What Blogging Has Done to My Bookshelves – Let’s Discuss!

Posted January 15, 2016 by Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction in Let's Discuss / 87 Comments

Before I started blogging, believe it or not, my bookshelves were completely under control. I mean, I’m not gonna claim they were all neat and tidy, but they were reasonable. In fact, I didn’t buy myself all that many books. (I say myself because I did buy my kids tons of books – I think I was making up for the lack of books on my own shelves by completely overflowing my kids’.) I felt like I couldn’t justify the cost – not when there were libraries with all the books I could ever want just waiting to be read. That was then. Things have changed.

See, there's some room at the bottom there - I've done some giveaways and made some space!
Two of my three upstairs bookcases. See, there’s some room at the bottom there – I’ve done some giveaways and made space!

The first real sign of change was when I went to BEA in 2014. I. Had. No. Idea. I mean, I know people said I’d come home with books – but BEA was like a booklover’s heaven, complete with authors and publishing reps to talk to. And then there were the books. I tried to be really careful and only take books I really wanted to read. I still came home with 73 books. 73!!!!

That’s when “the pile” started. At that point, I only had one small bookshelf in my bedroom. The shelves downstairs were already filled – mostly with homeschooling books. So my BEA books ended up in a huge pile on my floor next to the bookcase. Luckily, my husband decided to save me. Christmas of 2014, he bought me three huge, beautiful bookcases. Soon thereafter, he posted this to Facebook:

Facebook

Actually, we now have even more shelf space than that because my daughter’s bookshelves got full and we turned her giant dollhouse (which she almost never used for Barbies) into a bookshelf too – it’s really cute!

Who needs dolls when you've got BOOKS?!
Who needs dolls when you’ve got BOOKS?!

And, I don’t know how it happened, but it somehow didn’t take me long to fill up those three bookshelves in my room!

Well, okay, I do know what happened. See, now that I’m blogging I know so much more about the new books that are coming out – and there are SO many that I don’t want to miss! I find myself buying a lot more of the new releases because when I get them from the library I can’t manage to fit them in in time because of my review schedule. I also get books from my #OTSPSecretSister and I win some from giveaways. And, of course, this year I went to RT (instead of BEA). Then there are author events – Anderson’s bookstore has them constantly. I could easily attend a book event at Anderson’s every week (they have events a few times a week, so that would be only the ones I’m especially interested in), and every time I attend an author event, I buy the book so I can get it signed, of course …

whats-up-with-all-these-books

So, blogging has changed my bookshelves – for the better (mostly). There are plenty of bloggers out there who have way more books than I do – I try to tell my husband that so that he’ll feel better about my book habits. He reminds me of those measurements he took and insists I’m not getting any more shelf space. I think he’s being pretty reasonable. This just means that I have to part with some of my books before I get more …

One way I’m trying to help myself with this problem is by joining the 2016 Shelf Love Challenge – my bookshelves need some serious love. My goal isn’t to avoid buying books – I know I’ll get plenty from BEA and I’m still going to buy books from the author events I attend – but I DO want to read the books that I already have on my shelf. That’s a major goal.

Oh, and I also want to organize my books in some pretty way like I see other people doing – maybe by color. Then I need to force myself to get rid of some of the books I own. I can do it!! (I think I can.)

Are your bookshelves getting out of control? Has blogging changed your bookshelves forever? I want to know!

Tags:


87 responses to “What Blogging Has Done to My Bookshelves – Let’s Discuss!

  1. Miranda Lewis

    I have a five shelf, six shelf and the little three shelf. The two larger ones are completely stuffed with books and I’m out of room, I have two medium sized boxes to take to my local used bookstore. Because the rest I need to read, are my favs, or their my boyfriends books. Let’s be honest he only has maybe 10 books on my shelf though. Oh and my little bookcase is for videotape strategy guides, manga (I only have one completed set but it’s a rather small series.) and my Buffy the vampire slayer seasons 1-7 DVDs. See it could be worse I’ve told him I could be addicted to drugs or partying instead he got ahold of someone whose addicted to pages of words. 🙂

  2. Blogging definitely changed how many books I carried in my room. At one point I had about 600-700 books in my room…which… It seems entirely impossible when I think about my room, but I guess I just got really clever on how to store them haha. I had books piled everywhere. My bookcase was double shelved with books and still there were books on top of the bookcase and then on my piano, my nightstand, my headboard, etc. It was bad. I since then have parted with a lot of my books. Mostly because I had a lot of academic books that were horribly outdated, but I also just gave a lot of books I haven’t touched or read, or had any real interest in. I’m doing it again, but still I somehow still have too many books. Haha. I think it’ll never stop.

