A question of storage for the book addicts

I have a question for book addicts like myself. Do you ever put part of your collection in cold storage? I have too many books for the space I have to shelve them. I either need to buy two large bookshelves (and find somewhere to put them!) or buy some large plastic storage boxes and put them on top of my wardrobe. My mother muttered that I should stop buying so many books and sell some of mine (!) but we all know that will never happen (“OVER MY DEAD BODY!” was my actual response). Currently my largest bookshelf is double stacked, with the books laying flat. Where I used to have five paperbacks standing up, I now have about twenty laying down. That bookshelf is just under 2m high by maybe just over 2m long. On top of the hardcovers standing on the top of that bookshelf, I have stacked more books on their bellies, as high as I can get safely them. Lucky I have vaulted ceilings, hey?! In front of the large bookshelf I have a small bookshelf I bought during my first year of university. It is about a metre by a metre, and was made in someone’s shed in Townsville. It is a bit wonky, but it has a nice design for display purposes. That display capacity is not being made use of right now! I have all my Nora Robert’s books (I own most of them now) crammed in this bookshelf any way I can fit them, and on top I have books stacked about ten high. Next to this I have 2 teetering piles of books about waist high. They are holding each other up, and braced by the smaller bookshelf on the left and the large bookshelf behind them. Yes, the smaller bookshelf is placed immediately in front of the big bookshelf. I need more room! I also recently took my shoes out of their shelf and replaced them with books. The shoe shelf is kind of like a dvd cabinet. I have books crammed in there two books thick, and it is about 2.5m tall, although only about 50 cm wide. There are still more books under my bed and on my desk. So what is the solution? I think I need to buy two new tall bookshelves, throw out the smaller ones and move my desk around so there is more wall space. It is expensive though. If I was leasing by myself I would just buy some bricks and 2by4s. I grew up with bookshelves like that and they may be cheap and nasty, but they WORK! The problem is, if they get bumped, they can scratch the wall. The lease on the sharehouse I am currently living in isn’t in my name and Lachlan would kill me if I scratched the walls. I just don’t know what to do. I can’t really afford to buy bookshelves, but the books aren’t stacked safely and I am always worried some fell breeze will knock them over. I don't want to be a Jacq pancake! (although, what a way to go!) I am hoping to move this year, but that isn’t a given because I buy books instead of dumping that $40 in the bank every fortnight. Books are a necessity of life, I refuse to listen to my Mum when she says they aren’t! If I lived anywhere near my parents I would just ask Dad to make me a big arse bookshelf, but they live fourteen hours away, so that is not going to happen.

Yes, I know, I am talking myself in a circle. There isn’t really anything I can do. I think I need to buy some large plastic storage containers and go through my books and figure out which I am unlikely to read in the next year or so. The biggest problem with storing my books like this is that our house is prone to damp. Can you recommend a way of keeping the damp out of plastic boxes? I don’t want to hurt my books. At least on the bookshelves there is nowhere for damp air to gather…Is there a product which will attract the moisture without hurting my books with chemical?

What are your solutions when you have too many books? Do you buy new bookshelves, cull your collection, stack them creatively or put them in storage? And do you have suggestions on the best way for me to put some of my preciouses out of the way on top of my wardrobe?

Tip for blogspot bloggers...

I have a tip for bloggers here on blogspot who want pretty blogs but don't have the design skills (or time) to make them.

1. Head to http://draft.blogger.com/home
2. Click on Layout
3. Click on Template Designer
4. Pick the template you like the best! You can then change the backgrounds and colour schemes quite easily

Blogger in Draft has a lot of interesting new templates, and it will help those who currently have plain blogs against their will to find a more interesting design without needing to know any coding, design or to take up valuable time fiddling with graphics and code.

Here are some quick examples for you:

It is something to think about, anyway. And if you click the little check box at the top of http://draft.blogger.com/home you will be able to use all the unreleased features every time you start a new blog from your home page. I am really liking the new Insert Picture function because it links up to my Picasa Web Album - with all the other pictures I have ever inserted into this blog :D

Readability: a solution to garish blogs

I came across this post by Justin Woodbridge on Tumblr recently, and I had to share the tip. It is for a web tool called Readability - which changes the skin of the page you are reading to a more generic one. I find this a godsend for all those garish blogs I seem to stumble across. You know the type - the ones with hideous colour schemes that give you migraines and unreadable fonts that give you eye strain? Well all you have to do is use this tool, and it makes it automatically readable... It really is a great tool if you are a blog addict like myself! :D

The website is: http://lab.arc90.com/experiments/readability
It is also a Firefox add-on: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/46442

The website, with easy to choose options and immediately visible examples:

You then drag the Readability button to your bookmarks, and click it when you want to strip a website of all its crap.

