One thing you should know about me is that I absolutely LOVE books. Not just the written word, which you can find oh so many wonderful places now (thanks technology), but specifically books. Of the physical variety. I’ve always loved books, for about as long as I can remember. I’m not really sure where this love came from, since my parents are both non-readers for the most part. We never had a lot of books in the house when I was growing up, but there were weekly reader books, and a set of encyclopedias. I do remember my uncle taking me on trips to the library quite a bit when I was in elementary school, and that’s probably where my obsession started. Because not only do I love reading books, but I love owning them, and being surrounded by them. If I could jump head-first into a pile of books, without injuring the books (or myself), I would do it.

When I still lived at home my collection had already exceeded the one bookcase I owned and I had to improvise my own bookcases out of cardboard, which mostly relied on the fact that paperbacks stack so neatly together. I remember the improvised shelves behind my bedroom door grew quite high and eventually became unstable. Luckily, I moved out into my own house not long after that!

My fiance also loves books, but he’s not much of a reader. He has ADD which makes it extremely hard for him to concentrate on a book but he can listen to an audio version of a book and quote back specific passages, which I’m always impressed by because I can not pay attention to an audio book at all; I’m too used to tuning things out and my mind automatically wanders off somewhere else. Despite not reading much, he has a love for books the same as me; collecting them, hoarding them, being surrounded by all their glory. Ahem.

Still, even though we both love books so much, and had so many of them, it was a stroke of luck that gave us the library. We had all intentions of turning the tiny bedroom into a walk in closet when we bought our house; in fact that is why we looked for a three-bedroom house to begin with. But the house that we bought, that became our home (lovingly dubbed ‘cricket creek manor’), already had more than enough closets to suit our needs. And so we were left with an extra room. One of us came up with the bright idea of turning it into a library and it’s a decision that I’ll never regret because it has become my favorite room in the house.

I’ve been going to the used book stores a lot lately and have aquired quite a few new additions. And since I keep my books organzied similar to a bookstore (non-fiction, by topic; fiction by genre and alphabetized by author) my fantasy section became seriously over crowded. The one bookcase I had devoted to that genre just wasn’t cutting it anymore.

To remedy this situation I could either a) get rid of some books, b) get more bookcases, or c) rearrange the books so I could expand the fantasy section. Option A was out of the question. There’s no way I would be able to part with any of my preciouses. Option B had some merit, but there was no more room in the library for anymore bookcases, and just the thought of having a bookcase outside the library, in some other room in the house, didn’t sit well with me. (Blame it on mild OCD.) So, in the end, option C was my only real choice. And so I moved my books. It was a bit of a back breaking task, and at one point I had to move one of the book cases because the cat knocked something behind there from climbing up on it.

In the end it was a lot of hard work, rearranging all of the books. But I got to clean the bookcases really well and make room for books that I’m going to get in the future (used bookstore trip, I’m looking at you). Also, I ended up finding quite a few books that I forgot I had, or that I’d thought were missing but were just stacked behind other books. My fiance remarked several times that weekend that he didn’t understand why I had to move all the books around (um..compulsion? and because now there is room for more books? and yet they are still neat and in order?). He claims the room still looks exactly the same, but there’s a huge difference to me when ever I go in there now. It feels lighter, more spread out, and the extra shelf space is just begging to be filled. Used bookstore trip, you can’t come soon enough.