Books

As a teacher I never felt like I had enough books.  I would compare my empty shelves to other teachers who had been teaching for 30+ years and I felt like my collection was inadequate.  I did my best to gain a collection…going to garage sales, ordering with book order points, grabbing what I could when the library cleaned out its shelves, etc.  I still felt like I didn’t have very many children’s books. 

Then I stopped teaching and brought my collection home.  My books have been sitting in the garage for 6 months.  I haven’t had book shelves to put them on. 

The other night I decided I was going to pull those books out and make room for them.  After all, before I know it Hannah will be more and more interested in books and I need them to be easily accessible. 

About 5 years before I got married my mom was on a furniture kick.  She would seek out great, cheap/free finds and store them in her basement…knowing that someday her kids would be married and need furniture.  I believe I got the biggest hook up when I scored this beautiful piece. 



In our apartment, it housed our TV.  In our home, it housed…..well, whatever I didn’t have a home for.  I had organized games and movies in the bottom, but the top had a broken CD player, baskets, exercise bands, our camera case, flashlights, etc.  I decided this would be the new home of my books.

Behold…

 
  
NOTE:  The baskets on the top shelf in this last picture are 2 deep…

I feel like I have enough books for now.  I estimated about 750.

Now, don’t ask me where a certain book is.  Organizing them is a project for another day (or possibly never because correct me if I”m wrong…but little kids love to dump things out so what’s the point?)  I know where Christmas books and Math books are and that’s it…and Magic Tree House.  At the beginning of every school year I would start to organize them, get about half way through, and give up because it’s just too hard….by author? genre? theme? writing style? plot? type of illustration? reading level?  subject?  I have never come up with a great system.  For now, at least they are out of the garage.

Now I just need to find a home for the random stuff I was storing in there before.