BS: How organised is your home library?

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: katlaughing
Date: 11 Aug 02 - 10:42 AM

Hahaha! Hrothgar! That's what we've already done! We moved into this house and took the really small bedroom so that we'd have room for a "library/office" in the bigger one!*bg*

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: Schantieman
Date: 11 Aug 02 - 11:22 AM

Fiction in one bookcase (with a bit of poetry & drama at the end); songbooks, humour and stuff like that in another; one for reference, biography & history & one with sailing, other nautical/naval stuff, climbing (inc. guidebooks) & other sports. (Climbing and sailing are surpassed only by cricket in the quality of writing about them, and probably not by much!). Oh, and cookery books on the kitchen windowsill (leaving room for the basil).

There are always those that fit into more than one category though. What do you do with Chichester's autobiographical account of sailing round the world? Or historical stuff about the birth of rock climbing in the 1880s?

The problem is repeatedly having to find room for new acquisitions as I can't bear to throw away books. I have been known to rescue them from skips!

Steve

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: DMcG
Date: 11 Aug 02 - 11:27 AM

All your books are in one house? The books I still have are organised to the extent that I can find them but the books I've lent to other people are another matter. I generally have not a clue who I've lent things to, or when. I only get them back when someone else tidies up their bookshelves ...

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: GUEST,Burke
Date: 11 Aug 02 - 02:36 PM

This thread is great for me.

I moved recently, so my books are almost all still boxed up in the 'dining' room. My old place had built in shelves so I need shelves before I even begin to unpack!

I keep an eye out for large flat boxes, about a paperback deep. I put the books I've read in spine up, trying to keep authors together, & slide them under the bed or stack them in a closet.

Cheap shelfing suggestions are welcome.

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: Blackcatter
Date: 12 Aug 02 - 01:23 AM

I've mostly given up lending books to people - It seems that 50% of those lent never make it back to me. I've slowly gotten rid of those friends over the years who have not returned books - for some reason I can't bring myself to ask for them back, but that's another issue.

Umm - when I say that I've gotten rid of friends - I just mean that I don't really include them in my life anymore. Books are important, but killing someone over a the autobiography of the Dali Lama seems a be extreme.

I have too many CDs, but a couple years ago I went to a 400 CD changer and my life has been simplified in so many ways. I have rid myself of all the storage space for 400 CDs in cases, recycled their cases, put their booklets in a couple CD storage albums which friends enjoy looking through, I listen to more music now than ever because with the pressing of a few buttons I have nearly 400 hours of music at my fingertips, I don't touch or drop the CDs and I almost never lend them out because it's a pain to remove them (at least thats what I tell people). My only limitation is that I have over 600 CDs, which means I still have a bunch to deal with, but a lot of them are odd things, holiday music, 50s & 60s pop compilation CDS I play mostly at dances at church and the such. Those I can play in my DVD player. Of course, I might need to get a DVD changer as well...

yeesh. Thank goodness my honey loves me.

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: Wilfried Schaum
Date: 12 Aug 02 - 02:48 AM

Oh, oh, kat - you're raising a big problem for a professional librarian with a vast private owned library. Shame on me!
When I inherited my grandfathers library at the tender age of 15, it was well organised in a big bookshelf 3 m broad, 1,80 m high. It contained mainly the famous greenback edition of German classics (including Shakespeare because of the classical poets translating him), a lot of books about modern art (1900 - about 1914), and history, general and local. It is sorted alphabetically.
Then I started to collect books and soon I had to remove some books to the atic into an old big cupboard, now full.
I added 7 m of shelves, 2 m high, and there isn't a free place any more.
I sorted the books into subject groups: Classic literature, Greek texts, Latin texts, modern literature since 1900, linguistics (subdivisions: classical, semitic, pidgin, and other languages (each divided into dictionaries, grammars, texts)), history (general, local, county, land, state, military, universities), local poets (mostly writing dialect), field manuals, German and foreign armies, soldiers' language. Those I try to put into my central library room.
The literary texts are sorted alphabetically, the other ones according to subjects and epochs. The field manual section is sorted in epochs and numbers.
Pocket books (subdivided German and English) fill a lot of meters, sorted alphabetically.
In the bed room I have stowed some favourite poetry and the erotic books (where else?).
The musical section is on a hanging shelf in the stairway, in another military fiction.
Books not needed so often are also in a lot of boxes, crates, and valises in the attic.
The new books are on my desk, on the floor, on cupboards - help, I'm asphyxiating in books! If I wasn't a librarian at an university library, I would buy more and more.
Are there Bibliomaniacs Anonymous somewhere? Tell me

