Congratulations! Wishing you every enjoyment with your new arrangement. We all know how pleasant that can be.

But -- it is still okay to buy more books, you know.

Lemon, I'm guilty of just standing in a doorway to admire my books on their pretty shelves, too. I even dusted all of them in the living room recently, and it is an awesome achievement. Now if I can only get started on all the paperbacks in the den.

You deserve a nice long week of rest and reading, and all the Easter candy is out there, too.

I totally agree with Carolyn and Rosefolly. I finally got my book room arranged a few months ago and I still go upstairs just to admire it, even if I already have something(s) to read. :)

I'm also guilty of admiring my organized "library" since I have almost accomplished my goal of every book having a place on a shelf. There is still some work to be done but in a different room.

I completely understand your source of pride and joy in the new arrangement. Even after having downsized and relocated almost 3 years ago, I am still tinkering with my bookshelves. I really enjoy rearranging my tomes. Despite having sold so many, many books, people keep giving me more, so it is a constant challenge, with limited space. The only area I've not placed books on is the top of my refrigerator, but I am now considering doing this with my ever expanding collection.

I thought my RP friends would understand... :-)

And I am behind on my usual Easter Cadbury Mini-Egg eating quota so thinking that I will address this issue this week (and next - I think they go on sale next week?)

yum yum.

liz, I think over here Easter Eggs, along with Hot X Buns, have been in the stores since Christmas. ;-).
You are very welcome to start on my book shelves when you are next in the UK.

Veer - if you buy me a ticket, I'll be happy to pop over to "help" you with the book situation....

And no hot cross buns over here.. :-(

Oh, I had my annual hot cross bun last week at my favorite bakery/coffee shop, along with a cappuccino, while reading a book. Some days are just good.

Carolyn, I'm glad all of the US isn't a hot cross bun waste land. They are meant to be eaten on Good Friday, but a few practice runs are no bad thing.
Liz, your first class ticket is on its way. Can you get your feather duster through security?

I think so...

First class would be great. Let me check with the boss about the dates and see you soon.

:-)

You are inspiring me! When I moved into this small but lovely apartment a few months ago, I made a start on organizing my books but fell short of my goal. Since there there have been many new additions and they are something of a mess again. It is time to haul many off to the used bookstore and hopefully not replace them too quickly (says the woman who has brought home nine books from said store in the last week.)

Siobhan, you are fighting a losing battle. Book lovers will never have enough space. I recently saw a house pictured in a magazine that had a high stack of books on the floor in various rooms. It looked very neat, but what if you wanted the bottom book?

Lemonhead, I am so glad that you shared your accomplishment -- you're setting a good example for messy me.

LOL (at myself). I just got back from a rummage sale, taking with me at least 4 used books, all at good prices. I am incorrigible.

Oh, and get this -- I found hot cross buns at the local bakery. How fab was that!...

Hot X buns are now on sale in UK all year round. I disapprove of this, though I'm not particularly religious, because I don't think you should pre-empt the goodies of the season so I don't buy them - I save them for Good Friday. But then, I sort of.... forget it's Good Friday and fail to buy buns. Or they've sold out by the time I remember. So I rarely get a bite of the lovely things........

Lemonhead, thanks for the inspiration.

Ever since I read your original post I had been thinking about doing something about my books and this weekend I finally went ahead. I emptied all three bookcases that had been in my bedroom for years, dusted all the books, dragged the bookcases into my living room and set them up in there. There was an unbelievable amount of dust in, on, under and behind the bookcases. I rousted and swept up a colony of feral dust bunnies, but I think some of them escaped under the bed and will need to be coaxed out.

My bedroom already feels bigger, and when I have finished cleaning everything I expect to sleep a little easier. It can't be healthy to sleep with all that dust around! I also hope the air in there will be less dry with all the paper gone.

The living room has taken on the feel of a small, cosy library and some time this week I am going to a friend's house to pick up a comfy sofa she has given me (white sofa + kids = not a good idea). I plan to make a reading nook with it facing the bookcases, a reading lamp and small table to put stray books on.

By moving the books into the living room I am going back to an old Icelandic tradition that has been losing its footing in last couple of decades or so: To proudly display the family books in the living room for all to see and browse. The only difference is that I'm not just displaying my gilded fine leather and imitation leather bindings of serious capital-L-Literature, but also my tatty old paperbacks, notebooks and travel journals. Even the cookbooks are now in the living room.

Sounds charming, Netla. I have my books displayed on shelves in every room of my place except the bathroom.

Wish I could do that, but I have too much other furniture. I had to move a large sideboard into the bedroom to make room for the bookcases in the living room. I do have a small stack of books and magazines in the bathroom.

Congratulations, Netla! Lots of hard work but it paid off... Are you sleeping easier now?...

Very rewarding, and it sounds lovely. I like cozy. I hope your friends are all book lovers unlike some of my visitors who, with a look of horror, ask me if I've read "all those books." I have got so I just ask them if they would like to see the ones in the rest of the house. I, too, have them everywhere except the bathrooms.

I spent a couple of days last week (well, not all day) in the dining room cleaning the glass and polishing the wood of the china and curio cabinets and washing all the dishes and glassware in them and putting it back. Will someone please remind me why I want all these things, pretty as they may be? I do love dishes, especially pitchers and cake stands and plates. So does my sister. Her husband once asked her if she ever planned to make seventeen cakes and line them all up in a row on her cake plates.

Lemonhead, I think so, yes.

I think I just might move a couple of the bookcases from the second bedroom (which I use as an office) out into the living room as well. At the least, it will motivate me to dust the books...

Carolyn, I know the feeling. I collect owl figurines and long since gave up displaying all of them at the same time. It's just too much work dusting them.

Gasp--- dusting all my books ----my least favorite task. Carolyn, I can relate. I used to collect fine china, having inherited lots from both sides of my family. I kept these collections for years, but finally had to sell them when I downsized and relocated here, to smaller quarters. I miss looking at my antique china, but in a sense, I felt relieved, too.

Carolyn, you will be amused to learn that we have a small built-in bookcase in one bathroom. It is filled with magazines most of the time, but the occasional paperback makes its way there from time to time.

Rosefolly

I also collect owl figurines, or I should say I did but had to stop because I had so many. Also donkey figurines. Why I do this I have no idea. I rotate them as it is too weird to have little figurines all over the place. But I do enjoy having a few around. Oddly, I have no photographs on display with one exception - my grandfather at age 16 in his Highland Light Infantry uniform. I have a strange dislike bordering on fear of having photos on the walls, although I have many in books and on my computer.

TMI and not even book related!

Siobhan, I have children and grandchildren's pictures in frames in front of books on the bookshelves in the den, but I don't have any on walls either except one of me at age 2, my daughter at age 2, and a long, narrow frame of five 3x5" sepia tone matted photos of my mother ranging in age from a baby on her mother's lap through one in her early 90s.

These photos hang in an extra bedroom in which I have a collection of things from home such as her traveling trunk, a Singer treadle sewing machine, a ladder back chair, an oil lamp, a sad iron, a mantel clock, my great-grandmother's small rocking chair, my nephew's first big boy twin bed with a cross stich quilt for a bedspread, a glass-sided chest with quilts my mother made--and my computer since I didn't have anywhere else to put it. I enjoy the room no end.