I have bookshelves in every room - built-ins in the living room and various units throughout the house. Unfortunately there are also stacks on the furniture. I keep my cooking and gardening books in the dining room for quick reference. I donate boxes of books every year as new ones come in so we don't get swallowed up. I have many books from my childhood - cheap paperbacks from scholastic that I cannot bear to part with.

I send the paperbacks to deployed soldiers. You can find addresses at anysoldier.com. You can pack quite a few of them into a flat rate box for $7.95 and the soldiers really appreciate them!

Built in bookshelves, hundreds of books. Probably more in the attic, too.

Like Maureen, we have bookshelves in just about every room but the dining room! I dream of a library room so they can all be in one place and categorized, but alas.... Both of us are readers and my husband has an impossible time getting rid of most of them even tho he will never read them again. Of course a lot of them are classics and old...and I have a lot of cookbooks and decorating books besides fiction etc etc. I have been in homes where there are no books at all. I find that kinda sad really.

I was thinking about built ins on either side of my fp, but I mostly have new chick-lit fiction and old textbooks, that I don't really consider display-worthy. I thought about putting bookshelves in the guest room, but I'm not sure how that would work with the decor. For now, they are scattered all over the house tucked here and there and it drives me nuts when I'm trying to find a particular cookbook or child-care reference book, or whatever.

How do you blend your books in with your decor?

We built what is called a "book nook." It's a little room inside the living room that has shelves from floor to ceiling on each side of the wall.

In one of the guest bedrooms we have two large floor to almost ceiling bookshelves (moveable) sitting side by side on one wall.

I'm reading three books at once right now, sitting on my end table. DH's books are on his end table.

New mags are sitting on the coffee table waiting to be read.

Messy and proud! :)

Most books are in the study, but in reality they are scattered all over the house. Both DH and I love to read. I use the public library quite a bit but love to buy books too. we also have boxes of books in storage. Here's pic of our old study:

{{!gwi}}

As a newly retired homeschool mom, I just moved our collection of books from our 'library' into the bedroom our oldest moved out of. Now our library can be a dining room. (I'm giddy. Never had one before.)

So there are four six foot tall bookcases in that bedroom. DS#2 has one in his room. I have three in the master...along with piles on the floor, reading chair, and nightstand.

There is never and will never be enough book storage for me...but just lately I've really slowed down buying. I fear Barnes and Noble may go out of business.

We LOVE to read... when we move to this new "old house" which is quite small, we decided that a study/library was more important to us than a guest room that would be used twice a year. So we put a double bed in the smallest room (read "cramped") for guests and have an extra inflatable bed if needed. This study/library is still not very organized, but at least all the books are together (we're planning on having built-ins made). Gardening and cooking books are in the kitchen (and we have quite a collection...). Of course, a few books are around the bed since it is still our favorite place to read...

We have one hallway lined with shelves and are about to add almost as many to the second leg of the L shaped space. We also each have a three drawer chest in the MBR closet with a bookcase top - DH is full of "next on the list" reads.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{!gwi}}

lesterd, I just found out about Better World Books, so I think I'll be donating those textbooks. I'm excited!

This is one of three paperback bookcases we have. It's installed on the wall of our smaller spare bedroom. We do re-read books and DH travels a LOT so it's handy to have hundreds, or I guess it's over a thousand by now, paperbacks on hand.

I'm a total bookworm and DH reads for a living, so it could easily get out of hand at our house. In our first house we had books in every room, and by our last house I'd whittled it down to the living room and the TV room, but when we moved here I just said no to the living room.

Now we have built-ins on either side of the fireplace in the TV room, each child has a bookcase in his room and that is it. The books on the built-in shelves are my special "never part with" treasures--hubby's books had to go to his office.

oakleyok, exactly!

Uh ... here:

And several other places. The only rooms without bookcases are the bathrooms and kitchen, because the moisture is bad for books.

Every bedroom has at least one wall covered with bookcases.

I'm an avid reader myself, though I mostly use the library since I don't re-read books. I have a bookcase with a glass door in the family room to display some of our nicer books and photo albums. It has drawers on the bottom where I keep paperbacks.

{{!gwi}}

Other than that, the kids have space for books in their rooms, but for books the kids have outgrown or old text books, I either give to friends or donate to the library.

Forgot to mention I also added space in my kitchen for a built-in message center/bookcase area for all my cookbooks, etc.

In every room in the house, except the powder rooms!

Ladies, these photos of your "book storage" has my heart racing. I love each and every one of them.

"Pitch them"?
Ooh--I fear you might be unleashing something here! Well, the last version of that topic was a lively conversation, anyway--LOL!

(My general reading books are in my bedroom and in the guestroom, and my quilting books are in my crafts room And many of my to-be-reads are stored down the road at ... the library!)

allison0704, that link you put up about bookcases is really neat. I have a long hallway like that in my house and I have been considering a built in bookshelf. Do you know the dimensions of that hallway? And the depth of the bookshelf? (Just wondering if something like that would fit in my space.)

