mon petit bibliothèque

My Little Library

finally getting a library of my own :)

        I have always wanted a library. As you may be aware, I am sort of a book nerd, and I am madly in love with the written word--I am a writer, after all, but equally (if not even more so) I am a reader. I love to surround myself with beautiful, lovely books, and to spend hours pouring over them; I love their look, their feel, their smell, and most everything about them. I’ve never been very fond of e-books, because I simply love paper books so very much, and why not allow your literature to sprawl and fill space? There is nothing like holding a good book in your hands, with beautiful, soft, pale yellow, sweetly aged-smelling pages, a pretty little binding, and an enthralling tale carefully captured in its precisely crafted language printed neatly upon the page. I have long dreamt of having some sort of library of my own, particularly an expansive one that might belong in a castle, a vast, ballroom-sized space filled with rows upon rows of shelves completely filled with books, with luxurious window seats and comfy chairs and elegant candelabras and fanciful decorations and gorgeous stained glass windows and an intricate wrought iron spiral staircase to the second story which would contain more books, and one of the wall-mounted candelabras could be pulled down to open a secret hall behind one of the bookshelves which would contain secret books and maps and passages and more secret items, and another such secret hall could be revealed by removing a specially selected book from a certain shelf deep in the library, and all the shelves would be an elegant deep warm cherry toned, mahogany sort of wood, and all the wood would have ornately carved patterns on it, and there would be murals depicting fantastical scenes and faeries in forests, and it would generally be the most splendid library of all libraries anywhere, even more splendid than the library Rumpelstiltskin gave Belle (I wonder how many blog posts I can manage to reference them in?), though that was indeed a lovely library (and plus, how many guys give you a library twice--in the fairytale world and in the ‘real’ world?). It is likely needless to say, though, that I have not yet obtained this library. Not quite.
        I have, however, taken a step in this direction. My mom promised me that I could have the bookshelf which had previously been adjacent to our kitchen in my bedroom if I got the space for it in my bedroom cleared, and just last night, I finally attained this goal. It did take me a few days to work through the somewhat notable pile of accumulated whatnot in the corner of my bedroom beside my closet, but with the help of a couple of snow days, I got the task accomplished. I sorted through clothes and papers and various tchotchkes and trinkets and whatall over a couple of days, I stored my suitcase in the basement to make space, and I swept the miraculously uncovered new spot of fluffy dust bunnies, I moved the pictures hung too low on my wall to accommodate the height of the bookshelf, and finally I found myself with a beautiful, cleared, clean space for my very own bookshelf. We moved the freshly cleared shelf into my bedroom in the lovely spot carefully prepared for it, and I dusted it off and began the exciting process of loading it with my books. I’ve been anticipating getting this bookshelf in my room for some time now, and so I had piles of books prepared for it which have been blocking my door so it couldn’t open all the way for a little while. I finally sorted these books and lovingly arranged them just how I wanted on my shelf, and then I admired them in awe. I also took a bunch of pictures but I don’t feel like bothering to sift through those and to post all of them just now, so that may be another follow-up post some time, or I might just not post them. We shall see.
        But perhaps the best part of this was discovering that, despite how large the piles of books behind my door had seemed, there was still significant space left open on my new bookshelf. Which of course means that I can go get more books. Book shopping, anyone? :D Hehehehehe.....
        It’s funny, this is the second blog post I’m writing this week, but it’s the first one I’ve finished, because I’ve been switching back and forth. I’m also setting a new record for blogging this week. The other week, I made a record for getting my posts done the earliest I ever had, but this week, it’s a record in the other direction--this is the first time that my first blog post has ever come at nearly 10 o’clock on a Saturday night. That’s me and blogging, I guess! I did actually start my first post around Wednessday, I think, but this is the first one I’m finishing. But it was just kind of a weird week. And besides, I was busy making way for my lovely new little library corner :)
        A beautiful and precious new library was formally consecrated this week beyond the violet mist, and now new books may begin flowing in to fill its shelves, a thought which makes us smile widely.