Wilfried

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: katlaughing
Date: 12 Aug 02 - 04:26 AM

LOL, Wilfried...I think someone else, earlier in the thread, did the "Hi, I'm (insert your name)and I'm a bookaholic/biblioholic." I say wherever two or more are gathered, eh?**BG**

Blackcatter, I don't lend books anymore except to my oldest sister. She knows I want the ones back which have my name, otherwise she is free to do whatever with them. Those are mostly popular fiction, mysteries and the like.

I have taken great pleasure in giving books away. It's liberating and feels so good because the giftee is someone who shares my love of books.

One thing good, after this thread Rog can never accuse me of having too many books! I feel quite sane when I read the amount some of you have!**BG** Though, until I get mine unpacked, maybe i shouldn't be gloating too much. What seemed like just a few books to me has already filled 24 linear feet and, at that, they are piled on top of each other.

Murray, I made need those cheap bookshelf plans!!

Here's another question for you all: how many of you have your own bookplates and what do they look like? OR, do you just scrawl your name inside. Any favourite sayings? My dad used to write:

Read me, bend me,
Tear me, lend me (or, burn me),
But, damn your hide
Return me!

kat

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: Escamillo
Date: 12 Aug 02 - 06:24 AM

Organized home library is an oxymoron.

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 12 Aug 02 - 10:28 AM

BTW, isn't moving large quantities of books grand fun? The only thing that beats it IMO is moving a really huge vinyl record collection. I helped a friend do that once...Johhny Death. He has about 50,000 vinyl albums. It took a group of 10 people all day to do it. I fervently hope he never moves again.

- LH

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: Sorcha
Date: 12 Aug 02 - 10:43 AM

I don't have bookplates and never put my name in a book. IF I ever decide to sell it, writing ruins the value. Not that I really buy books as an "investment" anyway....just a quirk of mine. I have one friend I will loan books to--she feels about them the way I do.

Cheap shelving--bricks or masonry blocks and 1x6 utility pine (for paperback) or 1x12 for larger books. Even cheaper shelving--heavy duty cardboard boxes all the same size. Something like orange boxes or heavy waxed chicken boxes. These usually have nice lids. Sometimes they still have a little blood in them but because they are waxed you can scrub them out carefully.

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: Mr Red
Date: 12 Aug 02 - 10:54 AM

Folk - its in a box, all the loose music is in a box file but that's as organised as I get.

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: Llanfair
Date: 12 Aug 02 - 11:09 AM

It's amazing that you chose now to tackle this subject, Kat, because I'm just in the process of rationalizing my collection.

You see, husband Jim took over our sitting room for his computers/studio/music room, so we have been using the dark back room to sit in. I had the brilliant idea of knocking the back two bedrooms into one large sitting room to overlook the garden. Our house is set in a hillside, you see.

Of course I can't clear the space until I've sorted the books.....hundreds of them....into the new bookcases I've had made out of battening and pine floorboards, and they are everywhere!!!!

Perhaps someone with some time on their hands could organise a GREAT MUDCAT BOOK SALE online to boost the funds!!??

Cheers, Bron.

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: EBarnacle1
Date: 12 Aug 02 - 11:23 AM

re: Lending books I have found it simpler not to lend any book I want back. Part of the solution is to buy a duplicate for a friend I would really want to allow to read a book of mine. On the other hand, there are a very few friends (not acquaintances) with whom I pass books back and forth regularly. While I do not value the books above my son, even he is not exempt from this rule.

