books on our bed side tables, living room and art studio since we always seem to be reading something. But I don't need to have lots of books in all rooms to feel comfortable. There are many other personal items that can fill that role just as well.

mimi, I like your fake book remote holders. Very clever! : )

jakabedy, we did the donating of books thing several years ago. It was really hard at first but once they were gone to the library and various charitable organizations we didn't miss them at all. Of course these were all books that we never intended to read again nor did they have any sentimental value. Just dust bunny collectors and I already have plenty of those due to three cats. lol

We staged our house to sell and packed dozens of boxes of books, purged some that had been read but not treasured enough to keep, and left a few on the shelves with accessories.

Sold the house in 3 weeks (maybe the staging helped?), and am waiting to finally get moved into the new house. It is our dream house that we designed for US, not decorators. We have walls of bookshelves in the offices (hubby and I each have our own), bookshelves in the livingroom/great room, the kitchen, master bedroom, and the spare bedroom/sewing room. We have hundreds of books and I can't wait to re shelve them in the new place, revisit old favorites, and find a couple that I haven't finished and somehow got packed! Between my husband and I we have a huge variety - fiction, economics, cookbooks, decorating, graphics, marketing, law, business, gardening, etc.

That being said, I agree with the poster that doesn't save mysteries - I love them, but don't reread them. I've now started to download them - I use my IPhone with a Kindle app and don't kill any trees for books I would toss.

Thanks angelcub. We have a spacious house, so it's not a question of limited space. We have a similar arrangement in our family room, but people are drawn to the dining room, which has French doors onto the adjoining terrace. It's a very cozy welcoming retreat--the window alcove is entirely wood-paneled--and overlooks my garden.

Nope, I don't homeschool, artlover, and I also have offices with bookshelves, as well as a comfortable basement with floor-to-ceiling glass-enclosed bookshelves. To my eyes, my books are as beautiful as my art collection. My dining room is arguably the most lovely room in my house--with books.

I'm quite puzzled by all the "no books in DR" comments. I've seen at least five really lovely DR/libraries in decor mags this past year. (Don't watch HGTV, though-I find all the sameness stultifying after about ten minutes.)

Oh and a warning to all you 'rely on the library' folks--libraries mostly don't actually like books much, you know. Look at what happened in SF and Ft. Lauderdale, for example. I live in an area where the library's book collection is fully worthy of what you'd find on the shelves in any CVS, and they're weeding that constantly. They pride themselves on being modern and up to date and, alas, I believe they are.

I love reading on my ipod--Classics is my favorite app--but there's no question that it's just not the same as reading a real book. Books are more than just text.

I adore our public library. The building is new and gorgeous, and it's pure bliss to browse through the seemingly infinite selection. I'm pretty sure our library really does "like" books. ;-)

My Grannie was a librarian, and I spent many childhood summers with her "on the job." I love libraries. Always have, always will.

kkay, I just reread my post and saw how I combined my thoughts on lots of books in all rooms with my thoughts on your arrangement. I hope it didn't sound like I thought you had a questionable arrangement. No way! I know I would love your dining room. Heck, I'd probably overstay my welcome and you'd be clearing your throat repeatedly, wondering when I was going to leave. ; )

About the house staging, I have a friend who is a stager so I asked her about the minimal or no books "rule." She said it's a little over emphasized on the tv shows. She says it's more about how the books are displayed. Since most sellers want their homes to appeal to the broadest audience, the concern is more on not leaving a negative impression on potential buyers. This could occur through overcrowded, dusty bookcases, books stacked up in so many places that it detracts from other uses for the same spaces, etc. But a selection of well placed books or bookcases nicely arranged are never out in her opinion.

She feels the same way about family photos. You want some to give the impression of a loving family home. Just don't plaster every wall with them or potential buyers could have a difficult time imagining their own pictures or other personal belongings in the same space.

angelcub--you'd be welcome in my dining room any time! ; >)

The issue with having rooms that multitask when you are trying to sell your house is that you give the impression that the house is not big enough to do everything you need/want to do in it WITHOUT having multitasking rooms. And yes, I believe most people ARE that impressionable (I hesitate to say stupid).... these same people cannot see beyond paint color and other things like that. So the idea of not having a desk in the corner of your dining room is that you don't put up a big red flag to the "average buyer" that the house is too small for an actual home office in it.

