Today’s blog is written in response to a comment I left on tinalynne’s post at Book Blob earlier this week. It asked the question, “are print books a thing of the past?”, and compared ebooks to pbooks (print books). I, myself, have a brand new Sony ereader which I absolutely love, but I will never give up buying pbooks. My favourite books have to be in print form, and I am kind of a hoarder when it comes to books – I could never throw one out!!
From the time I was a very small child, I loved to read. I always had my nose in a book from sunrise to sundown, whether I was at home curled up in a comfy chair or laid out on the bow of our sailboat as we cruised down Lake Ontario.
I always said my dream home would have a library with shelves upon shelves of books and a ladder that ran on wheels along the shelves, just like in the movies. Well, not many of us will every have a house big enough or with enough rooms to have one room alone as a library, but a couple of years ago, my husband brought my dream to life (for the size of our house anyway). We live in a raised bungalow, and the basement is pretty much open concept. A shelf runs along the wall from one end of the house to the other about four feet up because that’s where the concrete foundation meets the wall. So, my wonderful husband built me about 40 feet of bookshelves from the shelf up to the ceiling, and it is the most amazing thing he has ever done for me. It was like a dream come true!! People thought I was crazy and that I would never fill that many shelves, but any lover of books will know that it didn’t take long!
So, for tinalynne, who asked me for some photos of my bookshelves, here they are. The quality is not very good because the lighting in my basement is terrible, but at least you will get an idea. I call my basement the library, and my kids laugh at me, but it is my favourite place in the house where I can go and lose myself in a great story and forget all of my problems!!
photos from the loonybin 
What a pretty, cozy room you have! And I love books, too, so I say keep up the good work 🙂
Thank you so much – it is a cozy little spot!
Oh, you are a lucky woman! Those bookshelves are wonderful and I can understand why you feel it’s your library room. I switch back and forth between my Kindle and the “real thing”. Can’t resist real books even though they seem to be going out of style. I buy my favorites in hard cover. They are valuable to me now and they may have antique value later.
Yes I am very lucky to have an incredibly handy husband who, even though he hates reading, understands my love of books! He just built these shelves from scratch with no plans at all!! Thanks for visiting and for the nice comments!
Oh wow I’d love a room like that!and i’d like to check out the contents of your shelves!
I’ll tell you Gilly, I never thought this particular dream would come true! I used to walk down to the basement for no reason other than to look at my bookshelves and sigh in happiness!! The contents of the shelves are extremely varied. I love historical fiction, fantasy fiction, regular fiction, mysteries, and I also like biographies. If you look closely at the section of shelf above the couch, you will see that I also have a soft spot for teen fiction, even though I am 46 years old!! I even have one shelf devoted to Harry Potter. I also have a shelf devoted to my favourite series of all time – the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon. If you haven’t read them and you like historical fiction, you should definitely read them. They are amazing!! Sorry, but I could blab on and on about books. LOL 🙂
I love, love, love your bookshelves. My dream house would also have a library and a big leather chair etc 🙂
Thank you!! I love the leather chair idea. You know what else I always dreamed of? Having a dormer window or bay window in my library with big, huge cushions where I could curl up to read!
This is so amazing!! The couches look so cozy and the bookshelf goes on forever! And I love your designated Harry Potter shelf–that’s a must for my future bookwall 🙂 Also, I’ve been meaning to start reading the Outlander series for a while now because I heard it involved time travel, and I was a bit obsessed with that idea back in high school. And I always enjoy a good historical fiction!
Thank you so much for posting pictures of your awesome reading nook! And you got me thinking…hmm, my boyfriend is the handyman type, so I might just start dropping hints about how cool it would be to get some sort of über bookshelf going. It looks like your husband did a great job on yours 🙂
You are so welcome!! I’m so glad you got my message and saw my post today because I knew you would like it!! You really should read the Outlander series – the time travel aspect is the part that attracted me in the first place, and then I just fell in love with the characters and the history. I actually had the opportunity to hear Diana Gabaldon speak this past summer and had her autograph one of my books. She is very funny and a great speaker.
And yes, you should start dropping hints to your boyfriend. Every book lover needs an awesome “library” like I have. My husband is now walking around like a proud peacock after all the compliments on his bookshelves today!! By the way, if you look closely at the first photo, you will notice that the Harry Potter shelf also has Harry Potter figurines. LOL 🙂
That is such a beautiful room. My kids and I live with our noses in books too. I can’t wait to show these pictures to them. We have tons of books too but not displayed so wonderfully.
Thank you so much for the kind comments! It is a very beautiful room which I am vey thankful for. My kids used to love to read, but now they are teenagers and are busy with other things. I hope one day they will rediscover the joy of reading once again!!
That is one of the best uses of a basement I’ve ever seen! Now I want to do that with mine. Of course, that would mean cleaning it first. I’m still in the “just moved in (two years ago) with two small kids” stage, where I have boxes to unpack, that are now buried under toys I need to donate and who only knows what else. I’m rather afraid to go down there. Someday…
Thanks! Don’t worry, my basement used to simply be a place for my boys to race their cars when they were little and bash them into the walls. We didn’t have much done to it because we wanted the boys to be able to play without worrying about wrecking anything. Now our sons are teenagers, so we felt it was safe to renovate, and my dream finally came true! It’s also a nice place for our kids to take their friends to hang out and watch movies or play video games. It was definitely worth the wait!!
This is stunning… my dream is to have a bookshelf wall!!!! 😉 **
Thank you :). I hope your dream comes true one day too. My husband says that if we didn’t live so far away he would come and build it for you!!
Aaaaaahhhh…. you guys are sweet!!!! 😉 **
I actually read more books now that I can read them on my ipad. But give me a great audiobook anytime. I do 95% of mine that way. I have trouble sitting still.
oooooohhhhh, iPad!!! Aren’t they awesome? I love my iPad! I find the iPad kinda heavy for reading though, so I stick to real books or my ebook reader. I tried audiobooks one time thinking that I wouldn’t like them, but they are actually great!