Last year I was browsing in an antique store and came across a used book seller. I collect old books (more about that in future posts), so one of the main reasons I go to antique stores is to look for books and ephemera. In looking through the shelves, I realized that a lot of what I was looking at was the collection of one household. The booth owner happened to be there and she confirmed that, yes, she had purchased a lot of it from a single estate sale.

How did I know it belonged to one person or family? I believe that when a person has an extensive book collection, the collection is as much a reflection of their life and personality as a photo album. You can tell a person’s hobbies, if and where they like to travel, perhaps something about their profession, their political leanings, if they are artistic, and so much more. It can be revealing in a deeply personal way. As I stood in that antique store, looking at the literary life before me, I could tell who these people voted for in previous elections, I could tell where they went on vacation, I could tell how they spent their weekends, and I could see what I had in common with these people based on the books on these shelves that were also on my shelves. It feels a little like reading someone’s personal thoughts in their journal – fascinating and a little creepy at the same time!

As I am packing for a big move, I decided to take pictures of my bookshelves before packing all my books away. I am going to share my shelves here so you can take a peek behind the curtain into my personal library. When I moved two years ago I started playing around with my previous organization system for my books. As I look now, I know that some of these are not where they belong and will be relocated when the boxes are unpacked.

The first shelf is a miscellaneous shelf, with some improperly categorized books. They are generally in order of when I purchased (or was gifted) the books. The first book on the far left was a high school graduation gift from my first grade teacher, and the next came from a subscription box. They are two examples of books that I did not pick personally and they may throw off the viewer of the shelfie when trying to figure out who I am. So in some cases, the shelf can be confusing when it comes to items that were not personally chosen by the reader. I will leave you to draw your own conclusions from the rest of the books on the shelf. The small piece of artwork came from an artist in New Mexico and will be discussed in a travel post, and the rocks were collected locally on vacation (picked up the little one because it reminded me of a hamburger!). Feel free to ask any questions you would like about the shelf. And there will be more shelfies to come in future weeks!