Caroline Starr Rose

picture book and middle-grade author

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We Have a Serious Problem Around Here

31 Comments

We have no more space for books in this house.
Everytime we buy a new bookcase, things fill up immediately.

This little shelf has books two rows deep.
My boys’ bookcases are literally spilling over.
Thankfully, all of my husband’s theology books are in his office. We’ve lived with all those, too, and believe me, it was not pretty.
Right now, I’m reading the Little House on the Prairie series with my boys. I thought it would be fun to start a second series, too (I’m always reading more than one book and love to do the same with my children). I’ve been waiting to introduce my guys to The Borrowers, and last night felt like the perfect moment. My six-year-old wanted to read about “the little people” immediately; my eight-year-old was excited to read a series he hadn’t read before. All three of us were ready to jump in, but…

No Borrowers. I dug through every shelf. I even looked under my bed at the accumulating pile of book club, To Be Read, and various books I’ve read recently with the boys.
I found Borrower books two, three, and five. Drat, you Borrower reading students of mine back in my Florida teaching days! One of you permanently borrowed The Borrowers! I thought I’d replaced all the books my students had lost over the years. Evidently not.

Today, I’ll stop by my magical local bookstore, hoping I can replace my missing copies. I’ll stop at the library just in case I have to order the books (we need to get reading tonight!).

I still dream of the fabulous built-in-bookcases we had in our Virginia home. Maybe someday, all our books will find a comfortable place together. In one room. Not scattered around the house here and there.

Until then, finding books around here will continue to be a scavenger hunt.

Do you have room for all your books? What books have you looked forward to sharing with your children?

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Filed Under: books and reading, family, home, this and that

Comments

  1. Tamika: says

    January 8, 2010 at 1:33 pm

    Between my husband and myself the space is dwindling. We just recently purchased a shelf for my three year old, who is a lover of books it seems too.

    Reply
  2. Catherine Denton says

    January 8, 2010 at 1:42 pm

    No room. Even after I’ve culled them. At one point I moved all our bookcases to the dining room against one wall. We now call it the library.

    I couldn’t wait to share the Chronicles of Narnia series with my kids.

    Reply
  3. Natalie says

    January 8, 2010 at 2:57 pm

    Nope, we’re just like you. I think we have books in 7 different rooms in our house (which is almost all of them). 8 if you count cookbooks in the kitchen. I’d love to have a library too. Maybe someday.

    Reply
  4. Kristen Torres-Toro says

    January 8, 2010 at 3:15 pm

    Wow! I know how you feel! All of my shelves are full. Since I’m about to move, I’m not exactly sure what to do. There’s no more room in my room in my parents’ house for another book shelf. I’m praying I won’t have to leave a lot here when I move!

    Reply
  5. Veronica Barton-Dean says

    January 8, 2010 at 3:20 pm

    That’s how my house is with books. I got an ereader for Christmas and my husband thinks that will help, but I’m still going to buy my favs in the traditional style.

    Reply
  6. Crystal says

    January 8, 2010 at 3:23 pm

    Hi Caroline! Happy New Year! Sadly, no, I have no more room for books, either! The books in our house are concentrated between my bedroom and the my girls’ bedroom. (My mother & grandmother also live with us so we are limited in space–can’t use the living room, etc.) I have books in closets, under my bed, beside my bed, on my computer desk, and on a tall bookshelf in my bedroom. The kids have 2 bookshelves in their room filled to capacity.
    And I have about 75 books at work (I work for a reference publisher in New York who gets review copies of A LOT of children’s books) that I need to bring home. I want to buy another large bookshelf but have nowhere to put it! Except the basement . . . *Sigh* Right now, between myself and the kids, we have probably around 200 books or so . . . frightening isn’t it?

    Reply
  7. Tracy says

    January 8, 2010 at 3:27 pm

    As we’ve moved over the years, we’ve gotten rid of a ton of books. We always find a worthy organization and donate them. We only keep the ones we absolutely love, which means that every book case is full and there are several boxes that rarely get unpacked. One day I’ll have a library/study, so there will be room for everything. (Hopefully before all the kids move out, but if not, I’m converting their bedrooms!)