We are big readers too and we had a very large expresso stained maple glass windowed entertainment center built, where I keep a lot of books, including some text books, that we both reference from time to time. The books are not extremely noticeable, but I can easily access them. I also have lots of bookshelves throughout the house.

I wish I had a library room like some of you do!

I have posted on GW photos of the bookcases I have made for our family and others. I have as many as four people who have inquiried about a bookcase for them. I think I could make a living just building bookcases and now I know why!!!

Some great photos on this thread.

Jeff

Here is a link that might be useful: The largest bookcase I have made

Jeff, you're probably right. I know so many folks who've had built-ins built by the same guy, I am wondering if he has time to work for people I *don't* know!

Lazygardens and Whitedobe, those aren't just storage, those are design! That is a lot of books and they look great.

Bookshelves and books everywhere.

I don't re-read so I lend out most but a few favored authors, and tell people to keep sharing them.

I also donate to the public library every couple of years.

I have hundreds, if not thousands. Since I live in a loft, and need room dividers, I use Ikea Expedit bookcases, and fill both sides. I don't think books need to be "display worthy", as they're really more like tools for living, than objets d'art.

But if you don't refer to your old textbooks, you might try selling them or donating them. Textbooks date so quickly, as profs. always seem to require the most recent editions, esp. of their own books.

whitdobe and lazygardens did you have those bookcases custom built? I'm thinking of doing a full wall also but haven't priced having it built yet. I'm kinda scared. I wonder how much is a decent price to do let's say a 12' wide x 8' high area? What depth makes sense?

Judy - The bookcase was built by me and my house-mate (he started it before I moved in). The units are not connected to each other, but they are fastened to the studs for safety. The lighting is cheap home depot halogen short tracks.

They are just big boxes!

Materials: 4x8 plywood sheets for backing, 1x8 pine boards for uprights and shelves. The plywood overlaps the uprights at the rear, and is high enough off the floor to clear the baseboards. I think it has to be trimmed to fit ... I don't remember how that bit worked. Screwed together, with one screw in the middle of the shelf at the back for anti-sag.

1x8 = slightly over a 7" shelf, which is deep enough for a standard hardbound book. By using the existing dimensions of the lumber we saved a lot of trouble.

Shelf separation was sized to give 3 bottom shelves the right height for hardbound, then paperbacks (and one for CDs near eye level).

Left to right: Unit 1 is a 4x8 sheet of 1/4" plywood, Unit 2 has a partial sheet at the top ... each one is about 18(?) inches higher than the last one to reach ceiling height.

It's easy to do with only a drill and a chop saw for the shelving. We made a template to get the drill holes for the screws lined up. Assembly was not easy, but partly screwing in the shelves until they were all in, then tightening them gradually, was what worked. We made the lat two in less time than the first one.

Staining was a PITA ... next ones will be done with a gel stain and gel finish (General finishes) to avoid the problems of drying and dripping.

We have bookcases in every room including the dining room, We LOVE to read and have tons of books, so when we had this house built, we planned for showcasing our books everywhere. I've always thought that if you start kids out very early with books, and make them fun and easily accessible they'll grow up loving to read. I don't know if that's true with everyone, but it worked with my two kids. We had built-in bookcases built in both their rooms and filled them with books.

I love Homebodymom's idea of shipping those paperbacks you won't be rereading off to our soldiers. Thanks, HBM!
BTW, I have to say that all the pics of filled bookcases here are lovely to see!
Lynn

Jeff, you do beautiful work!

I love this thread! Nobody here'd ask me if I actually read all these books (no! :) I'm another "in every room" here, plus every flat surface, but most are in our multiuse "dining" hall in the center of the house. It has 4 doorways and a staircase, a drop-leaf dining table for 6-12 normally stacked with new books and mags against one wall, and two good-size built-in bookcases on the other two walls.

Groovia, I display all of them. I found long ago that all rooms are attractive to me if they have books in them, just part of the good life. One of the dining room bookcases is only 4' high and 12' long. A partial-height case like this on maybe a shorter wall might be a nice choice for someone who doesn't want books dominating everything. The wall above is terrific for art and the top of the bookcase for anything and everything you want to display, Christmas decor, candles for dinner parties safely out of reach of little ones, grandkids' art work, vases with cool greenery in summery, etc.

Actually, my shelf at the top needs redecorating for spring, which is what brought me browsing here today.

Old books in a basket under table in GR and in an open hutch, armoire-turned-tv-cab in MB, and entertainment center and a bookshelf in game room. And of course the cook books in the open kitchen hutch.The reading material is different pertaining to what room the books are in.

I think I should take the old books and put them in a cabinet/bookshelf where they can be seen, since many have very pretty covers. Thanks for posting this, groovia! ;o)

I'm not the only bookaholic!