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: Ironmule
Date: 12 Aug 02 - 10:54 PM

As said by EBarnacle, I buy books for friends who ought to read something I liked. When I was a lender I ended up buying some books three times, in order to re-read them when the urge came over me. The library I had to sell was 3000 or so paperbacks I'd read twice or more, plus a couple hundred I'd read once and was thinking about: keep or trade (twofer) at the used bookstore. I usually could give directions and quality reports on the used bookstores for three counties ;^)

I used to write "This Book Stolen From the Library of Jeff Smith" in the front of my books, but my friends just borrowed them anyway and laughed.

Hi, my name is Jeff,,,and I'm an unrecovering bookaholic.

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: Blackcatter
Date: 13 Aug 02 - 01:04 AM

I used to use milk crates "liberated" from grocery stores (they were inherited from 2 roommates in college) to prop-up my pine boards for bookshelves. It opened up even more space than concrete blocks and they were easier to move. The problem was that I put so many rows of books on top of them that one day a few years ago, one on the bottom actually gave way and my books toppled to the ground.

I now have real bookshelves, but not enough of them, so I use pine boards to bridge the gap between the shelves. One thing I did to spruce up the pine boards was to wrap them in fabric - using staples underneath to hold the fabric. The fabric also keeps books from slipping.

I've always hated spending money on storage media - shelves, tape cases, etc. - I keep thinking that if I spend money on storage, I could be buying more things to store instead.

My name is Tom and I'm a biblioholic.

pax yall

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: katlaughing
Date: 13 Aug 02 - 01:49 AM

This time I am determined to keep all of the shelving away from the floor...too near "spray" level for the macho, yet neutered boy cats. So, we have bought the metal rods which attach to the wall with screws, they are actually flat. There are metal supports which fit into slots at either end, as many as we can fit, fully adjustable, on which long shelves rest. We have one wall with that now and it goes to the ceiling with five shelves, so I now will have to get a sturdy ladder to reach. There are plans for more of those as time to put them up and budget permits. Now that I am cataloguing there doesn't seem to be too great of a hurry!:-)

Llanfair...your room sounds lovely!

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: Jon Bartlett
Date: 13 Aug 02 - 01:49 AM

I have a few ideas on a) classificatory sorting and b) efficient shelving which might be of use, Kat. The sort system should really be determined by what you have rather than the LC system: it sounds obvious and it is. The question is: how do you think of your books? What sort system is already in your head? My stuff is mostly non-fiction, and I collect in my areas of interest, but these of course are not fixed. If someone gave me the start of a library of spot-welding, why, that's what this week's reading would be. My main area of interest is European history 1914-1991 (what Hobsbawm called I think "the short 20th century") but I've also got lots of other stuff, c. 800 linear feet (not all of which is mine: I'm also archivist of our Vancouver Folk Song Society). As to the efficient shelving: I've got a few thousand Penguins and Pelicans (including nearly all of the first 1000 (1935-1960)), and these I shelve floor to ceiling in shelves fractionally bigger than the books. It makes it hard to get a single book out, but you can get a whole lot of book in a fairly small space (it gives you an insulation of about R12, too!). The rest of the books are also floor to ceiling on most walls of the house, though the living room and kitchen are book free. I sort by subject and then subsort on two adjacent shelves for height: a paperback shelf and immediately below it a shelf for bigger books.

My personal belief is that a book in a box is not a book, so all my books are out and visible (though many I don't refer to/look at for ten years or so!). Success with your planning!

Jon Bartlett

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: harvey andrews
Date: 13 Aug 02 - 06:18 AM

As I thought, for many Mudcatters books are as important as music. Is there a Mudcat type place for bibliophiles? It would be great to have this sort of forum on literature, authors, collecting etc.

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: Big Mick
Date: 13 Aug 02 - 10:59 AM

There are people that have disappeared into my office/library and have never been seen again. The books are jammed into nooks, crannies, shelves, cats, dogs, under things, on top of things...............going to have to move the kid out to the shed and make room for more........I simply must own every written word ever written.......

