That seems to me like temp decor, which I'd use to show off a particularly beautiful flower, branch, whatever. Otherwise, pretty but not practical.

I'm talking about the top row of books set on top of the others instead of being incorporated onto the shelves.

The niche looks lonely.

Oh dear, you may not see my bookcase.

At least they are displaying books that are actually read, paperbacks, instead of just pretty books. I recognize Water for Elephants.

I do that too..otherwise I'd have no space for books

(I kinda do it on the lower shelf though..the one where are the books I reach out for most..so it's the busiest shelf.

and I do it inside the cabinets too (we have mix of open and closed shelving for books)

how is her/his bougainvillea branch holding up there? I have too many that I'd gladly put on the table/s but afraid they won't be able to survive for long when inside

Maybe they have reverse thinking from mine-they put the books they reach for the least this way, so it goes where it's hard to reach anyway?

(I like the niche being empty..I'd stick something there like my favorite ceramics or something, in the corner most likely, so I like that they exercised the reserve that I'd probably lack

or maybe I'd keep it empty too who knows..sometimes I set my mind about having a particular spot empty. pretty unpredictable

I find the look in its entirety very pleasing.

So many books, so little time!

A difficulty I empathize with!

I love the arrangement. I think it all looks very pleasing and balanced. The chairs are very attractive although they look a little less comfy than I would prefer for a library setting. That's the problem with chairs.

I like the look, but...the shelves are one long shelf, so if you take out a standing book or two from the top, the whole shebang could slide over, topple, then you're grabbing books to keep them from falling, and you're bumping the artful stacks on the lower shelves, and bam, you've got a mess on your hands and maybe a bump on the head.

But it looks great!

I didn't even notice the niche, even after it was referred to in this thread! I agree that it looks lonely, but I think overall this is a very inviting little scene.

Oops, guilty of doing that (books on top of books)

The other convention broken here is the 1/3, 1/3, 1/3. Empty space, books, knick-knacks.

It looks like these are utility shelves as opposed to decorative shelves. So I like that. Maybe I will redo mine with that 8n mind. I keep the cookbooks on the bottom and they are a mess. Maybe that's okay.

I still haven't found the empty niche......oh, well. The whole thing looks too precarious, I'd like easy access to books, not have to treat them as building blocks where you remove a few and the whole thing sways or collapses. Life is too short.....

ingrid_vc so. CA zone 9

I still haven't found the empty niche......oh, well.

Very top - to the left of the pitcher on top fill with a bougainvillea stems

Bougainvillea stems have a very short shelf life -- quarter day if I'm lucky -- but very dramatic.

I have a constant supply from the neighbor's plant that is always poised for an invasion, if not actively invading.

Agh, I just noticed the empty niche. Serves no purpose so owner ignored. I would too. I've had books stacked that way and my shelves began bowing so I took out books to lighten the load. Besides, I think the world knows if you're well read by the way you speak/write so personally, I don't need to have stacks and stacks of books as "proof". And when I need reference material, it is 2 clicks away in my tablet, iPhone.

Frankly, couldn't care less what the world thinks..to me, books are calming..some of them are the only constant I drag around with me wherever I go to live next. Since age 18.

All the rest stays behind at some point..

On the other hand I don't have a tablet or IPhone..don't see the need as I'm not much outside either..besides, they make me dizzy as hell. My family constantly tells me how I should get them; it's very hard to explain these things..

Looks good to me. Unarranged, actually.

April neverends, wondering if it could be a vision thing. Before I realized I needed glasses, I would get dizzy reading newspapers.

uh-oh...guilty as charged....

I am a musician, and I put the books that I am working from (arranging, practising etc.), on top of my other books, so that I can find them again.....insert red face......

Blessings,

J

bossyvossy, thank you!..no, I know exactly what it is..but vision slowly goes to hell too, to say the truth.

(I'll need to get glasses at some point, maybe yesterday:) I just find all the experience with eye doctors very traumatic..:) Dentists even are better, to me)

jaybird, I think it's cool..books are meant to be used, and loved..I'm cool with them everywhere, and I'm not even a musician..:)

Most people who truly read do not have "arranged" or "decorated" bookcases. They have ones that look like that top shelf. The only time a reader has an arranged bookcase is in an English stately home with a valueable collection of sets of leather bound books. And they read these VERY carefully due to their rarity.

The 1/3 convention is something I would never follow in my own house especially if books are involved.

People who "truly read" have every book-storage configuration imaginable, including decorated bookshelves (and this will shock you - electronic devices!). Please don't presume to know who loves books and who doesn't based upon how their shelves are arranged.

I have tchotchke piled all around and on my books, and my books are behind lamps and pictures and out of reach, but I still read or look at the books. It doesn't bother me to have to dig them out sometimes.

similar..only I don't need to dig that hard..I do have a hutch in the living/dining though where it's very styled, but it's less of a bookshelf thing..it's a dining and living and miscellaneous thing, where I keep linens and wine glasses etc behind the doors, and records and books and some favorite little sculptures and candles outside

i also often buy postcards because i love them..and can afford them lol unlike most of other art..so I arrange them on bookshelves that are-books-first and foremost too. They mostly picture people and animals..or strange people and strange animals...

i arranged them with magnets on a tole tray, and I leaned the tray, on the lower shelf, in our previous house..nice idea that i saw somewhere..and it looked good..but the tray had space for only three postcards, and I have more, obviously

I tried to tuck a couple in a mirror in kids' bath but my son respectfully asked me to take "your weird girls, Mom" out of the bathroom he uses..:)

(what's with boys and "weird girls"? don't they like them chase them and marry them anyway, at some point?

or are couple alive and walking around the house their absolute limit, lol?)

