Contributed Post
Libraries are a staple of life. We used them during elementary school days, having lessons inside them with interactive elements. We used them during high school, to try and get our heads down for studying away from distracting things like having a social life. We used them for the same reasons during the college days, and we might have even felt like we lived in one. And as adults, we go back to them for a sense of nostalgia, and to borrow a book we don’t feel like buying every now and then.
But it still feels like the need for a library is in decline, and more and more of them around the globe are being shut up because of people’s immediate access to information from their own computers they have at home. Don’t worry, we’re not going to preach about how this reflects how bad we are these days yada yada… But it would be nice to reintroduce the idea of a library from time to time, so why not start at home?
Whether you’re taking a break from reading, not finding much motivation or time to sit down with a good novel anymore, or you can never get your nose out of a book and you want a dedicated reading area to your name, this is the idea for you! Even when you’re the former, it’s a good way to build up some energy for your book collection, and a chance to finally have somewhere you can unwind surrounded by a paradise your younger self would have absolutely loved. With all that in mind, here’s how you can build you own little library, right at home.
It might not be as sprawling as this, but your library can still be impressive! (Source)
Get Your Shelving Sorted
You’re going to have to measure everything out first, and that means digging out your long forgotten tape measure and spirit level from the back of the closet. If you don’t start with assessing the space you have to work with, you’re never going to fit your library in there, no matter how small you think it might be!
So you can have a couple of book shelves that span from floor to ceiling, and finally get those unread book stacks out of the upstairs hallway, and away from you tripping over them every morning as you blearily climb out of your room. Put the space behind the TV to good use, or finally get that empty corner of your living room to pull its weight. Or you can have smaller shelves, well, boxes really, lined up on your wall to accommodate your smaller collection. You could even organize them by genre. For example, keep all your thriller novels by J.D. Barker or Gillian Flynn in one box, while rom-com or comic books can go in another. It’s a simple way to declutter and make finding your next read easier. You can easily grab and go, and the thought of how many books you’ve got left to get through is going to be a lot less overwhelming! It’s a little library you’re making after all, so you don’t have to put in too much effort for the storage here.
But if you’ve got a spare room on your hands, now might be the time to convert it. It’s free real estate after all, and you could do a lot with the space for making sure you’ve got a comfy reading corner that you could maybe take a nap in every now and then. Hey, reading is incredibly relaxing, and now you’ve got an entire room dedicated to making sure you’re spending time in other worlds and learning as much information as you can! Isn’t that an exciting thought?
Start Investing
In more books? When you’ve already got shelves upon shelves of books you’ve barely even glanced at in 5 years? Isn’t that a little bit crazy? Well, no, to be honest here. If you’ve got books you barely know the plot or names of stored away, now might be the time to sell them on or donate them. You’re clearly not interested in them, and a book should never just sit around and collect dust! Let someone else have the pleasure of opening up its pages and save yourself some guilt over spending.
If you’re building your own little library, you’re going to need to cultivate it to your own interests. One easy way to do this is to look into some novels or non fictions that you simply like the look or sound of. The whole idea about never judging a book by its cover is all well and good when you’ve got a moral to teach, but in reality, you’re absolutely meant to. That’s what graphic designers are hired for! Or you can go in search of some titles related to a subject or them you love to follow, and buy up a whole store of books that are relevant to this. Let yourself have some retail therapy in the world of the written word, and you’re going to have a much better library as a result.
Watch Out for Pests!
Books are very attractive to a lot of bugs out there, so you’re going to have to prepare for some invasions every now and then. Don’t worry, you’re not doing anything wrong, it happens in all the big museums as well! When you’ve got a lot of tomes, that may or may not be getting a little dusty, lined up, moths at the least are going to love the home you’ve accidentally made for them.
But it’s not just little creatures littering your books that you’ve got to look out for here. No, you’re going to need to make sure there’s nothing in the wood of your shelves, and that there’s no hidden source of pests elsewhere in your home. All in all, it’d be good to call upon the services of a company like ABC Home & Commercial Pest Control, as all these considerations can be taken care of in one go. Hey, if it means you save money on a call out, it’d be a good idea to put the bug spray back and get the professionals in!
Investigate all the Small Shops for Good Deals
It’s here that you’re going to find the absolute bargains when it comes to the investing in books point made above. Both old and new books can be found in these, as well as collections from actual established libraries who needed to cut down on their inventory. You’re only going to have to shill out a few dollars here and there to build up your own collection, and you’re going to be wiser and happier for it!
Paperbacks and hardbacks are going to have their own prices to follow, so try to stick to one type of book and compromise over this rarely. Your library shelves need to look good when there’s books all over them, and when you’ve got a neat row of hardbacks blocking the gaps, and then a paperback barely fitting in the space and getting the other books to lean one way, you’re not going to have good looking shelves. Or use a pattern, and alternate between hard and paper, hard and paper etc.
Start Building Your Library Today!
Books are staples of life, just like libraries are, so never underestimate how much you’re going to want them around you. Just because you like to spend a lot of time in the digital world doesn’t mean you won’t want to kickback the old fashioned way every now and then. Building your own library around this is just an added bonus, and it’s going to be fun for you to craft one as well!