    Alexa @ Words Off the Page recently posted: To ARC or Not to ARC?
  3. hahahah Oh this post made me laugh – I feel your pain (though pain isn’t the right word since books make us happy) Before I started blogging, my bookshelves were under control too! I only bought books that were all the rage, and since not a ton of my friends are that bookish, my recs were minimal. Then I started blogging late 2012. Pretty soon I was buying more books due to bookish friends recs…and then I went to BEA in 2013, 2014 AND 2015 O.O Soooo yeah, as much as I tried to control myself, you can imagine that I now have books piled on a shelf in my closet, and on the floor, and on tables and other table LOL I seriously need new shelves soon though. At least, on the years I knew I was hitting BEA, I put myself on book-buying bans, which helped. Until you get gifted books and gift cards for books on the holidays XD It never ends! Oh and I’m not doing BEA this year since it moved to Chicago so that should help. I’ve also made a goal to read the books I already own this year! Good luck keeping things under control Nicole 😀

    Micheline @ Lunar Rainbows Reviews recently posted: Review: Ready Player One
    • Oh, I’m sad that you’re not going to BEA this year – it’s in my neck of the woods and I’m disappointed I won’t get to see you again!

      I knew other book bloggers would be able to understand – even when we TRY to be good about accumulating books, it’s impossible not to!

  4. Ever since I started watching booktube and then when I started blogging, my shelves experienced a similar effect. I think it’s on a smaller scale just because I’m not quite as involved and I get fewer ARCs than I imagine you do, but it’s still pretty major.

    I need to read faster. I’m trying to be better about book-buying, too, but mostly I need to read faster xD In terms of my shelf control, I’m really just trying to keep track of how much money I DO spend on books, so I can see what might be reasonable to cut back.

  5. Yeah…I’m probably in this category too. But I have limited bookcase room as it is. I have 5 bookcases, and 3 of those are only 3 shelfers, so hardly anything, right? And then one is a narrow bookcase, despite the 5 shelves. I’ve amassed all the space in my room with bookcases, minus space for bed, desk, dresser and a tv stand. I did upgrade my night table into one that had two shelves which basically hold all my Jennifer Armentrout books. The bulk of my books though are on a top shelf in my closet. But even those are stacked to the top of my ceiling.

    Every now and then I go through some and try to figure out which ones I no longer need to keep. The same with my TBR pile. But it usually results in maybe, maybe ridding myself of 5 books. Maybe. And it’s usually only 1 or 2 from the TBR pile.

    My mountainous pile came to be around 2010 for that was when my beloved Borders closed their doors forever. Naturally, one cannot say no to an ever increasing book sale! Plus I was a member there and definitely got my money’s worth from the 2 or 3 years that I had the membership, so that was an extra 10% on top of all the other sales.

    Then came the RT in 2010, I probably only picked up a few titles then, but in 2012 was when the real magic happened and oh good god I picked up soooo many books. A good chunk were FREE and then there was the ones that I bought. Thank goodness that year I drove home from the convention. The RTs after that I also drove to, so I took all the books my little heart could want and all that my poor back could manage to carry! LOL!

    It’s hard for me to want to part with any of my books. Especially since I’m a grade A author stalker and always looking to see just how close one of my favorite authors are coming to St. Louis. Usually the closest is by you in Naperville. So I have to shuffle a schedule a bit and see if I can get off work to make the drive up there! And all the signed copies make me smile, so it’s super hard to ever want to part with those.

    Then there’s my more recent habit of buying multiple copies of books. But in my defense they are different! Different covers with new reprints or international editions that I just HAVE to have for my collection! LOL! I still live at home, so my books don’t bother anyone. I only have maybe 1.5 cases outside my room. Which means they’re my mom’s bookcases that’s she allowed me to use a shelf or two! LOL! With my older sister moving out, I’m itching to take measurements of the spare bedroom, but will have to hold off. I also told my mom as we walked around with my sister around IKEA, a great house warming present for me would be one of the massive bookcases they sell! I saw a very nice three set one with like 10 shelves! Definitely gonna need a ladder for that one! Hee hee!

