Book Buying Addicts Anonymous discussion

Book buying addicts that we are, most of us probably have huge mountains of as-of-yet unread books just waiting to be scaled. But what to do with them in the meantime?
In the May purchases topic, someone mentioned building a fort with their TBR books... so what's the most creative, sensible, or just downright bizarre thing you could do with yours?
Me? I'm thinking of getting rid of all the furniture that's cluttering up my space and building new furniture out of my unread books. =]

Ha. I actually use mine to hold other books up, like a bookend.

I built a library of unread books... sadly I own 1106 books of last counting but have only read 160-175 of them... 300 are history or reference so that leaves 600 some novels... hmmm... gotta go got more reading to do...

I build obstacle courses for my flatmate out of books. Hmm... 'build' implies some sort of intentionality so maybe it's not the best word to use - more like I dump them in piles wherever I can find some space. The PILES (yes, they call for capital letters) are mainly held together by magic and local disturbances in laws of physics and occasionally come down in avalanches, sometimes burying my visiting friends underneath...

At present I'm contemplating emptying kitchen shelves in order to make more space for books.

In my bedroom they took over all available (and not available) shelf&floor space and are now steadily trying to push me out of my own bed... I'm not joking, there's at least 40-50 in bed at the moment... Which is ok right now, they haven't yet encroached onto my side of bed but when my fiance's back in August I'm not sure where is he going to sleep...

If only books would pay some rent - I could get rid off the flatmate and use her room as library...

There you go, Joanna-that's a plan I like. If we could figure out how to do it! I need something similar in my house. Only pretty soon they would eat up all the space in my kids' rooms & keep proliferating.

Someday someone's gonna find me underneath all these books.

Some are in my room on my bedside table. I have small piles on my tables in the living room, and the rest are in my book closet.
When I lived in a single room, even at my parents' house, they were in tumbling down avalanches.

i like to cry over mine at my lack of time to read them all hahahah

they take up my room and yes like joanna my bed...the lounge room dogs bed hahah they are every where! i like the fort idea i think maybe ill build a reading fort out of my books lol

Mine are currently in plastic bags at the end of my bed. My room looks like a hoarders room with all those bags. But I am not allowing myself to buy anymore until I've got a good section of my backlog chunked away. I may be getting a bigger bedroom in the next year or so and I will have space for more bookshelves and organization.

They are on my computer table in various places, stacked on the book shelf, in my walk-in-wardrobe, on my beside table and a whole bunch are in some draws below my TV and gaming systems.

It's a bit bad actually..lol

I'm going to, as someone else remarked, make new furniture for my apartment. I have so many books in my bed with me already, I may not even notice the difference.

About 90% of books I own have not been read. As soon as I read a book, I give it away to a charity shop or something similar. I almost never reread books so this system works for me because I can browse at my shelves (and piles on the floor) and think, what am I in the mood for now??

I find it's brilliant to put books under beds, sofas, chairs and closets. That way stuff won't roll under there and disappear! (Which is really great when you have pets and kids).
My husband thinks this marvellous solution is just an excuse to get more books. I feel very misunderstood and unappreciated... ;-) ;-)

Ya gotta check this out!
The Bookcase Chair!
http://theofficestylist.com/the-books...
Would that help some of you out? hehe

Or how about this set of stairs that double as a bookcase?
http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/ny/at...

they are great!

The chair is brilliant! Need to get me one of those!

I want one of those chairs. Or two! :-)

The chair is fabulous, I agree. Thanks for the site.

I don't have a staircase in my apartment but, anyway, I think the books should be covered. I don't think I could actually step directly on book spines! *gasp*

I had a bad vision of muddy boots on that staircase...

Boy, I feel odd saying I just shelve them in bookcases with the books I have read. :-)

That first image of the staircase is a fake-out, I think: it took me a minute to figure it out, but the books are not stepped on, they're under the treads, acting as the risers. The first picture is from the top of the stairs looking down. What a great idea...

Joseph wrote: "Boy, I feel odd saying I just shelve them in bookcases with the books I have read. :-)"

- Me too. :/

What bothers me about the staircase is that each step is only like half a step. You have to go up (or down) starting off with a specific foot. Would make it harder to do in the dark, or carrying anything heavy, etc. The first photo looking down isn't the best angle. They certainly own alot of books all the same height don't they! lol

If the steps were make all the same width and not alternating then I'd love a bookshelf stairwell. My house is too small to accomidate the bookshelf chair but I love the idea of it. The ottoman too. :) (I've saved the links for the two just the same though. lol)

Joseph wrote: "Boy, I feel odd saying I just shelve them in bookcases with the books I have read. :-)"

:) I would too if I could. I'm not PILING just for fun. Problem is I've run out of shelving space a while ago. And I WILL NOT give any of my books away! Or sell them! They're mine, my own, my precioussss.... ;)

Just put the books on "the pile" and keep on moving. I have given some books away that I have read. I am not really interested in keeping books that I don't like.

I had my "to read" pile on top of my record player (with the cover closed, I mean). But today I cleaned up and moved them to the top of my DVD shelf, with my Eiffel tower bookends (which I don't have room for in my bookcases).