Kids have their own spaces for books..

I also have them in the living, in the guest room, in the master..I try to keep them neat of course, and all..but it seems like a lot of books

while in reality it still isn't-we had so many when I grew up. My Mom didn't eat lunch for years, since being a little girl..she bought books with her lunch money. She also taught herself how to repair them, pretty professionally, when they start falling apart

by the time I was born I had a huge choice of what to read..:)

then when we left we obviously couldn't take everything

my Mom told me to pick twenty I like the most (everybody picked his favorites.)

so they're the ones I never part with, since then

When You Just Don't Want To Mess Up An Arrangement... Chijim: I'm talking about the top row of books set on top of the others instead of being incorporated onto the shelves."

Lol. My first reaction also. Manages to still keep it looking "arranged," but!

What a nice story about your mom and a home full of books, Aprilneverends. Our home has them all over also, mostly tidily standing on shelves, a few in piles.

Huh? to Bossyvossy's strange notion that we would have books all over the house to impress people. The usual reaction from new visitors in this rural area is to ask in surprise if we've read them all (happily in these on-line shopping days, not any more!), with other thoughts kept courteously private. No, that's not why. There also isn't a single coffee-table book or any other purchased for display in this house. And fwiw, our Kindles are also strictly additional, and we never pull them out in public to try to impress anybody. For us, books are a lifestyle thing and also a what-makes-a-home-a-home thing. I realized long ago that no room is completely ugly to me if it has shelves of books somewhere.

And If something is valued in this house there is no "rule" for proportions except whatever space it needs. I'd hate to think someone didn't buy good books because they would start taking up more than 1/3 of the bookcases that flank so many fireplaces these days.

My long-term practice when I've thinned out my books and still have run out of space to hide less-read books behind others was to get more bookcases, though in recent years the thinning has become more ruthless. Like Aprilneverend's mom, the good china moved to an upper cabinet to give that cabinet over to books long ago. :)

Just another thought about "rabidly avid" readers I have known. While some people enjoy collecting/hoarding books, I know a good number of folks whose second home is the public library. My grandmother was a librarian, and I learned at a very young age how delightful it could be to borrow a stack of books to read, then return them and borrow some more. Not everyone feels the need to own things in order to get full and complete enjoyment from them.

That said, I would like to add more books to my shelves, simply because I like the way they look. Of course I read them. And I also admire them for the aesthetics they bring to a space.

oh I go to library too, all my life ..frankly when I was little our house was better then the closest library..but since then things changed...:)

btw we live right across the city library right now:) I'd say that's the best about our house location lol

but I'm a bit sad since no books in Russian(or Ukrainian..these two languages are obviously the easiest for me, reading-wise..writing and speaking turned to be some mambo jumbo..)), not even one little shelf. The community is probably too small..all the places I lived before had at least several shelves full of books in Russian

of course I enjoy English too, a lot..but sometimes one wants to read something new or re-read something old in his native tongue.

The vast majority of books that I have on my shelves are "looking" books: Art, Architecture, Design, classics, short stories, children's, things like that. For reading books I have been in a pattern where I have only read freecycled books for some time and then I pass them on. I rarely keep a novel or spy/police/detective/thriller anymore, once it's been read. I keep things mostly that I can look at over and over or for reference.

I love to re-read..so yes, usually I buy something I already know I love..or I had and then didn't have for years and then found it again..or if I have very high expectations, for example it's by an author I admire, but haven't read this book of his

I do keep all fairy tales, children's books, poetry..and yes, short stories, classics..but I can re-read good detectives and thrillers too, so if that's the case..:)

(I also love watching thrillers..not horror movies, these I can't watch, but thrillers..and some I can watch several times..it's a bit embarrassing, frankly.

if it's too...if it's too good though, too true..then it's much scarier since no thriller is as scary as real life is..and then I probably won't watch it again, or if yes-after many years..because it hits me much harder, and it's not a thrill anymore..it's a totally different mix of feelings that you carry for years, and you don't really want ..to dilute it I guess.

But then I guess a movie like that wouldn't be strictly called a thriller, right?..

Everything that's really good is hard to categorize..or so I think

With very good books though, it's a bit different. Because you change yourself, as you age..and when you re-read you observe other things and think new thoughts and have new enlightenments

The books I love can be very gloomy or very full of light...but I find that truly great books even if they are gloomy always carry some inner light too. A glimpse of hope. Never just one note..

If it's not the case(and I've read some exceptionally gloomy books..by Russian authors..not really horrors or thrillers just ..I don't know..really, just scary as hell)..I won't probably hold on to a book. I borrow them(usually somebody recommends it)/take in the library..return it. I don't know whether these authors were translated, and if yes, was the translation any good..and they obviously are very talented..but it haunts you for life, and you've no desire to re-read it, not at all.