Staging houses is about how people WISH they could live more often than how people actually live. At least I sometimes wish for the clutter free spaces I see in staged homes and not a living room full of megablocks and big toy trucks but it is what it is.

Decorating should be about the way you really live and if books are a big part of it then it should be a big part of your decor. If I ever built a custom house from scratch it would have bookshelves built in everywhere I could stick one but as it is we have very little room for bookshelves in our smallish house and I can't stand the clutter so I am always weeding out books and keeping just the favorites and I do love our library as well (when I had a chance to read for myself). It's a small building and the 4th oldest library in the country and it has a decent collection for its size and interlibrary loan is a wonderful thing - there hasn't been anything I wanted that I couldn't get that way.

When we sold our house, we filled several dozen boxes with books and put them in storage to try to lighten the look. That was only about half the collection. It was probably helpful to keep some, and I chose them carefully. The woman who bought my house shared many of my interests and I think she probably felt a connection while perusing our titles. I do confess to keeping and displaying every red book, in a contrived way, in the living room.

We too have books in every room except the master bedroom (some feng shui tidbit I latched onto) and the bathrooms. Catalogs go in the bathrooms! We have bought eleven bookcases since moving here and I just picked up seven more I found on CL this morning. We might just have enough....but I doubt it.

As for books in a dining room, I absolutely love that look. My dream dining room would be square, with bookcases on every wall, a big round table in the middle and enough room on the table to keep the current pile of books and still be able to eat there! Nothing better.

Okmoreh, you taught me a new word today. Thanks! And I am pretty sure we had the same green carpet in our first home. Scary.

Gee whiz, I guess I'm going to have to stay in my house for a long, long time because
a) I've got books and bookcases all over the house - including the exercise room and the basement
b) I've got multi-purpose rooms galore, like desks in bedrooms, dining tables in kitchen, family room and (gasp!) dining room - and we use each every day.
c) Computers everywhere

I've already said some of this on my thread about my small dining room and the debate about whether books belong there . . . but my children DO read in the dining room. They read anywhere there are books. Even though I finally got bookshelves to fill our largest wall in the LR (not built-ins, like some of you lucky people . . .we have IKEA ones!) I think there is just something special to them about finding books in different rooms, like a surprise around the corner. We are avid library users, but we take tons of books out each time, and we need a place to keep them. We also buy a lot of books (both used and new) and my oldest DD re-reads them time and time again . . .and I want to keep them for my younger children as well.

My other thing is, when you have children, what else are you really going to display in the dining room? Books, to me, are so cozy and comforting, like old friends. And frankly, I really have little that I love to display. I got rid of many knick-knacks years ago, so building up a small collection of things I really want to see will take me a long time.

I don't understand the whole idea of one room, one function, I suppose. If that is the case, can you only eat in the dining room? You can't play board games there? Can you talk in the dining room or is it just for eating? I know these sound like silly examples, but it's just to illustrate that I don't think it's so easy to come up with hard and fast rules about what to do in each room.

Now, DISPLAY is another thing. Right now, my bookcases don't go at all with my new dining set and do nothing for the room. I also have some binders in there that no one uses regularly, so those need to go somewhere like the unfinished basement!

since there are so many book lovers here, you'll love this site showing pictures of different libraries. sigh, if my library looks like them...

Wow, lots of old friends in that thread, ummm. Thanks!

Funny this thread should appear today. My 2x/month housekeeper came today, and I was thinking about how much she disparages my housekeeping when she's not around to keep things just so. She likes to take all the loose books she finds and dump them in piles in out-of-the-way places; they seem to offend her sensibilities. Of course, since there are thousands of books in this house, she's fighting an uphill battle. She works for some of my non-academic friends, and praises their homes to me... of course, b/c they have hardly any books! She's wonderful, and this is a cheerful, running dispute, but it struck me how some people's treasures are other people's useless clutter.