    I’m going to BEA for the first time ever this year and am SOOOOOOOO excited! So far I am hoping to be rooming with Nikki from Take me Away, as long as everything goes smoothly! Would definitely love to meet up with you if you plan to attend! I’d love to hang with a pro at this event, as I’m a newb. Totally have RT down pat though! 😉

    Okay, sorry for the long comment! The discussion post got me going! LOL!

    • Okay, first of all I’m so excited that you’re going to be at BEA this year – I’ll be happy to show you the ropes as much as I can. I’ve only been to one so far, but I think I learned some really good lessons!

      And I completely agree that it’s gotten harder and harder for me to part with books – especially once I’ve met the author. I haven’t started collecting different editions of books, though! 🙂

  6. 73?! Hahaha I can’t even imagine coming home with 73 books. I feel like there’s some unspoken rule that, as a book blogger, you’re supposed to have mounds and mounds of books and massive bookcases… but I have hardly any physical books. I really only buy ebooks (or rather, I download a lot of free ones lol). Blogging is changing my shelves for the better though because, until last year, I wasn’t on GR, I didn’t even know book blogs existed, and I definitely didn’t know about all the giveaways out there. I’ve recently won a few though! So that’s making my teeny tiny bookshelf very happy 🙂

    That’s cute that you turned the dollhouse into a bookshelf! And even though there’s nothing wrong with Barbies, I just kind of love that she prefers to have the books over the dollhouse!

    Kristen @ Metaphors and Moonlight recently posted: Book Review: Soul Breaker (City of Crows Book 1) by Clara Coulson
    • See, that’s how I used to be – I had a regular-person reasonable number of books. BEA totally turned the tide and I’ve never been able to turn it back. It’s REALLY hard to resist taking a lot of books home when there are so many AMAZING ones just asking to be picked up!

  7. I am not a book buyer, because there’s no way I could afford to be, given my rate of reading. Years ago I committed to getting my books at the library. I even got rid of many books, keeping only obscure books, books with HIGH sentimental value, and reference material (mainly hiking books). Also some books of essays and poetry, which for some reason seem like something I’m more likely to pick up and re-read or flip through.

    We usually have 50-100 items checked out from our local library between the four of us. We have converted an old entertainment system cupboard into our board games and library books storage, which is better than our previous solution of piling books all along the bricks in front of the unusable fireplace. Only, usually there’s a pile of books on the coffee table, and a pile next to each kid’s bed, and a few on the hutch where they got moved from the dining room table, and two in the car, and one in a backpack…you get the idea.

    After all those years of not-buying books, I’ve increased my classroom library from about 20 books to over 600 in the last year. A certain amount of that was donated, but still, I’ve bought a LOT of books. I do hit Goodwill and the used book store, but I’m pretty picky about what I get–no buying something just because it’s a dollar. It also has to be something my students will want to read. I’m now having bookshelf issues in my classroom. And an organization issue. Besides my 600 books, there are another 200 or so that the school bought. Those books are barcoded, labeled, etc., and I keep them on separate shelves from my books. But that’s kind of weird. But I feel more obligated to be sure I keep track of the school’s books. So I’m torn. Keep it as is? Label the spines of all of MY books, then mingle the two sets? Mingle them without doing anything extra to mine? (They have my name on the inside cover. I was writing on the top end pages, in classic teacher style, but it was brought to my attention that used book stores will not buy them that way, and I wanted to keep my options open.)

    Now I feel a lot better about bringing 51 books home from NCTE. 🙂

  8. I’ve always been a book hoarder. Blogging hasn’t changed that at all really! I got it from my Dad, who also hoards books. The only thing that’s changed is that now I’m more selective about which books I keep, and which books I buy ebook versions of instead of physical.

    I’m up to 10 bookcases now. One is empty, one is half-full, and the rest are packed. These bookcases are nearly floor to ceiling. *is curious, quickly measures one* They are: 85 inches tall (just over 7 feet!) and 30.5 inches wide, with 6-7 shelves per bookcase depending on if it contains hardbacks, paperbacks or tall books.

    So you can tell your husband that you are not alone. And that at least you don’t have my bookcases in your house? *laughs*

    I haven’t done BEA, though it sounds like fun if fairly pricey? But with the finished copies of the cozy mystery books I get sent every month, I would have no room left if I didn’t get super picky! I have one entire shelf of books that need to find a new home, and one shelf of TBR. I’ve been borrowing from my library a LOT this last year to try to keep the numbers down somehow!

