Bookshelf

One of the nice things about reading physical books is that you can place them on a shelf and display them. I have always found shelves of books fascinating just to look at, from the simple beauty of them all neatly aligned on a shelf, to the enjoyment of browsing along the shelf reading all the titles or being amazed at the variety of cover designs, many of which are works of art rivalling anything you might see in an art gallery.

My first recollection of a bookshelf was my Grannies (maternal grandmother), this was a prominent piece of furniture that she had had, most of her married life. The bookcase was made of solid Mahogany and consisted of a base with a large double door cupboard with a drawer on either side, above it. On top of this was a glass-fronted, double door bookcase, which consisted of about six or seven shelves. All of the shelves were full of books, which my Gran told me had belonged to my Grandfather. He had collected them over the course of his life, many of them being purchased from second-hand bookshops. All of the books were hardbacks, with many of them being what would be termed classics nowadays. I remember looking at the bookcase and estimating the number of books it must contain, which I would guess must have been between three and four hundred, and thinking to myself how much I would like to be able to read that many books within my lifetime. When my Gran died my Mother inherited the bookcase and all the books, then when I bought my house my Mother asked if I would like the bookcase, which I did, but unfortunately, the layout of the living room in my house was such that I could not find a place to fit it in so had to decline the offer. Eventually, she gave the bookcase to my older brother, who still has it, together with all the books.

Like everyone, I would guess, when I started collecting books I would just have them sitting on top of a cabinet or table until I had enough to warrant placing them on a shelf. My first shelf, if I remember correctly, was just a piece of melamine covered MDF fixed between two grey metal brackets, screwed to the wall above my bed in the bedroom I shared with my two brothers. Once this was full I would have added a similar shelf above, or maybe below, to hold my growing library.

In 1985 we moved home, which required a rethink on how I wished to display my books. During this period I purchased at least eight Pine shelves with matching brackets, which I sanded down and then varnished before fixing them to the wall in my new bedroom. These were arranged in four levels on two walls and intersected in the corner. At this stage, I had accumulated one hundred and thirty-six books, all paperbacks. About three-fifths of these books were Doctor Who novels, which I had continued to purchase, but the rest were a varied mixture, most still being Science Fiction or Fantasy, but there were several Horror novels in there as well, a few Thrillers and the odd Adventure and Humour based ones too. Most of my books at this stage were either a novelisation of a TV series or Films for the most part.

It was at this point that I also joined my first book club, having found the local shops to have a limited selection of the genres I preferred. The first book I bought from the club was by a new author called David Gemmell and the book was called "Legend". David Gemmell soon became my favourite author with his subsequent novels, all of which I bought as soon as I saw them whether that was in a book shop or a book club catalogue.

Another milestone was taken later that year in October when I bought my first Hardback books, five in total, all through the book club at a nicely discounted price. The first three were leather-bound editions of "The Hobbit", "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, The Return of the King" and "The Silmarillion", the other two books were "The Belgariad 1: Pawn of Prophecy, Queen of Sorcery, Magician's Gambit" and "The Belgariad 2: Castle of Wizardry, Enchanter's End Game".  After this, I used to buy hardbacks regularly, usually through a book club but not always.

In 1987 I bought a house, which I finally moved into in January 1988 after spending a few months re-decorating the place.  This of course meant that I had to decide where and how to display my books. I originally started with a standard bookcase made of dark woodgrain coloured melamine MDF, which was about 900mm wide and about 1200mm high, which I placed in the rear of the living room. I think it had three internal shelves, a bottom shelf which was part of the base and of course the top. This lasted until I renewed the carpet in the living room a couple of years later, which was a dirty looking greenish colour left behind by the previous owner. Just before the new carpet was fitted I installed the first section of the wall-mounted shelves shown in the photographs above. This first section was the right-hand side piece, which was about 1200mm wide and originally consisted of five shelves. Over the years as I acquired more books I expanded the shelves, first by adding in the centre section and then the left-hand side section. These two sections were about 1800mm wide each.  The Living room of my house was a through room, from front to back, and the party wall was split by a chimney breast leaving a long section of wall to the rear, where I installed the shelves for my novels and similar reading matter, and an alcove at the front of the room in which I also installed shelves, but on these, I kept reference books, videos, DVDs and photo albums.

The photographs below show my final physical bookshelf that I had when I lived in England, the books of which, unfortunately, I had to part with when I emigrated to Thailand in 2016. 

As you will no doubt have noticed there is more on the shelves than just books alone, but besides the speakers which were part of my surround sound system, most of the other items are mementoes from my other main passion, Archery, primarily from my time spent as an archery judge, which I did at International level and is something that required a lot of reading to be done in its own right, however, that is a tale for another webpage.

On emigrating to Thailand in 2016 I was faced with the problem of what to do with my books. I looked at various options, of putting them into storage, shipping them out to Thailand, leaving them with family or donating them to a worthy cause.

Eventually, I decided to try and sell some, which I did for the Doctor Who books and all my David Gemmell books. I gave my older brother all of my Wheel of Time books and the rest I donated to the local British Heart Foundation Charity shop.