Is there a better moment with a kid than when you have them smell the pages of an old book, and then watching there faces when you show them that they can be anything, do anything, visit anyplace, just by reading these pages? Or when you effect the characters for them, create the moods for them, just by reading?

Is there anyplace better on earth that a used bookstore............except heading for a hill with a whistle and a good book?

Mick

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: katlaughing
Date: 13 Aug 02 - 12:34 PM

Ode to a book (needs a little work)

Let me slip into something comfortable
Between your pages there,
Amidst the knights of olden times
And all the ladies fair.

Or, I'll join Spider in another space and
Time will be a distant past
The future the here and now
In imaginations cast.

(The rest won't come just now...please feel free to add on!)

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 13 Aug 02 - 02:02 PM

In my collection there is the virtual organization and then there is the collection of boxes all around my house that is being remodeled. If you're serious about cataloging your books, Kat, find a copy of Endnote. I use that for scholarly applications, and can organize anything there--photocopies, journals, etc. I just make a note in the entry about what it is: book, copy, journal, not in my collection (if I couldn't buy a copy, etc.)

I am working on shelves, staining a set of nude shelves out in the garage. One's in the house already. Not the best stain job in the world, but heck, once I get the thing into the house and fill it the only part that will ever show is the outer edge, so I'm trying to be really neat out there. ;-)

I am the daughter of a reference librarian, my mother was an avowed biblioholic, so there is no hope for me. I work in a university research library where, despite all of he innovations on the internet, we still have well over a million BOOKS.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: GUEST,Wordless Woman
Date: 13 Aug 02 - 02:45 PM

I've thousands of book organized by subject, two-thirds of which have been catalogued in an Excel spreadsheet that includes such details as purchase price, first edition, antique, used, etc. The catalogueing takes forever - I always want to dip into the book I pick up. Most are neatly stowed on shelving in logical areas: computers and business in the study, cookbooks in the kitchen. If you're having a clear out and decide to scale down by a book or two, check out bookcrossings.com. You can register you book before you release it into the wild. When you think back, wasn't learning to read one of the most joyous events in your life?

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: katlaughing
Date: 03 Nov 02 - 01:17 PM

Well, I thought I'd report back on my very slooooowww progress. We finally got another long shelf up last weekend and promptly filled it to the ceiling. Today, we've put up four more and I am ready to unpack.

I have failed miserably at cataloging...only put a few in, then realised how tedious it is and something to be saved for wintertime, perhaps.:-) How's that for procrastination? (Well, I was working on two books of my own, too.:-)

I also do not have them in any order at the moment, but my rationale is, I unpack, put them up, see what is where, THEN put them in catagories. I don't know why they weren't packed that way, as they were shelved that way before we moved.

Anyhow, reading that Joe Offer has 4-500 songbooks alone and knowing what the Paton library must be, HEAVEN!, as well as Masato's, prompted me to refresh this. It also gave me an opportunity to point out to Rog that we really have whittled our collection down so that it doesn't seem so ponderous.**BG**

Thanks,

kat

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: mack/misophist
Date: 03 Nov 02 - 04:37 PM

Unless one hires a full time librarian, cataloging the books is a lost cause. 20 years ago the books were starting to get out of control; today I can't even store them in boxes in any kind of real order. It's too late for me but you may still have a chance; no matter how rare, how wonderful, how desirable that book is, get rid of it as soon as you're done with it. I have 37 full cartons of books scattered around the house and the shelves are still over flowing. There is no hope for me.

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: Tinker
Date: 03 Nov 02 - 10:06 PM

Kat what a wonderful thread !! Fourteen years ago when we moved to Jersey the movers told us not to call them again unless we got rid of the books..... We moved around the block two years ago by ourselves and the books continue to multiply.
We tend to divide them by rooms.The family room overflows with children's books up to about grade five. After that they get kid specific and are usually in bedrooms. The Living room gets history, pre-WWII girls series, poetry, biographies and classics ( and current reads) The Den has hubby's business books, my religion books, child development books and some music. The Dining room holds the rest of the music and the instruments. Overflow business books live in the foyer with a few classics, Mysteries, Science fiction and Espionage overflow in the master bedroom. The upstairs landing has a miscellaneous hodge-podge. My sixteen year old discovered an old box of romances (bubblebath books) that seem to be claiming space in the bathroom.

