Sunday 7 October 2007

Bookcases Do Furnish A Room


Ow. I have just performed the most exercise since... well, at least eight years. And it took much longer than I anticipated - which is why today's post has slipped over into Sunday. Oops!

No, I haven't run a marathon or won the rugby world cup (topical, no?) Yes, I have battled with the tester of mental and physical agili
ty which Argos label a 'bookcase'. It took about three hours. I have genuine blisters. But it got done. Some will suggest that giving up on screwing in screws, and lunging at them with a hammer instead, is a short-sighted and foolish measure. To these people may I repeat - blisters. And the bookcase hasn't fallen down yet.

So here it is - looks simple, doesn't it? At least the instructions were in English, unlike some Ikea bookcases I've purchased. And a tent I tried to put up a while ago appeared to have instructions in Polish or Dutch or something that was of minimal use to me - though doubtless swathes of Poles or Dutchmen have successfully put up enough to keep fields of campers dry. Oh, and the list is purely photographic-angle stuff, promise.

More importantly, on go the books. Only a small fraction of my books came with me to Oxford. Which brings me to the question of ordering - this can raise strong opinions from people. Harriet recently shelved some books in colour order - something which looks beautiful, but which I think is only practical in the home and should never be attemped by anyone trying to sell books; how am I to know where to look?! My friend Barbara-from-Ludlow arranges many of hers in subject/period/tone etc. in a very personal system which means everything is with companionable neighbours, as it were. What did I go for? Alphabetical, I'm afraid. The librarian in me coming through, isn't it? There are slight twists - separate shelf for Persephone Books and one for my beautiful Jane Austens. Sorry the titles and spines aren't very clear in the photo - I think it's because it's past midnight, and thus dark... and another day without a sketch, but I think the image of me putting this contraption together is quite amusing enough without further illustration.

BAFAB draw tomorrow - or, rather, later today - so very last chance to enter: here!

8 comments:

  1. I know those Argos bookshelves very well. They're only fractionally more sturdy than bricks and planks, but far easier to get hold of (although when you live in a top floor flat and order 8 of them the local delivery driver threatens to blacklist you). And my books are still mostly ordered by which shelf they got chucked at in a hurry after moving because we needed to find the floor again. Two years on, it's beginning to look like a system.

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  2. But are the Persephones in alphabetical or numerical order?

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  3. Dad and I are thinking of buying a couple of 2m bookshelves for the living room - we could get them here ready for you to assemble when next you visit!
    Before you chuck the hammer at me - remember we have a power screw-driver:)
    OVW

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  4. My bookcase is now separated into fiction and non-fiction, each alphabetised by author. Well, that's the first shelf - the second and third shelves are DVDs... and my bookcase took about 15 minutes to put up.

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  5. Karen, Persephones are numerically ordered!

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  6. I'm tempted to draw my own mental image of you putting up that bookshelf. I am quite impressed though. Impressed and surprised. What with the scart leads, you're quite the handyman. xx

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  7. I only wish I could see a little bit closer. I love how you've arranged your Austens and I agree - Persephones must be numerically!

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  8. Deeply impressed, and still standing (the bookshelf not you!). The Persephone Books look wonderful I am almost tempted to go and rearrange my "library". It needs sorting. I am quite convinced that somewhere I have a copy of "The Origin of the Species" but it seems to have disappeared. The only way to find it of course is to buy another!!

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