Dan's bookcase

"This a photo of one of my bookcases which also serves as sort of a cabinet of curiosities. This one is filled with books about mountaineering, exploration, and adventure. I also have three bookcases of engineering books and one that is fiction plus military. I've been thinking about the bookcase in the photo because I need to get rid of all these books.

In the image going clockwise around the bookcase you see on the left some boxes of seldom used engineering books. On top is a tortoise shell dad picked up in the Mojave Desert in the 1950's (He was a field topographer for the USGS). A 1956 California license plate that my brother gave me (I was born in Idaho in 1956) and various family photos. There is a globe and on the far right a bookcase of engineering books.

At the top of the left glass door is a couple of pictures from climbing trips with my son and below that a photo of dad with a transit in Antarctica. In the bottom you can see the flag from dad's service (WW2 USAAF) and a model of the Tiwanaku Gate of the Sun that my daughter and I made - also a pink elephant she made.

The center door has a photo of dad in Antarctica, a death Ride sticker (did that with my son), an old photo of my son, an old photo of my daughter, and a photo of the Sno-Cat dad lived in in Antarctica. The skull is a racoon.

The right door has two photos of some kids I met in Bolivia. Regina Mamane, her little brother Masianseno and their baby sister.

The little dog is Sadie and she has a Lamb Chop toy.

The bookcase came from San Jose State University were I studied and taught engineering from 1975 until 2013. They were throwing the case away so I took it. It was likely built in the woodshop at San Quentin. There were a lot of oak desks and chairs made at San Quinton but they weren't popular with the faculty and staff who seemed to prefer cheap new furniture."

Mistress Harley's bookshelves

"So obviously I'm an adult content producer, not that you'll find anything having to do with my business in my bookshelves. I'm an avid reader of everything from comedic fiction, to comic books, to sociology, history, and religion to name a few.

What I love about my shelves is that they combine everything I love- antique volumes sit next to signed copies of the funniest things I've read, the Histories of Studs Terkel nuzzle up to the Tin Tin comic books of the late 80s.

What most people would never assume about me is that I have a Masters in Library Science, I think my shelves say "Librarian" way more than they say anything else..."

Lois' bookshelves

"Here's a picture of my “bookcase” in my basement office, which is a little unusual. The shelves are on wall brackets and many books are in boxes, because I had a flood in my basement 10 years ago and vowed never to put a book on the floor again. The boxes are because in an emergency they can be easily carried. The shelves were a little long, so I arranged them this way to make them fit. Note that nothing touches the floor!

As far as content, I am a Christian author who writes about the Jewish context of Jesus and the Bible. Some books on that wall are commentaries, some are on Judaism in general, some are Christian authors."

Kay in Tampa's bookcases - updated

"These are actually the bookcases combining my books and my husband's. The left end is (more or less) his non-fiction area, the rest of the non-fiction is pretty much mine. On the right end, almost 100% of the science fiction is his, and the rest of the fiction is mine. I read science fiction, too, but he reads it almost exclusively. Other shelves in the den hold decades worth of paperbacks."

Addendum: updated from 2013...

"We moved house a little over three years ago, and while we still have the white bookcases shown in the photo you reposted recently, they are configured differently and in different areas.

The attached photo is of half the bookcases in our "studio", and the ones on the left represent all the science fiction paperbacks my husband has purchased and read since he switched from comic books at age 14. They are double-depth, and roughly in alpha order by author. This year he decided to re-read his way through Heinlein and we had all but two titles on hand. Thank goodness he switched a few years ago to borrowing from the library.

I started using an app and website called Libib. I've catalogued our entire library with it, so when I'm at a bookstore I can quickly check to make sure an attractive title was not equally attractive in the past and already on our bookshelf."

A "crèche" of Penguins

A portion of the 2000-volume personal library of Karyn Reeves, who writes "A Penguin a Week."  She has an excellent blog; if you share her enthusiasm, there is a Penguin Collectors Society.

And I can't resist contrasting her bookshelves with this stack on a wall (original credit unknown) posted at Book Porn:

These two remarkable walls of books ended my original series of posts about readers' bookshelves. Karyn was not a reader of TYWKIWDBI, but I wanted to pay tribute to her collection [sadly, her blog seems not to be accruing any new posts, though the old ones remain up].

Next I'll post a few new additions to the bookcase series, then move back to the usual non-holiday formatting of the blog.

