I’m sure you remember how my shelf looked like 10 years ago. If not, you can refresh your memory here. Well, 10 years is quite a long time and as you will see, I’ve been buzy collecting books. First off, I feel obliged to mention that I collect horse novels. It’s my quirk and I really don’t care if you think I’m completely mental. I do enjoy friendly teasing (many thanks to my Twitter people for some of the most hilarious tweets ever), just don’t be rude.

Let’s start with a couple of stats, because we all love numbers that express our readingrattyness. I keep 1,587 books on 4 1/2 shelves in a room of 12 square metres. Sounds crazy, is crazy, but I love to live in my personal library. So here are the results of the book census I started in January. However, these numbers might not be entirely correct. Counting and recounting 1,587 books is very tedious so I might have made some mistakes. Oh, and e-books are excluded, of course.

Now onto the shelves. I give you some pictures of the entire shelf at the beginning of each section, but in case you’d like to take a closer look you can find a gallery with larger images of all shelves at the bottom of this post. If you have any questions, feel free to ask.

This was my very first shelf and the one in the pictures from 2004. It’s incredibly stuffed and houses most of my horse novel collection. Although the shelves are quite solid, some are beginning to sag a little in the middle. On the left, you can see the whole shelf, on the right are the back rows. I’m not quite sure why I still keep the stereo for I haven’t used it in ages and it takes up a lot of space. The black and white box on the bottom shelf houses my fabrics and the four slipcases hold various but mostly horse magazines. In the green boxes with the horse on the shelf above are my watercolours and pastels and other art supplies. In the four slipcases next to them is my Wendy magazine collection and the couple of books are non-fiction on horses, cats, painting, and sewing – oh, and Iceland!

Over the course of the next four years, my collection had been growing too quickly for my various other shelves, so in 2008, my parents decided to solve the problem for the time being and ordered me a shelf made to measure for one of my corners. It’s red, big, and beautiful and does not only hold a lot of books but also my considerable DVD collection (80% imports from the UK and Ireland) and some other stuff in the middle compartment. Until recently, the left part housed all of the PonyClub/Pony/Pennygirl and FUNtasieClub bookclub novels, but I decided to mix it up a bit and I really like the result. As you can see, some of the shelves are sorted by colour. I love colour sorting but I’m too much of a perfectionist to do all my shelves like that. I cannot separate series and the books that share a board have to be of the same height. But whenever it’s possible, I go for a rainbow pattern. As you can see, there’s some space left since I just got a new shelf. However, I’ve preordered six hardcovers for March and April which I have to fit in there somewhere.

I’m not quite sure when I got this one but I think it was in 2011. Back then, it had only three boards but that was a total waste of space so I got another board for Christmas in 2012. Until recently, this shelf was at the end of my bed but my newest shelf has taken its place and I moved this one right next to my desk. Now I have a snug little bookshelf corner and the only thing that’s missing is a reading chair. I had to trick when taking these pictures. On the left is the shelf how it actually looks like – and in case you’re wondering, A Clash of Kings is currently at my sister’s place. On the right is the backside. Since my desk is in the way and covers most of the shelves, I decided to clear the front row and set up the back row in its place so that I could take a proper picture. However, I made a mistake. The top row is back to front but I only realised it when I had put all the books back in. The bottom two rows on the right are the books that I want to sell/swap/give away and you can find a bigger image in the gallery below. In case you spot something you’d like, just tell me and maybe we’ll work it out.

The newest addition the the library. It’s actually not quite done yet. My sister has a couple of books (Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein, Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder, Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell, Where She Went + If I Stay by Gayle Forman, and Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta) at her place and until I get them back, I can’t order this shelf properly. And yes, I know, it’s actually full already but there’s space inbetween the two rows, I just haven’t decided which ones will be at the back. The three ones lying with the edge up front (Rose Under Fire by Elizabeth Wein, Fire and Thorn by Rae Carson, and Falling Kingdoms by Morgan Rhodes) are awaiting reshelving. On the left, facing shelf #1, are a couple more horse novels. On the right, facing my bed are my English language paperbacks.

And last but not least, here’s what I consider my half-shelf: the top of my wardrobe. This is an interesting mixture of horse non-fiction, science fiction which I stole from my dad, Lurlene McDaniel novels, horse novels and the Anna trilogy.

Gallery