NO attempts to cataloge have ever been successful, but we've mostly been able to file them in the right room.

And yet I have two middle school boys who can look me in the eye and say there is nothing in the house to read... go figure...

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 04 Nov 02 - 01:43 AM

Tinker,

That's actually an excellent layout you describe. I grew up with that kind of setup, books everywhere, but with some design going into in what room general subject matter lived. But right now I'm unpacking boxes and using Kat's approach--just get them out of the box now (I hired a couple of students to help me pack three years ago, so they put things in according to size, not subject). Once they're out, I'll figure out 1) how many subjects I want to sort them into and 2) how many bookshelves I want to build around the house. I already have plans to build a tall set that straddles the window in the front room (tv and piano live in there). That will house a lot of paperbacks and history stuff. I wonder if a wall of books help or hinder accoustics of the room?

We have tons of journals of various sorts, things the kids were given subscriptions to that are now cannibalized for photos for reports, etc. And though I take them in to my office regularly, there is a critical buildup in both bathrooms of The New Yorker. ;-)

Maggie

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: Doug Chadwick
Date: 04 Nov 02 - 02:28 AM

My system is simple.

- If I've had it recently, it's on the top of the pile.
- If I haven't had it recently, it's at the bottom.
- If I can't find it, it's the wife's fault.

Doug C

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: Wilfried Schaum
Date: 04 Nov 02 - 11:14 AM

A wonderful story our late Latin teacher told us:
In the park, on a bench, he talked to a retired judge, about 80 years old. This man had his house burned down by accident, and with the house his entire library of several thousand volumes. "Finally I'm free" was his comment on the sad story.

Wilfried

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: EBarnacle1
Date: 04 Nov 02 - 03:23 PM

As much as I love books, I have recently found another way to get at new books without taking up room at home. I go to Barnes and Noble and sit in one of their nice, upholstered chairs and read.

Upon finishing it, if I like the book enough that I will want to read it again or refer to it, I buy it. If not, it gets reshelved. I have saved myself from buying quite a few average books this way.

Libraries are good, too. the only problem is the deacquisition bin.

My son is learning the system, too, as his collection is already outgrowing his available volume.

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: SharonA
Date: 04 Nov 02 - 03:51 PM

Organized????? Hahahaha HAHHHH hahahaheeheeheehahahahaha Oh, that's just too funny....

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: Schantieman
Date: 05 Nov 02 - 12:39 PM

When we moved house several years ago the removal man came to do an estimate. On looking at the library he said, "Hmm. You've got more than three books."!

...which raises the question: If you could have only three books, what would they be?

Steve

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: katlaughing
Date: 05 Nov 02 - 01:01 PM

Dictionary, a BIG, unabridged one, probably OED; a collection of my own writings:-); and, either a THICK collection of Shakespeare (I have two volumes from the early 1800's with a few plays in each.) OR, my grandma and my dad's stories in book form. I never tire of reading their stories.

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: SharonA
Date: 05 Nov 02 - 02:25 PM

I'm with Kat on the unabridged dictionary and a book of the complete works of Shakespeare (with a magnifying glass to read both books!), and I suppose the third would have to be a book of the complete works of Mark Twain.

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: Schantieman
Date: 07 Nov 02 - 09:39 AM

...and a friend of mine suggested the Bible as one. Even for a devout atheist like me, there are some good stories in it!

Steve

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 07 Nov 02 - 01:52 PM

My parents moved summer a year ago out of the house I grew up in -- 40+ years in 4 bedrooms and a full basement -- into a two-bedroom apartment in a retirement community. An amazing quantity of stuff is crammed into that apartment, and they rent a storage unit of some size, but I know that large quantities of Stuff, including *lots* of books, just went to the dump. I live on the other side of the continent and couldn't really help much.