    • Ten 7′ bookcases! I’m so jealous! BEA is very fun, and the event itself actually isn’t all that pricey – things like hotel and travel do add up, of course. But you should definitely come – this year is a great option if you live closer to Chicago than New York.

  9. Oh, blogging has definitely changed my bookshelves. haha I have one in my sister’s old room. Three in my room. A shelf with a lot of books hanging on my wall, another shelf with my lamp and whatnot that has tons of books. And then I have books just randomly throughout my house. I really need to go through them soon though and get rid of as much as I can. I DO want to read more of my own books, but some I’ve read and need to pass along and others I probably will NEVER read at this point. haha

    -Lauren

    ShootingStarsMag recently posted: Unique Formatting Challenge: Book Ideas!
  10. My shelves are completely under control. But I just started blogging two months ago! So I have a feeling things will begin to explode! I am fine with that though, as I want more books, desperately! The only reason I buy so few books is because my family yells at me. They say its a waste of money. So I yell back. How could somebody ever say that??!

    Maya @ Suddenly Inundated recently posted: What I Thought Of Siege and Storm
  11. My buying habit similarly went out of the window when I started blogging. Consequently all shelf space is stuffed and I am using the floor as storage. But I am not complaining, I love my personal library

  12. YESS *raises hand* My bookshelves have undoubtedly changed….just the fact that I HAVE MY OWN NOW. XD We used to just have family shelves and whatnot…but I have my very own bought-by-me shelf filled with my own books and fjadklafd it is the best feeling ever. XD Of course it’s full. After owning it for only 2 years. And like, I mean, STUFFED. Even the top is piled with these enormously wavering stacks. So. I’m sunk. I need a bigger bedroom for more shelves. XDXD

  13. Yes, mine have for sure! My husband swore he would not buy me more shelves, but when stacks of books were ALL over the place, he conceded. We actually buy them really cheap at Goodwill or garage sales and refinish them. It’s a project we can do together, and so much cheaper to he’s okay with it LOL But, I am a hoarder, so it would be hard to part with any book I have

  14. Love love love the dollhouse idea! We have one that my kids don’t use anymore-going to convert it into a bookshelf for my daughter this weekend!

    As for me, I don’t actually own any books, since I exclusively read library books 🙂

    • Yes – this giant dollhouse was fun for a little while, but my daughter has honestly never been that into dolls. But books – oh, yes, she’s definitely into those. She absolutely did not want to get rid of the dollhouse, so this was the perfect solution! Hope you enjoy yours as much as we have ours!

  15. 73 BOOKS???? DID YOU BUY ALL THOSE WERE THEY FREE HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE??? *stares in wonder* But yes blogging has totally changed my life. I enter giveaways, I’ve made friends, these people send me books?!?! IT’S AMAZING! I love this post xD and goodness you have so so many books it’s a work of art.

    SJ Bouquet recently posted: 20 Reasons to Hate Blogging
  16. Er – definitely! Blogging has grown my bookshelves a whole lot. In fact, before blogging I unhauled basically all my books (don’t ask me what I was doing… I was going through a change period in my life) so the fact that they have grown so quickly definitely says something xD But as you mentioned you suddenly become a whole lot more aware of all the new releases and then giveaways on top of things really do change a lot! Let alone review copies xD

    Olivia Roach recently posted: My Hoarding Catastrophe: It Wasn't Me!
  17. Before I proceed, let me just squee over that lovely DOLLHOUSE BOOKSHELF!! LOVE LOVE LOVE!!

    Okay, now that I am calm, I can continue. I’ve been pretty good about keeping books at a minimum. For the last 5 years or so, I have been purchasing digital books because of space issues (yeah?). We lived in an apartment then and so I tried my best not to buy any physical books. I probably had less than 50 books. Then I became an Avon Addict and everything went down the drain. Then I started blogging…. Although I don’t get physical ARCs, I’ve noticed that I purchase more physical books than not. I’m having my husband set up a reading nook/space for me. Hopefully, I can share my photos soon! 🙂

    Keep on collecting books!

    Zeee @ I Heart Romance & YA recently posted: Stitching Snow by R.C. Lewis | Audiobook Review
  18. My bookshelves *feel* like they are out of control, but in the grand scheme of things I am on the small scale compared to most book hoarders – I mean, bloggers. 😉 I have one single bookcase, and I have triple-stacked books two deep on one shelf, and double-stacked books two deep on the top shelf that I haven’t read yet, as well as the stragglers of my two favorite series. Blogging is what MADE me get bookshelves! I had never had my own bookshelf before.