It looks much nicer now, plus it's easier to listen to my records. :)

um....I have too many TBR books for one location. They are quite literally all over the place. In a box. On the shelf. On my nightstand. On the floor in my bedroom. Next to the alarm clock. Wherever they fit. :)

@Nancy Neh, use what you have! :) Books from the freezer, love it!

I give my TBR book the most prestigious place in my library. I do sometimes feel a pang of guilt toward my other (ABR books) but like the good friends they are I never hear a single complaint. I do try to keep my TBR books to a manageable number. After reading some of the other posts I must be doing something right as I keep them to under 100. This does require me to read daily and I sometimes hesitate to re-read. I haven't thought of converting TBR books into furniture yet but they are starting to take up space outside of my library and study. Initiative space management has almost run its course and I have to admit that I no longer have limitless space.

Nancy, I once saw either a TV show or an online article (can't remember which) where a lady had a gorgeous 1950s pink refrigerator. It didn't work, but she stored books in it! I have always remembered that because I thought it was the coolest thing ever. :)

I don't separate unread books like I used to with my DVDs, I organise them all in the bookshelves with my read books but keep tabs of them using goodreads (but I backup the catalog to my computer just in case!). Before goodreads and my reading revival I had so few books I tended to know exactly which I had or hadn't read.

J.p. wrote: "I built a library of unread books... sadly I own 1106 books of last counting but have only read 160-175 of them... 300 are history or reference so that leaves 600 some novels... hmmm... gotta go go..."

Waw... i dream to have this amount of books. waw

My family started to think that I am addicted to buying books. Yes I do have a lot of unread books but still whenever I go to bookstore I buy books.
I am really addicted but that’s fine with me.
I am planning to read them but my work is taking most of my time unfortunately.

The TBR books I have in bags in my closet. When I finish a book if I will reread it goes on my bookshelves otherwise I donate to goodwill.

I have almost 2,000 books, and I have only read maybe 25% of them... If that...When I moved from Tennessee to Connecticut, I unloaded about five hundred books I had read and wouldn't reread, so I have been buying books like a fiend to rebuild my library. I have to use goodreads to keep track of what I've read, but since a lot of the books were pretty new, I built a couple small bookshelves in the living room to put my newer purchases in. That way I can just grab a book from there if I don't want to fool with my TBR list on GoodReads. It's crazy though. There are books everywhere, b/c our apartment is pretty small. I have to be very creative storing books now, because there's no more room to build bookshelves unless we sell the furniture.

Since my last posting, I moved and now have two bookshelves

They have their own shelf.

Joseph wrote: "Boy, I feel odd saying I just shelve them in bookcases with the books I have read. :-)"

Pretty much me too. Although those Christmas trees made out of books look nice...

Most are on shelves, with the exception of the stacks behind my closet door and the stacks behind the bedroom door that isn't wide enough for a shelf but wide enough for the books to fit.

I continue to read them and collect more. God willing it is a race i'll never win!

Thom wrote: "I continue to read them and collect more. God willing it is a race i'll never win!"

Thom, I like the way you put that. It's the same way I go at it. :-)

I have some on a bookshelf but most are stacked on the floor near my bedroom door, all of the books that I have read go on ebay or they go to a charity shop

I have them on 7 bookshelves in my unit and 3 bookshelves in our storage room and over a 1,300 on my Kindle Fire. I try to select from my TBR list as much as I can and stay away from the library. But it's so hard to do.

*sigh! That's just too much to think about. They are all over the place and lately I've been obsessing about not living long enough to read them all.

Juanita wrote: "*sigh! That's just too much to think about. They are all over the place and lately I've been obsessing about not living long enough to read them all."

I know what you mean Juanita. I read this caption that says "Too many books and too little time". My sister and I have said and felt the same way. Only book lovers and readers can identify with us. My advice, which is little, is to try and read the ones you really want to read first..which is all of them...right. LOL!! :o)

Lawrence wrote: "Juanita wrote: "*sigh! That's just too much to think about. They are all over the place and lately I've been obsessing about not living long enough to read them all."

I know what you mean Juanit..."

It IS all of them. I usually have four or five going in varying formats! When I DO die the kids are going to have to run all those different books back to the library.

They sit in a place on the bookshelf as motivation.

Actually I have three different sets of shelves. One is for read books, one is for my work-reference etc. (with a tiny space I gracefully leave to my husband ;))and the third (by far the largest) is for unread books. There must be between 400 and 500 by now. And these I keep next to me in my office, so when I work they nag me and are a constant frustration, making me wish I were reading them instead of sitting at the PC for work. Isn't that a kind of cruelty to myself? or may be a motivation in life? as Jules Renard once said: "When I think of all the books left for me to read, I have the certainty that I will be happy"
Happy New Year everyone!

I store all my books in plastic boxes. I'd love to put them on a shelf, but my cats are intent on destroying them, and would get on the shelves, seriously; they chew the corners, stretch their claws on them, tear out pages...sad but true (and no, I'm not getting rid of my cats! LOL)

Michelle Greenleaf wrote: "I store all my books in plastic boxes. I'd love to put them on a shelf, but my cats are intent on destroying them, and would get on the shelves, seriously; they chew the corners, stretch their claw..."

Michelle, have you considered getting bookcases with doors?

Oh, I have one, but I'm still waiting on my dad to spruce it up a little before he brings it in the house. It's been about 6 months...

I gave a large amount of books away at a tag sale