The thought of all those books... it was a cautionary experience. Sort of. (Says she who's got several e-bay-purchased books in the mail as we speak, and that order coming from Andy's Front Hall, and the CDSS order that hasn't found shelves yet, and...)

My name is Becky and...

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: Mooh
Date: 07 Nov 02 - 02:42 PM

Books by subject (generally), except fiction which is sorta by author. Recordings alphabetically. Music books by size to available shelf space, or genre, depending. All else by forgotten piles. All subject to change. Mooh.

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: EBarnacle1
Date: 07 Nov 02 - 04:09 PM

Last night, a friend asked me for an information file that was not yet officially sorted [after 6 years] and I was able put my hands on it in less than 5 minutes. Amazed me, too.

Who sez it should all be neatly arranged?

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: SharonA
Date: 07 Nov 02 - 04:28 PM

The Lone Arranger, I guess!

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 07 Nov 02 - 04:36 PM

For those who need more bookshelves:

I recently noted that the shelves built in by the former owners in our office were beginning to suffer "book fatigue." A "tallish" book that would fit at the end of the shelf wouldn't go in in the middle.

I solved the immediate problem by cutting some inserts from scrap plywood to the (original) distance between shelves, and standing them up in the middle to spread the load. (My trusty bumper jack was a big help in raising the shelves to wedge the spacers in.) Once in place, they're quite securely "clamped" so I didn't feel the need for fasteners.

The shelves in question are "real wood," a full 3/4 inch thick (x 7 inch deep) but have a span of about 5 feet. Fairly typical for "decorator style" bookcases often found in furniture stores. These shelves, and many commercial bookcases, are not meant to be filled with books.

I've had good success with home-built rough shelving (the stuff in the basement) with shelves up to about 32 inches long at anything over 1/2 inch thick, wood or particle board; but anything longer (or thinner) than that will eventually sag - sometimes enough to dump the contents.

The 16 "rough storage" bookcases I built some years back were all made from "round-nosed shelf" particle board, which is available in the lumber section, 5/8 or 3/4 inch thick, usually 10 inches wide, currently at about $.80 (US) per foot. Half inch thick without the rounded edge may be found for around $.30 per foot. Either of these works fairly well up to the 30 inch span, but if you want a longer "unbroken" shelf length I would strongly suggest that you insert a "spacer" every 30 inches or so. (If you cut a piece of the round-nose off and paint it - it looks like a book.)

For comparison, in the "shelving" section, the nicely laminated 1/2 inch thick, 42 inch long "shelves" are about $6 - $9 each at my local suppliers. And they will sag at the lengths commonly sold if you load them with books.

After extensive "comparison shopping" I concluded that I cannot buy the wood necessary to make the wooden bookcases for less than the $100 each we paid for the "commercial" (Oak Express) units we got for the living room. (finish and trim would be extra).

At the time, I estimated $32 each for 6 foot tall by 32 inch wide particle board units with 6 shelves, including the "clip strips" and clips to make the shelves adjustable. That would probably run nearer to $40 or $45 now.

The only tools used for the first few units were a "skill saw," hammer, and screwdriver. (It did get a little easier when I acquired a table saw.)

If you want to consider the particle board option, there are a few observations that may be helpful:

1. A "normal" saw blade doesn't last very long. Get a carbide tipped blade - $4(US) each in "contractor" grade. (Although you can spend up to $40 or so for one, the cheap ones are good.)

2. I used wallboard screws (meant for plasterboard) for structural joints. They are "self-tapping," with a "drill point" and they even have a little ridge under the head that "cuts them in" so they go flush. They will occasionally "break out" when you drive them into the edge of a particle board panel though, so it's good practice to drill a pilot hole first. They are a lot cheaper than other kinds.

3. Wood screws don't work very well, since they're tapered and "expand" the hole as they go in. If you can't find the wallboard screws, sheetmetal screws (no taper) work better than wood screws.

4. Nailing should be limited to brads. Even a #4 nail frequently spits a 5/8 thick board if driven into an edge. (predrill a pilot hole, if you must use larger nails.)

5. Particle board should be used only in dry locations. This means nowhere that the humidity stays above about 70% for any extended period.

