Signs that the books have taken over

• Your parents send you an article from the L. A. Times that describes the lengths to which people will go to house their personal libraries--converting a garage, for example.  It's not clear if this article is meant to be prophetic or admonitory.
• You remember that one of your father's professors kept books in his oven (until, that is, a graduate student turned it on).  After all, you don't use your own oven for much of anything, so...
• Your mother recommends building library stacks. 
• The books have pride of place in your voice mail message.
• When visiting someone's house, you automatically calculate how much wall space could be used for bookcases.
• You take the local bookstores into consideration when deciding whether or not to propose a paper for a conference. 
• Visitors inquire if books have the same mating habits as rabbits.
• The furniture store deliveryman remembers you.  And your bookcases.
• A trip to Chicago is incomplete without expeditions to Powell's, O'Gara's, and the Seminary Co-Op.  Who needs to go clothes shopping on the Miracle Mile?   
• Will work for books. 

Comments

[Bourgeois Nerd]

It's nice to get an idea of what I'll be like in a few years, so I can prepare for Acute Bibliomania accordingly. *LOL*

[gina c in al]

Your dream house is designed entirely with regard to maximizing shelf space and reading comfort. You downsize the proposed kitchen drastically to add stacks to the great room area. You rent three full size climate controlled storage units to house more books than you can accomodate in your current house. This is a small portion of what happens when book people marry. It isnt pretty, but the books are great!

[Vito Prosciutto]

My wife, alas, is not really a book person. She reads. She buys books even. But she's not a book person. She's somewhat appalled at the fact that we have 7 bookcases in the apartment and not enough shelf space for books. My feeling is that this is a clear sign that we need more shelves. She's lobbying to get the bookcases in the bedroom out of the bedroom. To me, this means that when we move to our next place, we'll look for an apartment with a smaller bedroom that will be the bedroom and a larger bedroom for the office.

I'm thinking that I'd like a house with a tower that I can use for the library. I really really really want a tower.

[Jane Dark]

--Even your classmates in grad school refer to your apartment as "the other library."

--You begin to think about new and aesthetically pleasing designs for shelving. i.e. what would books look like if they were lined up on shelves bracketed into slanting walls? Or could I bracket shelves into the walls at various places and create an abstract design? (Except that to do so would not provide nearly enough room for all the books.)

Nice blog.

[katariina]

Thank you for the post – you make me seem normal! I’ve spent an incredible amount of time lately designing built-in bookshelves, yet none of my designs seems to be light enough for the supporting wall (says Father the engineer). There is a real risk that my books would tumble down the wall between the living room and the kitchen. Free-standing bookcases are, alas, not big enough.

A great book (!) for all bibliomanics struggling with the inevitable storage problem: The Book on the Bookshelf by Henri Petroski.

You have very nice blog indeed, Professor. I’m a new reader and will definitely stay around.

[genevieve]

Bravo, long live the stacks. But how on earth do you get books first into voicemail?

[Bill Tozier]

You think that rolling six-shelf book carts obtained from Property Disposition at the local University are the bestest idea in the world, and so rush out to buy eight of them?

Which you immediately fill up?