Alphonsine's bookcases

"I like books and I have always dreamt of having a library. My husband fixed ours up in an attic. Obviously, our books are arranged by topic : detective novels, novels, textbooks, children's books, DIY, etc..." 

Alphonsine blogs at Des noeuds dans mon fil.

Shane's bookcases

This photo shows three of the six book cases in my anti-library. The first is primarily fiction, the second primarily philosophy, and the last being business.

I spend between $200-700 a month on books and donate the ones I don't think I'll need anymore to the local elementary school.

The last book I bought was Why Societies Need Dissent. 

Shane blogs at Farnam Street.

Grace in Canada's bookcase

"Though more "assorted stacks" than organized library, the bookshelf closet in my childhood-bedroom-come-study came to mind. Predominately reference books and assorted curiosities it is but one of the many book nooks located around our house."

"Barely visible in the upper left is my favourite in the stash and the only on this shelf that are not reference. Three miniature books of prayer rest under a kitsch figurine of a monkey who sits thoughtfully on a ceramic book with DARWIN inscribed on the spine. The occupied japanese take on Affe mit Schadel by Hugo Rheinhold perhaps?"

Mike and Rayne's bookcases

"My wife and I have wanted a bookcase in our house since we got married, and with the purchase of an old house several years ago, we finally had a place to put one - in, of all places, the kitchen.

We designed the floor-to-ceiling bookcases, and they were built by a local Mennonite cabinetmaker who does excellent work. Now we finally have a place to put many (most) of the books we have accumulated through the years.

The bookcase is L-shaped, with a window (and window-seat) in the middle. On the short side are my science fiction (top shelf), fantasy (2nd shelf), non-fiction, textbooks, biographies, and history (3rd-5th shelves), and below that childrens books and toys. On the other side are our "books to read", classics and 2 shelves of cookbooks. 

On the right side of the window are my construction and house repair books (top shelf). The red-covered books on the 2nd shelf are the 11 volumes of The Story of Civilization by Will and Ariel Durant. Probably the best history books I've ever read.

Most of the rest of those shelves are books of a self-help or religious nature, along with some audio books (including the history series Story of the World - History for the Classical Child) and foreign language courses. Below are my daughters drawing and coloring markers and papers. More craft stuff is in the cabinet."

Kevin's bookcase

"I've got a nice comfy library with 7 built-in bookcases made of maple, a lot of art, and a secret door in a photo niche that leads into a theater. Most of the shelves have modern books. There's a science fiction section, medical/biology, text books, etc. The one above has a lot of 19th century science and engineering books. That's kind of my thing. Another case has other 19th century things like history and literature sets."

The bookcases of Frenchfarmer & The Shepherdess

"Brown bookcase is really old stuff.

The big brown book lying down is a bible from 1640 something, the row of five at the top is a 1902 dictionary of the bible and three books to the left is a set of the Ordnance Gazeteer of Scotland dated 1883. 

Yellow one is more modern.

Velikovsky, Berlitz (Not too sure about him.), Rennes le Chateau and lots of stuff written in old french and la Langue des Oiseaux (Bit like Cockney rhyming slang but using French puns etc.).

The attic ( Not shown) has loads more from our childhoods etc."

Brad's bookshelves

"The bookshelf in our house was made by my father. He's an electrician by trade but has always enjoyed woodworking as a hobby. He also made our coffee table (not pictured).

Top Shelf: This is the cartoons, graphic novels and art shelf. Lots of Far Side and Calvin & Hobbes. Sprinkled in are some instructional books on print making, watercolor and encaustic. Encaustic is pigmented bees wax which is melted and brushed onto a sturdy surface.

2nd from Top: Speaking of encaustics, this shelf has 4 examples of it from the class I took over the summer. These are painted on ceramic tiles and cardboard. Behind them are books on architecture. Some are written by architects, some are about architects and some are technical steel manuals. My wife and I met while earning our degrees in architecture; after a great purge of text books this is all that remains.

3rd from Top: Behind my painting of atomic bomb explosions are fiction and non fiction books. Topics include famous people, religion, food policy, dystopian science fiction and polar exploration. Also featured is "Wormface", a re-purposed children's book from the thrift store. This shelf also has a civil war bullet and family picture albums.

4th from Top: Science fiction and fantasy mostly. A jar of pebbles which I don't know the significance of and a Bible. There's also an empty x-acto blade box.