The living room (another bookcase flanks the fireplace:

The kitchen:

Kid room (yes, he also loves Legos):

Master bedroom:

Basement library (still under construction, but the books couldn't wait):

Pirula, I LOVE your house!!! It's beautiful and so comfortable and welcoming feeling. Is the house a 50s ranch type by any chance? Looks sort of like the interior of ours that we're working on. I hope you don't mind, I clipped the pic of the little master bedroom bookcase for reference, we're planning one similar...
STacey

Thank you staceyneil! I love your house too, so your compliment is very gratifying.

It's a 1970 rambler. Here it is!

The only pics I have have people in them, but this is our library with shelves on two walls. The one here is the short wall and the shelves go to the ceiling. The cabinets are full of books, too. We also have shelves and piles in every bedroom and in DH's "workroom" which has three walls of shelves and is turning into less a workroom and more a library at this point!

So glad to see I'm not the only one! I try to use the library but somehow owning the books works better for me. I do loan many books to friends and really don't care, usually, if they return them, but they usually do. We have built-ins in our bedroom, two kids have built-ins and the other has a freestanding bookcase; we have two big bookcases in the dining room/library; books stacked on the TV stand in the living room; another bookcase in the family room; and yet another in the sunroom/office. Oh, and another built-in at the foot of the basement stairs. All mostly full of books. Someday, maybe when my kids are grown, I'll actually get a chance to read them all!

I think all of you would enjoy this book......

Here is a link that might be useful: At Home with Books

This will be heresy to say, but I am a reader who finally had it about a year ago with all the books 3 deep in bookcases and in boxes. I've donated all but my favorite series, mostly hdbcks, over the last year. My birthday is coming up in 2 weeks and I've asked for a Kindle.

Doonie, the bookcases fill 15 feet in that hallway. The stairway was originally designed to end in the hallway, but I wanted them to end in the den so you would have a view of the lake. This gave us the long uninterrupted niche - perfect for books. It was getting too crowded, pushing out my "things", so I took most of my books out and they will go into the next hallway when those bookcases are installed.

DH reads his over and over. He only gets rid of books he doesn't enjoy the first time. I'm the same way.

We also have bookcases in every room in our house except for the bathrooms. I'm gradually giving away my cookbooks, though, mainly to my DDILs, as I am running out of steam for cooking and can find excellent recipes on the Internet.

The worst thing that's happened for DH and me in Book World is that Amazon has added a webcheck choice for paying. This relieves me of feeling guilty about using a credit card; it's such a "small" thing to debit my checkbook for say, $25!

One thing that is clear in all the lovely photos on this thread - for books to look their best they need to be displayed very neatly - in straight vertical lines or tidy horizontal stacks (which can also function as bookends). It's not good for either the book or the look to have too many of them leaning at an angle. Additionally, there don't have to be knickknacks on the shelves. The books alone make their own display. Knickknacks and photos are nice, though, when placed with restraint.

A book recommendation:

House Beautiful "Decorating with Books" by Marie Proeller Hueston -- lovely book! :)

Wow!! Really must say that I adore your homes and bookcases -- what wonderful homes! Truly welcoming and loved!

Jan at Rosemary Cottage

I so agree about the books themselves being a great display. Every once in a while someone complains about wanting to get rid of messy or busy bookshelves, and I know automatically they're not full of books standing crisply upright, covering a wall with a wonderful graphic stripe pattern...

Judydel, sorry for the late reply. Phone and internet were both out.
I designed the paperback bookcases we have and my husband buit them. Hanging them was a joint project, then I painted them.

I don't happen to have a copy of the sketch for the bookcase that I posted but, this is a very similar one in another room. They're pretty easy to build. Got the wood at HD. I think it was poplar, we wanted something that was "tighter" than pine. The bookcases have no "back", I just paint the wall the same color as the bookcase so that it looks like it has a back. They're supported by steel angle irons. There's one running continuously along the bottom that the bookcase sits on and there's another running along the top. That's it for supports. In the photo I posted the top of the bookcase is so high and the bottom way below eye level so the angle irons aren't easily visible. In the smaller bookcase sketch I'm posting we use crown molding to cover the angle irons.

OH!!! And if you do build a paperback bookcase rework the clearance between shelves! Two of our paperback bookcases were built before they started putting out those slightly "higher" paperbacks and since I kept the clearance between shelves to a minimum in order to fit more shelves, those new style paperbacks won't fit vertically. I have to stack them horizontally.

By "pitch them" I meant get rid of them, whether it's donating someplace or giving them to friends or selling them on amazon. I just don't need to hang on to my beach or airplane reads. We've moved so often that schlepping books is such a chore, but now that we'll be in the house for quite some time, I want everything to have its place, you know.

So you don't think pink paperbacks and pregnancy books would look funny on either side of my traditional fireplace?

Groovia, no pink books or pregnancy books allowed. (lol)

I have bookcases in my living room and keep some there. But I love decorating with books, even cook books in the kitchen. It's a wonderful tool for decorating and making people think you extremely well read and intelligent. (Just kidding!)

I really do love books!

....Jane