You see we've been renovating. Not adding on rooms or knocking down walls, but doing some maintenance, including new carpet (and unpacking everything so the furniture can be moved), oiling the wood on our massive sideboard and bookcase before we fill them again, and replacing the air conditioner - just for starters.
So there we were with our back room clogged full of tables, bookcases, other lounges and the contents of half the cupboards in the house. I was slowly starting to move it all back when we realised the new air conditioner to be put in that room (it was okay - there was a track leading to the spot between the stacked furniture) wouldn't fit. Well, it fitted but only if we moved one of our big bookcases, and having moved it we needed to move others to fit it in, which meant one of the smaller bookcases had to go.
Crisis! How can we lose a bookcase? Giving up any of the precious books we've acquired over the years would be like losing a limb. But I ask myself what the future will hold. A future in which I hope there will be more books given, bought and received as well as borrowed. Ideally I'd have a library. I fantasise about it sometimes - a massive room upstairs (we don't currently have an upstairs, but that's a mere fribble). There'd be full length bookcases on all the walls. My writing desk in one corner. A long comfy lounge for lolling to read and a couple of big cosy chairs ditto. There'd be a high ceiling with fans and maybe a window seat. Sigh. Yes please.
On the other hand it may be simpler and cheaper to manage without. Maybe I should be looking at ebooks instead of real hold-in-the-hand books. After so many hours looking at a computer screen I prefer reading on paper, rather than downloading but I'm wondering if that has to change.
What are your solutions to the book-space problem? Do you cull your books regularly? Do you only read ebooks? Do you read mainly ebooks and buy paperback keepers? How do you store your books?