6. Always cross-brace something like a bookcase, even if only a 6 inch wide strip of plywood or laminate across the middle. You can't make a corner joint strong enough to prevent "paralellogram sag" /_/ otherwise.

Movers refer to particle board as "explode-a-board" because it comes apart so often. I hate using it, but it's the cheaper (? less exhorbitantly expensive ?) material, and it works within its limitations.

John

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 07 Nov 02 - 04:45 PM

Gee, my </i> is all there in my Word version that I pasted, but only the > came through the past. Apologeeezes.

John

stuck them back in for you no worries - el joeclone -

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 07 Nov 02 - 09:57 PM

John,

All good advice. I bought some "nude" bookshelves on a sale over Memorial Day and finally moved the last one into the house last month. Staining them out in the garage took me a little while. These are double wide, with furniture grade plywood and veneer throughout. They look good, and are very well balanced. I'm going to be building more shelves as I need them (let me rephrase that--I need them already--I'll build them as I have time) and will be raising the base off of the floor and making sure it is level. These new ones stand straight (don't lean back) and feel very solid. The footer on these is important to their stability. The weight of the books as it fills are what keep it in place so well. These WERE built for books, not for display shelves!

One of the do-it-yourself shows had an episode on building tall shelves that look built in. It involves a base to set them on and a topper (don't know the architectural term for the board that continues up the from and meets the ceiling and makes it look built in). This is because you can't set shelves up in a room if you build them elsewhere if you build them as tall as the room itself. You have to take into account the angle required (front bottom edge to the top back edge, when viewed from the side) to put it in place (assuming you bring it through a door lower than the ceiling and have to tip the shelves back upright).

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 08 Nov 02 - 01:23 AM

SRS -

You can find good solid bookcases for fairly reasonable prices. The "unfinished" stuff is often pretty sturdy. As mentioned above, I really wanted to build my own for the living room, just for the pleasure of making something nice. But the cost of materials made it a whole lot more sensible just to buy them. (Of course, it took a lot of comparison shopping to find the good deal.)

And, as you pointed out, the longest diagonal of the case needs to be less than your ceiling height if you're going to get them in.

Another caution that should be mentioned: lots of newer homes come with wall-to-wall carpet, because it's cheaper than a real floor. This means that there's a nailer strip along each wall - sometimes to as much as 2 or 3 inches out. This strip holds the back of a tall piece of furniture up enough to make the danger of pulling it down on top of you very real. If you want them to stand straight, you may be forced to set the base out a couple of inches. If in doubt - screw them to the wall - so you don't end up with flat children.

I solved the nailer strip problem on a few of the homebuilts - the ones that we used "indoors" - by notching out the back "footer;" but this may not be a reasonable thing to do with the way most "store-boughts" are put together.

I've never thought it "efficent" to go for the "built-in" look, because the top of the case is another shelf - expcially for those odd sized things that don't fit a normal shelf spacing.

The other "good tip" I've learned after we started running out of walls: If there's an electrical outlet on the wall where you're putting a large piece of furniture, always plug a short extension cord in before you place the furniture (bookcase) and leave the end where you can get to it. Eventually you'll want to plug in a lamp to look for a book.

John

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: katlaughing
Date: 08 Nov 02 - 02:49 AM

Flat chldren? LOL!

We had good solid prebuilt from a discount store, but I hated the shelves going all the way to the floor as the books gathered so much cat hair and dust. Also, one boy cat thought they made a great place to spray, even though he was neutered. So, even though he has passed on, I still didn't want them so low. Easier to get to them and to keep them dusted. This time, to keep it cheap, for the moment, at least, we just got raw boards from the lumber yard, though we had finished partcle board ones for the other wall. For both we got those metal strips which you fasten to the wall, then hang brackets to hold the shelves at whatever height fits. We won't have a sagging problem because on the longer shelves, we also put a middle bracket. The first shelf is about waist level. So far we have eight shelves, with both of the tops ones piled to the ceiling. i thought we'd done so well this past Sunday, unpacked 8 crates, then Rog checked and told me there were many, many more to go! *groan* Ah, well we've got one large wall space left in this room, along with two small wall spaces, so maybe we'll get some more done this weekend.