Maybe this has been said before, but it seems to me that the one-room-one-function thing is what has caused people to believe they need to live in ever-larger homes. If my rooms couldn't do double duty, I'd need to live in a house almost twice as large, too.

I think too many books on too many shelves can cause a bad case of visual overload. Much like too many wall paper pattern, too many fabric pattern, etc,. So when selling a house, it makes sense to edit the bookcases and make them more appealing & visually calming to prospective buyers.

As for daily living, you can put books anywhere you like, really. A friend of mine has bookcases with glass doors in her master bathroom -- Her bathroom has a fireplace (it's a 2 sided fireplace that's between the bathroom & bedroom). She has an armchair in front of the bathroom's fireplace where she sit and read in her robe with her morning coffee or evening glass of wine. She also read in her tub, so it makes sense for her to have books there. Her bathroom looks more like a library with a tub in the middle than a bathroom LOL :-D

Some men probably want to have a book case in their loo, too. :-D

I suppose if I had the type of dining room that we actually ATE in every day (or even once a month!) I would be a little more hesitant to store books in there... although I'm not sure why, to be honest. But because we rarely use the room for actual dining, I'm converting it to a dining/library room, with a smaller dining table and more comfortable seating and, of course, bookcases. I am excited to use a room that usually gets ignored.

Bookcases - that's the dining room's science fiction collection. Arranged alphabetically, by author, paperbacks up top and hardcover below, and a strip of CDs. Height goes from 8 to 14(?) feet. Screwed to the studs in a couple of places, of course.

We have books in every room except the kitchen and bathrooms, where there is too much moisture or cooking dirt. The cookbooks are just outside the kitchen, between it and the dining room.

Every room has at least one wall lined with bookshelves.

Wow, nice lazy gardens. We have bookshelves in the bedrooms. Our room has a bookshelves surrounding our bed.
In our family room, we have a bookcase over my roll top desk (just for our technical and hobby books) a small table next to my chair just for several books that I like to pick up and read all the time...and books on our brunch tables in the family room are for hubby's history books and woodworking books...

In our living we built a small bookcase in the wall for our very old rare books that we inherited (hubby's great Grandfather was a book binder)

In the kitchen we have a bookcase cabinet, just for cookbooks. Actually the only room (besides the bathrooms)
that is book free is the Dining room...
correction: I have a box of our grandchildren's books in a tub on the floor in the corner of the dining room...

BTW, I just boxed up several boxes of my kids college books that I plan on dropping off at their houses...

lazygardens -- WOW!! I adore your dining room -- I would never get around to eating -- that is an amazing collection of sci-fi! Golden age SF? Tech si-fi or does the collection include sword & sorcery?

Jan at Rosemary Cottage (picking up my jaw after it hit the floor when I saw that photo of the dining room!!)

I have recently started book buying again now that I have some place to put them

Dh built floor to ceiling book shelves along two of the walls in our living room. The surround the window and door. I love the way it looks.

Here's a pic of the one corner.

I love books and would love to see them in a house! Of course, I have 4 bookcases downstairs full. And some stacked here and there around the house.

For dd's grad party this summer, I rearranged the books by color. Looks great. Everyone who went in the room noticed and loved it (and said I am crazy)

I love my books and will never be without. I sell &/or donate about 50 a summer to make room for all the ones I pick up over the course of a year. Now that the kids are getting older (youngest is 10), I have been really parting with kids books. They have 2 and I have 2 cases. Thinking I need 3 and they need 1.

Teacats ... all of them :)

The upper shelves to the right have the Analog magazines, and the rest is anything from SF classic through Lackey's Heralds and Bards to Zelazny and Weber's Honor Harrington and Wrede's "Enchanted Forest Chronicles". The rest of the house has the non-fiction and technical books.

We've changed chairs to a more suitable set, added in my dark hutch and some other stuff where the pictures are. Also filled in the shelves a bit more. Time for a new picture, I think.

jenangelcat - I like that idea! What to do with those narrow walls is always a dilemma.

lazygardens: Well -- that just proves it -- I would NEVER get around to eating at that wonderful dining table!! LOL! :)

jenangelcat: Brillant job by your DH! What a GREAT way to use that narrow space!!! Excellent idea all around! :)

Jan