Bookcase Staircase

Do you live a small two-story apartment? Or, are you just running out of space for your books? Recently, I stumbled across this article on Design Scene about a bookcase staircase!

This bookcase was designed by Levitate Architects in London. It's so awesome I just had to share! 

I love it! Although, I am not sure how I would reach those books on the ends of the shelves.

What do you think? Could you do with this ingenious space saving idea?

Our new bookcases

Like most bibliophiles, my fiance and I have a problem with space. We just never seem to have enough room for the books we seem to keep acquiring. This is not through fault of our own. We don't mean to buy more books than our home can handle. It just happens. 

A few months ago, I took part in Our Year in Books, Library Link-up. They asked fellow bloggers to reveal their home libraries. You can see ours here. 

As you can see, our library was a hodge podge of mismatching bookcases picked up at various times and places. 

We decided this weekend, that enough was enough. We wanted to stop stacking our books on top of each other and invest in some new bookcases. We decided to ditch our low bookcases (which I just happened to pick up off the side of the road when I was a first year university student! - you can't be too picky sometimes hehe) and replace them with tall bookcases. 

Here is the result!

TA-DA!

So these new bookcases didn't really solve the space problem. Once we unpacked the low bookcases and unstacked the piles of books, we still ended up basically filling not only these four bookcases, but the two other tall ones we decided to keep. 

But, it looks so good. I keep going into our library and sitting on the floor gazing lovingly at this wall. Our wall of books! 

I am so happy with the result I just needed to share with fellow book lovers! 

What does your home library look like?

Library Lust (4)

Being a big book nerd, I love libraries. There is something magical about a library. Rows of new worlds to discover, old friends to visit and new things to learn. What room could be more perfect? A library is one place where I feel completely at home, whether it is in my own or at a public library.

I love to own books. I am a collector. My ultimate goal (which I am lucky enough to share with my fiance) is to build our own home with an amazing library! We often talk about the features we would love to have in our dream library. We both agree it would be awesome if it had two levels, ladders that we can push along the walls, shelves stuffed full of books of course, large comfortable armchairs, a large window, open fireplace.. ahh I could go on! 

The other day, while browsing Booklover's Tumblr (LOVE this site, highly recommended) I came across this picture of someone's library and now I MUST have this too! 

A SECRET PASSAGE!

Isn't that just the most awesome thing ever!? Now, my dream library not only has two levels, but a secret staircase to get to the second level! PURE GENIUS! 

How wonderful are secret passage ways? I have always loved them. Some of my favourite stories had secret passages in them. When I was a kid, I would fantasise that our house had a secret passage that I needed to find and it would lead somewhere really cool. What is cooler than more library? My perfect treasure.

Ok, I am done. I just got so excited about this picture I felt the need to share. I have probably asked this question before, but what does your dream library consist of?

Library Link-up

Our Year in Books is currently holding a Library Link-up party! This basically means they have taken a photo of their gorgeous library and want their fellow book bloggers to share photos of their libraries too!

I think this a great idea as I love to look at home libraries and I am really interested to see what you guys have got going on! So in an effort to help kick start this party, I am going to share with you my home library.Be warned, it is no where near as pretty, neat or organised as I would like.

Welcome to our library/study. This is the third bedroom in our house and although it isn't a very big room, we have filled it with books! I love nothing more than to sit in this room and admire our collection. All I need now is a comfortable armchair so I can read in there too! 

As you can see, this is what the majority of our shelves look like. Packed. I can't wait until we are able to buy our own home where we will build a proper library!

Here are the smaller cases on the other wall of our library. We had to utilise the top also.

Technically this is a cd/dvd stand but it comes in handy for holding books too! As you can see, there are books stuffed down the side as well *sigh* we really need to get larger cases. 

Here is my collection of Lemony Snicket books. I love these books! Highly recommended to anyone who loves intelligent and funny children's fiction.

Moving on from our library, here is our collection of cookbooks in our kitchen. Cooking is my other passion. 

Lastly, this is where the books go I have no idea what to do with. Mostly these are children's books that I need to sort into a keep pile (learning materials for my students) and a donate pile. I just haven't had the time. There are also books in here my mother got at a book fair and no longer wants, or books I didn't love enough to keep. Maybe I will bookmooch them. I haven't decided. For now, these can continue to take up a corner of our garage.

As you can see both my fiance and I LOVE books. We started building our library about five years ago combining the books we already owned and it just grew so quickly. I am really looking forward to moving into a house with a bigger library space but for now, we will have to make do. 

Now it's your turn! Grab your camera, head over to Our Year in Books and add your post to the Mr Linky! Don't forget to leave me a comment here too, with the link. I want to see your library!

Library Lust: Your perfect library

I have had a passion for books and libraries for as long as I can remember. One of the first things my mother taught me to do was read (as this is a great passion of hers), and even as young as 2, I remember spending a large part of our time together reading. I remember trips to the local library and leaving with piles of books. I remember browsing through the shelves and staring in wonder at the world of fantasy and knowledge that stood before me, wanting to read it all but never having enough time to do so!

This was a passion that has only grown stronger the older I have gotten. I still feel like there is so much I need to read but so little time. I digress... back to the library.

A dream of mine has always been to have my own home with a library. I always loved how in the classics, people always had libraries.. after dinner they would "retire to the library" for a game or a sip of brandy. Now, I don't drink brandy but I still want that library!

My fiance shares my passion and dream (thankfully!) and we are steadily building up our collection of books. This proved to be a big pain in the "you-know-what" when we moved house last year and I remember at the time exclaiming "I am never buying another book again!" .. but that lasted all of a week.

So what would my dream library look like you may ask? Well, I am not sure. I love floor to ceiling (high ceiling) bookshelves.. ladders...fat old leather lounges.. lamps.. but in reality, there is only so much you can do in a surburban home. 

There is one library, however, that has had a special place in my heart for a long time.. the ultimate library which for years, I would tell anyone who would listen I would own one day...here it is:

 Look familiar? That's because it is the library from Beauty and the Beast. This was my favourite Disney cartoon when I was young (alongside The Little Mermaid) and I would watch this movie over and over just wishing I owned a library like this one... *sigh* still do. It is perfect.

So what is your perfect library? Was there any libraries in movies, TV shows, books or in real life, that you saw and fell in love with? Post a comment and let me know!

New Feature: Library Lust

While browsing the web recently looking at other book blogs, I came across a now redundant site, The Nonist. This site wasn’t a book blog but it’s author had written a post called “Hot Library Smut” which talked about a book called Libraries by Candida Höfer. This book is full of beautiful photographs of libraries from all over the world.

“It’s like porn for book nerds. Seriously. They are gorgeous photos, nearly all without visitors and just begging to be entered. (ha. sorry.)” – The Nonist.

This got me thinking….. pictures of beautiful libraries, second-hand books stores or shelves full of gorgeous books IS like porn for book lovers. I love looking at pictures of all of these things.

So, I decided to start a new feature. Here I will post photos of libraries and second-hand book stores that I just love the look of. Not only that, but I would LOVE to feature pictures of my readers home libraries! I would love to see where you keep your books!

If you would like to participate then please leave me a message or email me some pictures of your library and I will feature them in the near future. Or, if there is a library or bookstore that you particularly love then please point me in the right direction.

For now though, here is a picture of the George Peabody Library, Baltimore, Maryland, USA. Isn’t she grand?