  19. My bookshelves aren’t out of control YET, but then I haven’t gotten around to requesting ARCs and all that, yet. I also try to be frugal with my money. Books are my weakness, however, but I will go to the library for a book if I know that I can get it there 🙂 I’m so jealous of your bookshelves, though! And using the dollhouse as a shelf is a super cute idea! 🙂

  20. I LOVE how you turned the dollhouse into a bookshelf! I definitely started adding more books to my shelves after I joined Goodreads and started blogging because I just kept seeing book after book that I absolutely needed to read and didn’t want to wait until the library got a copy, lol. But last year I was determined to cut back on my book spending and read books I already owned, and I did pretty well sticking to that.

  21. I’ve been a book addict/collector since I was about 7. Since I’m now in my early 50s, you can imagine that I’ve accumulated a lot of books. There are 19 bookcases in our house, of which 10 are exclusively mine, and 2 more are mostly mine. So blogging hasn’t really increased the number of physical books I choose to bring into the house. It HAS changed my habits somewhat, though. I read a lot more ebooks now, both ARCs and books I’ve bought.

    Actually, I’m thinking I need to prune my bookcases, let go of stuff I won’t read or won’t read again, and stick to the books I really LOVE. Which is still a lot of them, honestly. But these days, I don’t buy a physical book until I’ve read it, unless it’s in a series I’m already collecting. I just buy print books that I *know* I will want to read again. And probably again.

  22. What a great post! I have definitely run out of shelf space since starting blogging- although I have purged some so that helps. It is just so hard not to acquire new books! I think you’re right, knowing about all the new releases… doesn’t help. 🙂 I’m not really good at the library, see I want to OWN all the books LOL. Although since I started e- reading that has helped a bit…

    Greg recently posted: Sunday Post #125
  23. Oh, my bookshelves are SO out of control! I don’t know what to even do with all the books. I have started double stacking them, but it still isn’t enougH! I am afraid to count how many I have, honestly. I got to almost 300- BEFORE the double stacked ones. And my kids’ books are just as out of hand, especially my daughter’s. ANd the worst part is that she makes us read “pretend stories in the dark” at bedtime. Meaning we have to turn off her lights and make up Berenstain Bear stories about random crap. Even though she has every book ever published on her bookcase! And in bins and baskets and all over the place. My son also loves books, but he recently started eating them. So his numbers have taken a decline, because I am not buying any more until he stops snacking on them 😉 Also, I LOVE the dollhouse bookcase! Such an amazing idea!

  24. Jen

    Oh yeah lol. Before blogging, all of my books were on my Kindle. Now I have physical books all over our bedroom, eeks. But this fall, in our family room, we’re building a fireplace surrounded by a ridiculous amount built-ins and I can’t wait to store all of my books out there! Yay! BTW, you’re daughter’s doll house/book house is absolutely adorable, I love it!

  25. Lol. I’ve actually never had bookshelves–as a younger child it was because I didn’t want my sister to steal my books. Now, it’s a matter of living situation but it’s one of the first things I’m planning on buying when I get my own place. I can only imagine what my place is gonna look like–probably a library. Blogging definitely adds to your book collection!

  26. And this is why I switched almost exclusively to ebooks on my Kindle. Lol. I have one bookcase (it has glass doors on it) and that’s all I allow myself for fiction books. I then have a separate shelf for non-fiction as it relates to my writing. My knitting books are in storage. But I’m very grateful for my Kindle because I can still read whatever I want without the need for actual physical space! People tell me that they only read paperbacks because of the touch or smell of books. I tell them that’s all fine and good until you have to move them from one house to another. Ugh. Never again.

    S. J. Pajonas recently posted: It’s My Birthday! So Have This For Free…
  27. Haha, I had the same experience at ALA two years ago. I knew I’d bring some books home, but had no idea how many, even picking with care. I also agree that just knowing about more books, as well as swaps like OTSPSecretSiter and giveaways, keep my pile growing 🙂

  28. I get really OCD about things, and my bookshelves are one of them. I’d be way too stressed if I couldn’t keep them under control LOL. So I try really hard to buy books that I know I’m going to read soon (and that’s true for my Kindle) or books I loved and read in ARC format. I have shelves for my read books, and then I have shelves for my TBR pile… that has recently gotten a lot more books added to it lol. I hope I can keep up!

Leave a Reply

(Enter your URL then click here to include a link to one of your blog posts.)

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.