    Reply
  8. Michelle says

    January 8, 2010 at 3:29 pm

    We have books in most rooms of the house, appropriate to what kind of books they are: cookbooks in the kitchen, writing and knitting books in my home office, etc. Everything else is on huge bookcases in the finished room of the basement. And like yours, our bookshelves are always overflowing. I always mean to weed them out, but somehow, it’s never enough!

    Reply
  9. Rosslyn Elliott says

    January 8, 2010 at 3:39 pm

    Happy New Year! I’m hoping my new Kindle will solve this problem for me, as my bookcases invariably become book piles. 🙂

    Reply
  10. Melissa says

    January 8, 2010 at 3:50 pm

    More bookcases! I have to go buy more this weekend, too haha

    Reply
  11. SarahAnn says

    January 8, 2010 at 4:04 pm

    No! And I can never, ever bring myself to part with any of them. I have books in drawers, closets, and two rows deep on my shelves!

    Reply
  12. PJ Hoover says

    January 8, 2010 at 4:08 pm

    LOL! I feel like I’m constantly rearranging my bookcases to make room for stuff.
    I love all yours!

    Reply
  13. Heidi Willis says

    January 8, 2010 at 4:44 pm

    i SO feel your pain!! For so many years half our books have been in boxes because we had no shelf space.

    Last year we emptied the furniture out of our living room (except for the baby grand) and turned it into a library. All four walls bookshelves. HEAVEN!!! We even had room for knick knacks and photo frames and elephants inherited from my grandfather!!

    Now, a year later….

    We are out of shelf space.

    I call it a bookshelf problem.

    My husband calls it a book-buying problem. 🙂

    Reply
  14. David J. West says

    January 8, 2010 at 5:26 pm

    I think the only room in our that doesn’t absolutely have books in it is the laundry room (and it might have a couple) My polan is just to get a bigger house.

    Soon.

    I was actually planning on posting pics of my bookshelves like you did sometime.

    Reply
  15. Jennifer Shirk says

    January 8, 2010 at 5:48 pm

    oh, my gosh, that’s why I had to get an e-reader. I have NO room left. LOL

    Reply
  16. Shannon O'Donnell says

    January 8, 2010 at 7:20 pm

    No room at all. We have them everywhere – even piled under our beds! (I’ll deny I ever said that, btw) If we ever get our house sold and are able to buy the new o ne we want, I might get it under control for a little while. Even my classroom has books stacked against things, on top of things, under things… 🙂

    But we can never have too many, right?

    Reply
  17. ElanaJ says

    January 8, 2010 at 8:36 pm

    You have a lot of books! Luckily (or unluckily, depending on how you look at it), my husband teaches sixth grade and we “store” almost all of our books in his classroom. It’s a win/win for everyone.

    Reply
  18. Liesl says

    January 8, 2010 at 10:51 pm

    No room. Spilling over with books and they cover my entire living room wall. This is when the e-readers start to seem wise, but I do love to hold a book and see it on the shelf. I’m sure I’ll buy one eventually, but with a groan.

    Reply
  19. Sherry says

    January 9, 2010 at 12:17 am

    Actually, I have lots and lots of room. So you can all just bring your extras over and I’ll put them on a beautiful unused shelf.

    Just kidding. I always looks at those decorating magazines where the people just have a statue and a couple of books on each shelf and wonder what alternate universe I live in. All my shelves are full and all my walls are insulated and lined with floor-to-ceiling bookshelves —full of books.

    Reply
  20. Hardygirl says

    January 9, 2010 at 3:31 am

    No more room either!! Mine are stacked deep and wide, too.

    I try to get rid of paperbacks that I know I’ll never reread (we have a drop-off at our church for a nearby prison library)–but I usually fill their slots with ten new books. It’s a disease . . . but there are worse things, right??

    sf

    Reply
  21. Kelly says

    January 9, 2010 at 3:46 am

    I’m glad I’m not the only one! I gave away about 25 childrens books before Christmas to make room. Mostly princessy stuff my daughter grew out of or baby board books. It’s hard to see books go, but then again more room for more books!

