Expose Yourshelf: Bookshelf Voyeurism

I joked in my last post about decluttering how one night I decided to move my books around on a whim and ended up buying a six-pack of beer before I was through. Part of reason why I wanted to move my books around that night was because my books were not fitting into the shelves the way they were organized. It was a successful endeavour since at the end of the night I was left with half a shelf of empty space. Of course I think filled it up before the end of that month and I'm now stacking books on the floor. Again. I keep telling myself that some day I will have enough bookshelves but let's be honest, that will probably never happen. One thing that I take great pleasure in is looking at other people's bookshelves and stacking techniques to see if I can pick up any tips for maximize my storage.

This past weekend I was catching up on some of my reading when I came across a post by Danielle at A Work in Progress where she gave us voyeurs a book tour.

In a world where I was wealthier, this would be a bigger room, I'd have enough shelves for all my books and it would be much more aesthetically pleasing. However, beggars can't be choosers. I'd love to give the room a makeover, but in order for it to be more attractive, I think I would have to seriously weed out books to make space, and I just can't bring myself to do that.

I hear her! I hate getting rid of books. I can't tell you how many times I've given a book away only to wish I still had it a few years later. No, we shall not talk about how many times I've ended up rebuying books for that reason either.

Jeane at Dog Ear Diary was inspired to show pictures of her bookshelves after seeing Danielle's. Like many of us she has different locations for different books including the very popular bedside collection of books that are waiting to be read.

Of course, not all bookshelves are arranged for maximum storage. BlogHer's Denise organized all her books by colour. It's visually stunning and I'm jealous. Very, very jealous.

As I was searching around for pictures of bookshelves earlier I hit the bloggy jackpot - an entire blog dedicated to pictures of bookshelves. Expose Yourshelf has been around since last November and I'm loving it! Anyone can submit photos to the site but there are a few rules - such as not cleaning your bookshelves beforehand. The blog blurb about bookshelves, which appears on the site's main page, is fantastic. Here's just a snippet of it.

The bookshelf may seem permanent and timeless, but unless you are a stagnant human being, your library has mutated over the course of your lifetime. People change. So do their bookshelves.

Hmmm your bookshelf as a demonstration of your personal growth. I like it! And I think I shall use it the next time anybody questions whether or not I need more books.

Contributing Editor Sassymonkey blogs at Sassymonkey and Sassymonkey Reads.