Creating Space for Books

"Lead me not into temptation... especially bookstores."

As I've mentioned before, I'm a librarian. In other words, I have a book "problem." If I had the space, I would have many more books than I could possibly read in my lifetime.

Living on a boat is not conducive to that dream.

In our first home together, my husband and I finished a basement office. I had an entire wall of floor-to-ceiling bookcases. Sadly, the only photograph I seem to have is when we were selling the house and the bookcases were empty:

When we moved to Baltimore, we downgraded in space and I could not take those beautiful bookcases with me. We still found a pretty good sized space for books. What this picture doesn't show is that I oftentimes had books behind books:

When we moved onto the boat, we downgraded in space yet again (are you sensing a theme?). I spent a couple years on board without any bookshelves. The only thing that has saved me is living walking distance from a public library.

We changed things around a bit two years ago and added a desk so I can effectively work from home. After using the desk for a while, we discovered the perfect place for a bookshelf -- under the desk!

It's not much. And it's currently full of the 24 advanced reader copies that I picked up at the American Library Association Midwinter Conference. But it's a bookshelf! And it makes my heart so happy.

This is definitely not a bookshelf where things can collect dust. I'll be attending another ALA conference in June and will be picking up more ARCs then. I read for the Capitol Choices 10-14 age reading group so I need to keep up with the latest books. With the exception of one copy of each of the books I've authored, items on this shelf can expect to rotate off quickly.

Has anyone else found a unique way to showcase books on your boat or in your home?