    Reply
  22. ann foxlee says

    January 9, 2010 at 3:55 am

    I thought I had enough room… For crying out loud, we built a bookshelf across the entire east wall of the living room, and now that we can’t squeeze any more into the rows, we’re already piling books on top.
    I’m just gonna have to get tough and cull a few books, I think.

    Reply
  23. ann foxlee says

    January 9, 2010 at 3:56 am

    Oh Crimony I just remembered that I have about 10 books coming in the mail from Amazon…
    Crap. But they’re for research on my novel– I HAD to buy them!

    Sigh.

    Reply
  24. Sandra Stiles says

    January 9, 2010 at 3:08 pm

    My husband built shelves to go on each side of our bed several years ago. When we moved he took them apart and put them in our office. We have moved once again and now they are in MY office. He has increased the number of shelves. Eight of the eleven are full of books My husband’s brother-in-law gave us a shelving unit because he didn’t want it and it has twelve shelves not counting the top. My husband attached boards to each side to make the outer shelves sturdy and half of them are full of books/magazines and my writing notebooks. The other six hold various things such as CD’s or sewing supplies. My desk top is 60 inches long by 33 inches wide and half of it is covered in books. They stack quite nicely. I have a cabinet my father-in-law built for me to keep books in for my grandkids. My granddaughter has 32 book in it and has started stacking them under an end table in my livingroom. (She is a book addict too. She’s just 3 1/2 and her favorite place is the library). The rest of my books are at school where I have 20 shelves full. The school furnised me with 12 I had to purchase the rest. The rest of my books are in boxes, on tables etc. It amazes my students that they all belong to me and that I loan them out to them. To say I am a book addict is mild.

    Reply
  25. Caroline Starr Rose says

    January 9, 2010 at 3:27 pm

    David — I even have books in the laundry room, the ones I plan on trading in at the used bookstore.

    Sandra — Your shelves sound wonderful! Could you send your husband my way?

    Sherry — Those decorating magazines: When I purchased the red bookcases in the first picture, they’d been advertised as bookshelves but were pictured with a few books and a lot of trinkets. Once I got them home, I learned why. The shelves couldn’t support books at all — lots of sagging. A dear friend added supports between each shelf, and I painted them to match the rest of the shelves.

    I love the look now, but how frustrating to not have bookshelves come ready to really hold books!

    Reply
  26. Tiana Lei says

    January 10, 2010 at 3:00 am

    That looks like my place! We keep buying more and more bookshelves, but it’s hard to fit so many books into a one bedroom apartment 🙂

    Reply
  27. Rasco from RIF says

    January 10, 2010 at 3:01 am

    I found your blog through the Comment Challenge and love seeing this first post. My adult children who are 36 and 29 just know there will be a call someday I have been found seriously injured under piles of books falling upon me! I now have my first grandchild, his name is William. I have found a set of books full of “Just William” stories from Great Britain and after reading a few, I look forward to reading those with him!

    Reply
  28. Playing by the book says

    January 10, 2010 at 7:28 am

    Much of this post could have been written by me! In fact birthday and christmas presents from my husband and me to each other this year (well last year by now!) have been bookcases – they’re being made as we speak, and will hopefully be with us next week – I can’t wait! But I know they will fill up all too quickly

    Reply
  29. Beth says

    January 11, 2010 at 10:20 pm

    We are running very low on space. And walls. And my boys don’t respect my alphabatizing tendencies.

    To complicate matters, there are my books and his books and their books and…

    We had a Great Brain search the other day — The Academy has gone walk-a-bout. Great wailing and woe ensued.

    Reply
  30. Marge Loch-Wouters says

    January 11, 2010 at 11:20 pm

    We moved across state and bought a fab old 100 year old house. But we failed to notice those second floor rooms, full of fascinating angles and nooks couldn’t handle our 8 foot bookshelves. So now half of our bookshelves are crammed in with me in my office at work – I admit though it is a “kind of paradise” there!

    Reply
  31. mad says

    January 15, 2010 at 3:44 pm

    I loved looking at these pictures!! Looks like you need to get some taller cases. When in doubt, go vertical! We have books we can’t wait to share with our kids and often opt to go too early because we’re too impatient. Favorites: Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH and Phantom Tollbooth.

    Reply

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