Bookshelf Report: The Tale of Two Bookshelves From the West Side
The Bookshelf Report is an ongoing series where a Bushwick reader invites us into their home and shares a little bit about the books that occupy their shelves.
Today’s bookshelf (or bookshelves I should say) comes from the West Seattle home of Sheri Fairchild. As you can tell by the pictures below she is in avid reader. She also loves her dogs (dogs not pictured) and has been known to rock the karaoke mic (also not pictured).
How do you organize your books?
I didn’t realize how both my bookshelves follow the same methodology. This wasn’t intentional, I think they just follow my way of thinking.
- Shelf #1 – again – mostly important stuff. I’ve got lots of my English Lit books up there because I haven’t come to terms with getting rid of them yet (even the Norton Shakespeare anthology). My grandpa made me stamp books and I keep them up there too – important stuff. You get the idea.
- Shelf #2 – yep reference stuff. These are craft books, knitting stuff, books from my childhood that I loved… and a Edgar Martinez piggy bank.
- Shelf #3 – Cook books. Used frequently.
- Shelf #4 – Games
- Shelf #5 – More English Lit and Anthropology books I can’t part with at the moment.
- Shelf #6 – puzzles, pictures, games, and a bunch more crap.
- Shelf #1 are the really awesome coffee table books that I don’t want dog slobber on, or coffee rings, or used as a paperweight. Also on that shelf is my daughter Yazi’s chemistry book, which we have to return at the end of the school year. So – clearly, top shelf is the MVP shelf.
- Shelf #2 is reference. Basically I put important books there. I definitely don’t want to get rid of them, but I do want to pull one and get info, then put it back.
- Shelf #3 is stuff on my “to read” list, plus a coin jar and crap. These books looked interesting and/or were gifts that someone else thought would be interesting to me.
- Shelf #4 is the stuff I’ve already read and want to keep because I loved it or want to loan it — with one exception. The horizontal stack are more books I received “to read” but they didn’t fit a shelf up.
- Shelf #5 is the catch all. Usually the over-sized maps, magazines, drawing pads, etc. go here. You can see there’s some pom pom’s there now. Cashmere, my 16 year old cat, has made this her new hiding spot.
What percentage of the books on this shelf have you actually read?
Hmm… cover to cover? I would say 40%. I reference about 40% and I’d say about 20% have yet to be read.
What’s your favorite book on the shelf?
I have my favorite book on loan. It was on the shelf a while ago, so even though it’s not there at the moment, I’m still counting it. One of my favorite books of all time is Island of the Sequined Love Nun by Christopher Moore. This is a phenomenal book. It is funny, scary, poignant, eccentric, unbelievable, believable, and just fucking awesome. It’s the kind of book that has an amazing story that you cannot help but visualize as it plays out.
What book do you plan on reading next?
Hmm…don’t know. I’ve been very uninspired by my “to read” shelf. I’d like to knock out the two Glass Books of the Dream Eaters by Gordon Dahlquist. I feel like I’ve neglected my “real” books lately. I’ve been reading a lot of books on Kindle.
I see a lot of piggy banks on the top shelf. Are they just for show or do you actually use them to save money? Do tell…
The piggy banks are from cities I’ve visited, most in Europe. Some have coins in them, but the coins are either foreign or special coins from my grandparents (they were coin collectors).
Thanks for sharing, Sheri. You have nice books (if you know what I mean).
If you have a bookshelf and want to be featured on the Bookshelf Report drop me a line and together we can make it happen.
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