"Mom, I want the big blue book!"

So, here's a closer look at those bookcases I posted yesterday.  All nicely arrange by reading level.

Picture books on the bottom:

 Easy-ish readers, or books I wouldn't mind Boo reading kind of in the middle:

 Books I'm not sure she's ready for (or I know she's not ready for) on top:

 Which leads me to the title of this post.  Boo informed me a couple of weeks ago that she needs a stool in there to reach the top shelf.  Naturally, this gave me pause because I'd put the books up that high for a reason.
"Why?" I asked her.
"Because there's a book on the top shelf I want to read."
"What book is it?"
"I don't know, but it's a big blue book and it looks good and I want to read it."

Do you see the big blue book?  Know what it is?  Let's take a closer look:

"Boo, you can't read Harry Potter 5."

Crazy child.

Anyway, I told her we could read the first Harry Potter together after we finish what we're reading.  She didn't love that answer, but whatever.

How old would you want a child to be before reading Harry Potter??  I figure I don't mind her reading the first one or two with me at this age (she's going into first grade), but I don't think I want her to read 3 for another couple of years!  Let alone 4-7!!

(And, no, she's never seen the movies.  Never expressed an interest.  Should I have her watch the movie first or read it first?)

New House-- New Bookcases

So I promised more pictures, and then lost my internet connection for several days!!

Here is that little "cupboard under the stairs":

 And of course if there are books you need a comfy place to read them:

Nevermind all that storage in the back there......

(Actually, this looks a little different now because the poster for A Butterfly is Patient is on that wall, along with a framed cover of There's a Wocket in my Pocket.)

New House, More Books

Okay, maybe not more books, but it feels like more books.  Probably because so many are still in boxes waiting patiently for my dad to build me another bookcase....

Anyway.  I promised pictures.

These would be the designated "book rooms".  Yes, one is the "cupboard under the stairs" and yes, that's where the Harry Potter books reside, lol.  (The other pic is the living room.)

Here's what the living room looks like after moving in.... see, I need more bookcases.  (Actually I'm also adding shelves to both of these bookcases.)

Also, you can't see it in this picture, but I tried to fit all of my books received for review on one shelf.... guess how well that went?  I totally broke the shelf.  I had to rearrange.  I'll have to take a picture of that. :)

Stay tuned for pictures of the cupboard under the stairs.

Saturday with Mister-- Should I Laugh or Cry?

So the other day I posted all about cleaning my kids' bookcase out, right?

Well, after all that work, THIS is what Mister did the next day... and the next.....  more than once.....

Doesn't he look pleased with himself?

I'm not sure if I should laugh or cry....  On the one hand, he LOVES books.  On the other, I have to clean it up!

Sigh.

At what age does it become feasible for the child to replace books on a shelf vertically?  Boo still has a hard time with it too....  Though she's better about not throwing them all over the floor...

Books Books Everywhere.....

And the shelves began to shrink....

I can't be the only one in this boat, right?  Books everywhere, spilling off shelves...

So yesterday I sat myself down on the floor in front of Boo and Mister's bookcase.  (Yes, risking the possibility of being stuck there until my husband got home to haul my big pregnant self OFF the floor, but some things just have to be done.)

My children own a ridiculous number of books.  First of all, there are books we have from when I was a kid.... then there are the books my mother-in-law sends us as hubby's youngest siblings have outgrown them.... then there are all the books we can't seem to resist at cheap places like the library or thrift stores.... and of course the books they get for Christmas or for their birthdays....

The result?  A freakish number of books-- especially for 2 kids who can't read yet.

So I did it.  I sorted.  I purged.  I made a DI pile (VERY LARGE) and a "donate to the nursery" pile (good sized too).  (Nursery is the LDS class for ages 18 months to 3 years.  I was in there with Mister Sunday, since he's having a hard time staying without Mommy or Daddy during nap time...  They seriously need more/better books.  It was sad.) 

I even organized the books on the shelves.  Granted, they've already undone that.  When I got up this morning there were already books strewn all over.  But, hey, that means they're looking at them, right?

Now that that's done, how are my books, you ask?  We don't talk about my books.  :D 

Anybody else purging lately?  Is it a late winter thing?  Probably just a crazy nesting thing, huh?

Saturday with My Bookcases

So there's a new challenge over at S. Krishna's Books that I've been debating. A Clear off your Shelves challenge.

As in actually reading books you own. With a percentage as a goal.

Which means needing to actually know how many books you own that you've not read.

I actually gave up counting eventually, estimating the last bit, but the number is alarming.

Somewhere in the 250-275 range. There are around 40 on my mystery shelf alone-- that I haven't read, not total books. And just for the sake of full disclosure, no, I'm not counting reference books, text books, or our nice old classics that we have because they're cool. If I were, the number would be much much higher. And we won't even talk about the kids' picture books. I know I haven't read all of those.

Now, over at S. Krishna's Books, her goal is 40%. I don't think I'm that crazy... I mean daring... committed? Whatever it is, I'm not it. To read 40% of my books in 2 months (the challenge runs through the end of November) would be.... slightly insane. I read fast, but that's like 100 books!

So yeah, 40% isn't going to happen.... And really, October is also the last month for Reader's Choice and I'm very very behind. So I'm not sure what to do.

I need this kind of challenge. I never read books I own. Unless I'm rereading them. Books I own have no due date!

I think rather than a percentage, I'm just going to declare a number. I shall try to read 20 books I own. Hmm... 20.... yes, 20. I'll make some of them my yf/jfs to save time. :D

I think I may be insane.

My Books Are Out Of Control

Natasha at Mawbooks posted an interesting question today-- How do you organize your books and what does it say about you?? So... here goes.
(Note, I only took pictures of the bookshelves in the main room...)

This one has-- LDS nonfiction and fiction; yf/ya stuff- fantasy and series; magazines; and scrapbooks.

And DH's big baseball stats book.
Because really, where else are you going to put something that big.
This one has classics, art/humanities, plays, more LDS fiction, classic civ.... action/adventure... more scrapbooks... It's a hodge-podge. But it's largely stuff of mine from college.
And it's largely because it looks cool.
(Maybe I don't want to know what all this says about me... hmm.)

I should explain that my genre classifications probably have more to do with my "reading moods" than they do with actual library or bookstore classifications. But because I read according to my mood, it makes sense to me to organize that way.
These are my historical fiction books. They're going to need another shelf soon.

The bottom of this one, which needs another shelf cut and put in, contains piles of sci-fi/fantasy. The rest of those are still in a box, because they haven't been unpacked yet.


Here are more classics and general fiction. We have a lot of cool editions of classics, so we try to display those where you can actually see them.

We also have a full bookcase in our room-- nonfiction, humor/comics, mystery, foreign language/German, etc.
And a FULL bookcase of kids stuff-- from picture books to jf/yf. It's in the hall.

Board books are all over the house. Literally.

(And then there are the 4 BOXES of books we're selling..... )

The books might be slightly out of control.

:D:D