Bookcase

Here are my books installed in my new bookcases. Basically we have a 20cm wide shelf along the edge of the stairs. We can't really leave it open as it's a fall hazard and we're desperately short of storage space so we bought three short Leroy Merlin bookcases. I'd have preferred Ikea Billy bookcases, but they are more expensive and just the wrong dimensions compared to these.

I assembled the bookcases a few weeks ago, but over the weekend I finished the installation. I first drilled holes to join them together with provided nut and bolts. I then tacked on a piece of old skirting board along the back near the top and put the whole unit in place. I then drilled a pilot hole through the cabinet back and the skirting board into the plasterboard. I took the bookcase back out and then drilled larger 8mm holes and installed butterfly nut & bolts in place. I removed the bolts and put the bookcase back in place, and threaded the bolts through from the front to hold the bookcases tight against the wall, using the skirting board at the top as a spacer to match the skirting board at the bottom.

To my amazement, every 8mm hole went into a void and I didn't hit a metal stud once - if I had there is nothing I can do about it as the hole is predetermined by the cabinet. Each bolt found it's nut and tightened up (though I did have to wiggle two, to get them in). I think that's a result.

I took the two large boxes of science fiction and fantasy books up the steps and started to sort them alphabetically by author and then chronologically. That was going well and I thought I'd have loads of space, when I realised I was missing books and needed to fetch another two medium boxes, and at that point it was clear I was going to run out of space. I had considered adding another shelf, but the spacing isn't regular enough to let me get away with it, and I refuse to have double stacked books in principle, so in the end all the Terry Pratchett were taken out of sequence and put on top.

You'll notice I have a few book here, I love books and love reading, but I'd never buy hardback, the only reasons there are hardbacks in the collection are because the Harry Potters were gifts, the Hamiltons came from my wife who worked for the publisher so could get trade copies cheap and there are a few recent sci-fi novels I picked up second hand because they were basically 1p + P&P, so why not?

There are some old books in there, some rubbish books and some very good ones. Unless I really hated them I can't bring myself to get rid of a book I don't or didn't like. The only exceptions I've made were a couple of books I picked up from a book swap at a train station/work where I feel is only fair to return them once you've read them.

Since putting them here in sequence, a bit like my DVD/Blu-Ray collection, it's clear that I've got quite a bit of catching up to do, as I've not read several of the books. Though one of the books I do remember taking on holiday to read, only to get a quarter of the way through before I realised I read it before and I carried on as I didn't have anything else with me to read. I don't mind reading books again, in fact I've read several of them several times, including the Hobbit in one unbroken go one evening.

Every time I go past I turn the light on to admire my books, it's such a new feeling being able to see them again after nearly 5 years in boxes - and 5 years before that being overstacked and not easily accessible!