Thanks for all of the info, JohninKS; really quite kind and useful.

kat

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: GUEST
Date: 08 Nov 02 - 09:47 AM

I put them by catagories my wife puts hers by titles.

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 08 Nov 02 - 10:04 AM

Kat,

I hope those brackets are attached really well! The old tried and true bricks and boards is another way to have solid shelving. You do best for those if you paint several coats of enamel on the bricks first. They're easier to dust and smoother on the books that must rub up against them. You can find some nice ornamental wall blocks and pavers out there to use.

John, I agree about the top of the shelves. Even as you typed that I was probably looking up at the tops of my new shelves and wondering what would look good up there that I don't need to take down often? I could simply do another row of books, but I have lots of family antiques. If I can set them close enough to the front edge to be seen, that may be the place they go. But it's also tempting to fill it with stacks of paperbacks. I have so many of those around here, especially since I have a bunch from my parent's houses now also. There's a little voice in my head: It's time for a garage sale. . .

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: Wesley S
Date: 08 Nov 02 - 10:12 AM

I need to sing the praises of Scandia shelving - it's the only thing I've found that doesn't bow under the weight of 2,000 plus LP's. It's pricy but worth it. We got ours at The Container Store.

And SRS - PM me if you have that garage sale.

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: katlaughing
Date: 08 Nov 02 - 10:25 AM

SRS, yeah, I know what you mean. I *supervised* Rog putting them in, first using the stud finder like a good "dewbee," then using 3 inch screws in almost every hole there was. (Boy does this sound bawdy or what?!) Anyway, they are really solid.:-)

I have refused to go with bricks and boards since our fist big move in 1983. Fortunately Rog agrees with me. 1) The carpet in our house makes it a pain, 2) too heavy, 3) the look just reminds me of too many years of "make do" when I didn't have the money for anything else.:-) I know there are some really nice ornamental bricks and stones we could use now and painting them would help, but that would also put the books low to the floor, so...it's brackets for me...that's my story and I am sticking to it!**BG**

Thanks, though!

kat

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 08 Nov 02 - 05:38 PM

Wesley S,

I agree--Scandia is very nice. Very pricey, and the Container Store is a great place, so I do try to find the same things at discount stores. Do you know anyone else that sells Scandia in the area?

I have lots and lots of mysteries that will probably go on the chopping block, garage-sale-wise. I'll have to do a little research first--do you suppose there is any marketablity in having an entire set of John D. MacDonald paperback mysteries? Or Ian Fleming? Many others. ;-D

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: Hrothgar
Date: 08 Nov 02 - 10:40 PM

Amazing what can be done with second hand pine from shipping crates. Comes in 90 x 40 mm and 140 x 90 mm sizes, lengths up to 2250 mm. Shipped out of Minneapolis - thanks, Yanks.

Only drawback is that i have to break up the crates, knock out the nails, sand back the timber (love the scent of it) .... Lucky my time comes cheap.

The are going to warp under the weight because the shelves are up to 1500 mm, but there are two solutions: (a) just turn the planks over (they are not screwed in), or (b) put a support in the middle of the shelf. The uprights sre screwed to the wall, and supports screwed to the uprights hold the shelves. Basic, effective, and not ugly because of the natural look of the pine.

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: Schantieman
Date: 09 Nov 02 - 10:12 AM

A few random thoughts on book storage (thread drift?):

Wrap the bricks (like a parcel) in brown paper, followed by a decorative layer if you like.

Prop up the front of the bookshelves 1/4" , ideally with a tapered length of wood but more often with a bit of folded cardboard. This helps prevent flat children too. (Bitter experience!)

1" square battens screwed round the three sides on an alcove will support any weight of books on a suitably sized plank.

A thin batten underneath the front egde of the shelf will discourage bending (but make it tricky to get out the biggest books on the shelf below).

...but you knew all these. didn't you!

Arranging them? Tallest on the right, shortest on the left!

Steve