Here is the original post by Justin Woodbridge:

Most websites are poorly designed. The person didn’t know what they were doing, they got it for free off another website, they hired a shoddy designer. You get the gist. The colors clash, ads fill the sidebars, social media badges all over the place, irate commenters at the bottom. Major turn offs from a website. Unfortunately, that doesn’t always mean they aren’t damn good writers. I want to focus on what you have to say, not what the commenters do. So, here’s the solution: A little bookmarklet named Readability. This little tool strips away the garbage, leaving you with a tasteful page. It customizable too


Pop that into your bookmarks bar. Next time you’re browsing the days headlines and you find an article you’d like to absorb, click on it. Bam. A clean and simple page, nothing but prose.

Screenshots
Before*:

After:

*Rather than picking on a blog I follow, I killed an old blog I had for reviews, painting it garish colours... Probably should have added hideous graphics as well LOL

Anyway, this is my solution to finding a blog that you love to read but the design makes you haemorrhage.

Which international authors should I try?

I am doing the Global Challenge for 2010, where I have to read 12 books from different countries on the continents (2 per continent). I am fine for Australasia, Europe and North and Central America, but off the top of my head, I can't think of authors I want to read from South America, Africa or Asia. I may finally get around to reading Art of War by Sun Tzu but I need some suggestions or advice for the others. I tend to read fantasy, science fiction, paranormal romance, some horror, mysteries, classics and gothic romance. I don’t like books filled full of bigotry (I tend to throw them aside in disgust) or survival stories. I know a number of books set in these countries, but they aren’t written by authors local to the environs.

Do you have any recommendations?

Innovative Bookshelves

jacq reposting from her old blog

Following the booktagger blog, i wanted to have a look at some other innovative ideas for bookshelves.. so i did a google LOL Some of them I found quite distressing - books stacked higgletypigglety in a way that couldnt be healthy for the books.. But others I saw and loved.. At a latter stage I will make some sketches of the design I want for my future library (when i buy a house and do it up, i plan to devote a book to reading, have a studio, a study, and a room for media, as well as a vegie garden and a paddock out the back for my horse.. i plan to get a dogey cheap house in a hobbyfarm-type area - probably at the moment i am thinking townsville.. but who knows where I will end up.. it is my eventual plan tho. i had thought to build a house - i have drafted so many designs, but i thought restoring and renovating a house would have more quirks - nooks and crannies and character - and no, i have no idea when i will get around to all this! after my Masters, in any case..

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/07/bibliochaise_wh.php

http://blog.stylehive.com/index.php/weblog/entry/hot-product-stagger-shelf-sustainable-asymmetry/

http://www.trendhunter.com/trends/beautiful-book-shelves-for-book-lovers

http://www.shakinstyle.com/2007/05/tree_shelf_roun.html

http://www.geekologie.com/2007/11/bookshelf_cave_is_sort_of_neat.php

I plan to have a bay window with a seat, and wall to wall, ceiling to floor, bookshelves.. It would be cheery with a fire, but that probably would heat the wall up too much, so probably some artificial heat.. anyway, any comments or suggestions, or links to other great ideas?

Gem from Booktagger

Eucalyptus Oil the Bain of Adhesives and Stickers

One of the first things I do when I buy a book is remove the sticker. Good stickers come off clean, bad ones leave an awful residue. I feel like I've picked up a book trade secret today.Eucalyptus oil wafted under my nose while I was at Abbey's receiving desk at the back. Expecting the smell of books I was puzzled and said so. To which I was informed by knowing eyes how wonderfully well eucalyptus oil works in removing price tags and adhesives in general. I was then warned not to use it to clean keyboards as others had gotten carried away with its cleaning power to only find it has an unwanted effect on plastics. They melt.Next time you're looking to remove a sticker from a book use eucalyptus oil, just be careful to not use it on CD covers or keyboards...so I've been told.