Bottom 2 shelves: This is a portion of my board game collection. I tend to put my favorites here that have nice artwork or impressive (often historical) subject matter, like the Cold War (Twilight Struggle), the Austrian Succession (Maria) and the French and Indian War (A Few Acres of Snow).

On the Chair: A small pile of books I just finished about Shackleton's expedition that I haven't figured out how to fit on the shelf yet.

Boxes/binders on floor to the left: I have no idea what these contain."

Laura's bookcases

"Our three-part library starts here, in the bedroom, on our fancy Home Depot particle-board shelves. They bow a bit, 'cause our studs aren't ideally placed, and we have too much media. Our books are mostly contemporary fiction, with some literary nonfiction and my grandmother's poetry books thrown in. These shelves have the first part of the alphabet: Louisa May Alcott to Carl Hiaasen, as well as some photo albums. You can see Shelly, my childhood Cabbage Patch Kid, staring at you benevolently from above. The shelves on the right have our CDs"

"Above is the weirdest thing in the house: my grandmother shrine. My grandmothers were both admirable ladies, so I decided to non-obviously memorialize them here. The white cloth is a khata, a Tibetan ceremonial scarf. I presented it in greeting to a lama, who blessed it and gave it back. The riding crops belonged to my maternal grandmother and are from Libya, where the family lived when my mom was young. The one in front has an iron spike in it. The silver coin purse belonged to my paternal grandmother. Inside are some Tibetan blessing pills given to me by the lama; I was supposed to swallow them, but I decided to do this instead. What does a secular humanist do when presented with sacred pills? She uses them to build a grandmother memorial.

To the right is the middle part of the alphabet: Homer to Jhumpa Lahiri, with heavy representation from John Irving and Stephen King. The bookshelf belonged to a former roommate. Note the attractively displayed cans of cat food.

This final section has the rest of our books. John LeCarré to Jeanette Winterson, as well as some reference and travel guides. The shelves were a wedding present from my mother-in-law; they're custom made by a local craftsman. Rob the cat, looking weirdly huge, supervises."

Craig's bookcase

"This is the bookcase that we installed several years ago on a side wall of a passage from one room to another in our circa 1930's house.

We have quite a range of materials and subjects. Among others, the shelves contain works by:

Top shelf: Doris Lessing, Brian Jacques, Karen Armstrong, Salmon Rushdie

2nd: Umberto Eco, Orson Scott Card, Greg Bear, Gregory Benford

3d: Lewis Thomas, Chaim Potok, George Eliot, Douglas Adams

4th: David Brin, Robert Heinlein, Sigrid Undset, Loren Eiseley

5th: kids chapter books: Paulson, Blume, Cleary

6th-8th: Thomas Pynchon, Bill Bryson, Margaret Atwood, Umberto Eco, Douglas Hofstadter, Bill McKibbon, E.O.Wilson

... along with many other classics and science fiction and science or history."

Eric's bookcases

"Three shots of my collection. Two views are necessary to show the 35+ year pile of (mostly) paperbacks I have amassed. I have read all but the top three shelves in the right-hand photo. Those are the 10-year backlog of Unread Books....

The bottom three shelves are "non-science-fiction" titles... mostly detective and adventure/thriller types. All the rest are of the general category of Science Fiction & Fantasy. Regrettably, with the advent of the Internet, my book reading has greatly slowed. Too many Salted Peanuts online...!

The third picture is of my shelves of old reference and history. Might as well keep my 1980 Britannica; the InterT00b might go out, and I will want to look up Amphibia... Also shown: (tan and red) Science and Invention set. Lower level left- (dark blue) The Story of the Great War; right- (green with gold lettering) 1927 History of Nations. A few other items... circa 1900 Unabridged dictionary ... some Fringe Science / Fringe Technology publications... maps and atlases... Do I get a frosted cupcake from the Greek bakery for my Horrendous pile?"

