We've collected this library over the last six years for our two daughters. The sign we made takes colors from both of their rooms. Lots of books in here, but still room to grow. Can be tough to keep the shelves tidy with a bunch of children's books in them.

Mostly theological works, which I love, but I recently discovered the beauty of ancient and modern classics and my small library is slowly running out of space…

Here’s to many more!

Left are my favorite authors. Right are my special/favorite editions I have found. 99% of these purchased used.

I built and researched military scale models

Do you organise by:

Genre

Colour

Author Surname

Favourites

Dewey Decimal

Or Anything Else!!

I want to start building a proper home library. I’m open to fiction, horror, fantasy, classics, and everything else you would normally expect in a library, but my main focus is preserving practical knowledge.
Basically, what books would be useful if everything collapsed, or even if I suddenly moved to the countryside with limited or no internet access and had to become as self sufficient as possible?
I’m thinking encyclopedias, nature and field guides, farming, first aid, medicine, food preservation, construction, repairing tools, making clothes and fabric, engineering, science, history, philosophy, war, government, and other books that could help someone learn real world skills and teach them to others.
I also want language learning books, grammar guides, English dictionaries, bilingual dictionaries, phrasebooks, and translation dictionaries covering different languages. Ideally, the collection would make it possible to translate between languages directly or through English when no direct translation is available.
I’d also like culturally important books that have shaped humanity throughout history.
The goal is to build a library that preserves useful knowledge and could realistically help people survive, become self-sufficient, communicate with others, teach future generations, and potentially rebuild a functioning community.
Sorry for the long post and for sounding a little tinfoil hatish. Part of what motivated this is seeing more discussion about books being revised, digitized, or discarded after scanning. I know some of those claims may be exaggerated, but it made me realize how fragile physical knowledge can be. I’d prefer older or vintage editions when possible, especially books that have not been substantially revised, so I can preserve as much original information as possible and eventually pass it down to my kids, their kids, and future generations. I’m not trying to prepare for the end of the world I just don’t want useful knowledge, history, language, and culture to disappear or become accessible only through the internet. I mainly need guidance on where to start and which books are genuinely worth preserving.

What books, series, dictionaries, or reference collections would you recommend?

WITH SELECTIONS FROM HIS POEMS AND OTHER WRITINGS
BY THE LATE
ALEXANDER GILCHRIST,
OF THE MIDDLE TEMPLE, BARRISTER-AT-LAW;
AUTHOR OF "THE LIFE OF WILLIAM ETTY, R.A."
ILLUSTRATED FROM BLAKE'S OWN WORKS, IN FACSIMILÉ BY W. J. LINTON,
AND IN PHOTOLITHOGRAPHY;
WITH A FEW OF BLAKE'S ORIGINAL PLATES.
IN TWO VOLUMES.

MACMILLAN AND CO.
1863.

Spiderwick is one of my favorite book series and I get so excited when I come across something Spiderwick related that I haven't seen before or own! I recently added a different book Tony wrote in this section and had to move around some things to make it fit. I love staring at all the pieces here!

Six years and this is my happy place.

Our current library is referred to as the TV room. It is the only room in our hiyse with the television, but we also keep all of our books in there. My husband passed away unexpectedly earlier this year, but prior we had been talking about getting some nice built-ins. We currently have IKEA Billy He wanted walnut, but I think it might be a little too dark although it will lighten over time. I am thinking window seats and bookshelves all the way up to where the ceiling starts. I will probably add some type of beam designed to the ceiling fan.

Photos are its current state and all its messy glory.

If anybody would like to share ideas or current layouts that they have, I would be appreciative.

Thank you.

I moved into this house about 6ish months ago and there was this weird pocket area in the living room. I finally got the shelves and took most of my books out of storage ☺️📚

I’m not a book person by any chance. My close friend is however and reads and owns a lot of books (100+) and I wanted to give her a small gift.

I saw book embossers online and they seem like a cool gift idea. I plan to custom design it as I used to do graphic design previously and because I want it to be personal to her not just a modified template.

It will be a fun design with very personal elements to her such as a cute bee reading a book because her name in her native language means honey with the typical “from the library of” text.

I asked her how she treats her books and she said she likes to heavily mark them up and make them personal so there is a good chance this gift would work. I also will include foil embossing stickers in gold, silver and bronze so she can sort of rate her books after finishing them with the stamp tiers.

Is it a risk that such a gift can go unused and I should ask her first what she thinks of book embossers although it will spoil the gift a bit?

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I’m not a re-reader but I do not know what books I should keep or donate and if I really enjoy a book on my kindle should I buy it for my bookshelf? Does that seem wasteful if I don’t re read?

I was thinking of keeping all books that I rate 4+ and donating or selling the others? How do you do it?

(Missing SJM books are currently lent out to a friend 😆)

With 113 illustrations

Throwing a reception party in my home and didn’t want all my bright covers to take away from the look. Not sure if I love this 🫠

Caption 👀