Mama Bean's bookcases

"We have three shelf units, which were a wedding present. These two are in our family room. The left is one of the fiction units. It holds my husband’s Conan and fantasy books collections, a few shelves of our favourite series and novels, one shelf of things yet-to-be-read. In the bottom cupboard are the young adult novels (I don’t think I’ll ever stop reading YA literature,) and then my shelf of university/college texts (Chemistry and Chiropractic.) The right unit is the nonfiction one. The top shelves hold our bible collection, Calvin’s commentaries, and Luther’s sermons, and another shelf of miscellaneous theology books. (And some leaf art by myself and my daughter, and some keepsakes from the Northwest Territories, where hubby grew up.) The bottom cupboard holds more theology and religion books. There is a centre shelf of relief (lol) with our comics and art/museum books. (The unit not pictured has more fiction, including the Grisham collection, some books on gardening/home improvement, the photo albums, and my piano/choral sheet music collection.) "

"The second pic is our Children’s hutch, found in the same room on the wall facing the other units. The top shelves have the poetry books, the Tag Reader books, Little Mr/Miss books, Berenstein Bears, Little Critter, this behaviour series from when we were children ourselves, and the storybook collections/classics. The lower shelves have two bins of puzzles, a box of their daily daycare crafts, a shelf of “paper books” (with real pages) and two shelves of board books. They have almost outgrown those. My husband was just saying the other day we don’t have enough books for them. Thank goodness for the library!"

Anne in Alaska's bookcases

It is great fun to see the bookcases (and collections). My house is decorated in bookcases and maps, for the most part. In our humid climate, bookcases are against inside walls only.

Here are topically organized shelves, Chess set (tournament size) on the top, then some theory books, mountaineering guides and reports, bicycling, geology and ecology. 

 

Full length shot of the pine board bookcases built by DearHusband, decades ago now. This one is filled with favorites (Nevil Shute and Robert Heinlein on top shelf, and Make Way for Ducklings and Paddingtom Bear on the bottom)

Shakespeare, Owen Wister, TH White, Madeline L'Engle (new addition - that's a graphic version).

Hundewanderer's bookshelves

Hello from the Sunny Southwest - Arizona.

The photo shows a portion of our bookcase. At the top are stuffed animals from my daughter and son's childhood with a few cherished family photos.

On the center shelf are 1-1/2 rows of random books I intend to read. With few exception, I tend to donate my books after I've read them. I enjoy historical fiction and books in a series.

On the bottom shelf are books in a series by Clive Cussler that I'm collecting and saving for "someday" after all the other books have been read. The black/tan German Shepherd stuffed dog was a gift (I have a German Shepherd dog), and the red dog has traveled the US with me as I chase helicopters for work. The two pieces of pottery (1 green and 1 tan) were hand made by my late cousin. The wooly lamb was a gift from a dear friend living in the UK.

I'm currently reading "Shogun" by James Clavell.

Best wishes from Hundewanderer.

Lots of photos of Hundewanderer's dogs at her website, and some clarification about her "chasing helicopters" here.

Dumpsterkitty's bookshelves

"I need to start with the humblest shelf-the corner one in my bedroom [right photo]. When you first started this thread, Stan, I knew I had to participate… you pointed out your Agatha Christies... mine are on the second shelf. This one holds many of my well-loved paperbacks, 2 shelves are 2 deep. I must re-read some…I was wondering where In the Shadow of Man by Jane Goodall had gone.

The bedside table [top] holds the Harry Potter collection. I finished my last re-read about 6 months ago so they need to rest for a while. Birds, giant pandas, Craftsman homes…all subjects for a little light reading when sleep won’t come.

My late husband and I built the double bookcase in the living room. The American Brilliant cut glass was a passion we shared. The top right books are his… his textbooks sharing space with Dante, Homer, Hawking, and Einstein. I guess it’s a bit of a memorial shelf…the canisters are the ashes of my cats Nub and Inky. Next down are the collecting and handy-person works.

Of the rest I’ll just note where I find myself reaching over and over again…Isabel Allende, birds, Sherlock Holmes, needlework, Tolkein, Angela’s Ashes, Memoirs of a Geisha, Tutankhamun on many covers, Gone With the Wind, Imperial Woman by Pearl S. Buck.

Thanks for letting me share a bit of my world with all of you…"

Evilhayama's bookcases

"My shelves have a decent number of books my wife and I are both into - Comics, Japanese Culture, and Japanese Comics so we have even more of those! We are also hoarders and never sell things so there’s a lot here from a loooong time ago.

Top photo: Left shelf is my wife’s manga collection, mostly in Japanese. Also a shelf of video game art books. Right shelf is non-fiction, mostly art and cooking related. Small overflow fiction shelf peeking in there on the right. Ancient anime collection on top.

Second photo: Large format comics on top, start of fiction section on the bottom.

Two photos side-by-side below: Rest of the fiction featuring the obligatory Pratchett section, and our collection of english language manga. Ran out of space here so longer series are doubled up."