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>>>>>I use the other arrangement. Bookcases all over the house, books piled on every flat surface including three and four foot high piles against the walls on hallway floors, and boxes piled up in the basement. There are only two real problems with this arrangement. First, I can't find anything, and secondly, I have four cats, so I have to keep re-piling the books.
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>>>>You sound like the weird old woman who lives uop the road from us: one of those people who have to squeeze through the door cos the hall's piled high with paper, and her garden is like a rubbish tip. She insists she's just collecting alu cans for charity (which she does) and won't even recognoise that the rest is an eyesore :-)
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>>>Nono. The outside is fine. In fact, last summer, I came home one day to find an envelope in my mailbox from my ward councillor. I almost threw it out figuring it was more self praising political junk, but because it was in a letter size manilla envelope, I thought maybe it was something I could use, like a calendar. Anyway, imagine my surprise when I opened it and found a parchment certificate signed by the councillor naming me as having one of the nicest gardens in the ward. I had no idea that they do drive-bys. I proudly filed it in a drawer. I'm sure it must still be there.
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>>No, I wasn't saying your garden was a tip - I was just filling in some interesting detail about this woman - but I've seen her squeezing past the piles of paper in her hall, at the front door. You did say you have 4' high piles in the hall, and 4 cats! The thing is - what's the point? They'll just be piles for someone to clear out when you croak, and serve no purpose other than to clutter up your life. And you said: "...There are only two real problems with this arrangement". ONLY 2!?
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>Well, it's the upstairs hallway where they get piled, not by the front door. And it's only books, not other paper products. Though, I have to admit you're right in questioning my assertion of only 2 problems. There is at least one more - dust. ;)

We call that the landing. So you can see the misunderstanding.

Not to mention a fire risk - both in flammablility and obstruction of escape path.

I'm glad it's just books and it doesn't include back issues of Nat Geog going back to the 50s :-)

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>Finally, no, they don't clutter up my life, they envelope it in warmth and memories. They are old friends, reminding me not only of their content, but also of who and where I was when I was reading them the first time. And to say they will never be read again is not necessarily correct. You may read a book only once, but others (myself included) may well read a book many more times than that. I've read one particular book at least 14 times (maybe 15 - I've lost count). Another, I've read 3 times, and there are others I've read twice.

Like you said: if you can find the buggers!

The fact that you've read some so many times raises the following points to me:

1) all the less reason you'll ever get round to the rest
2) you're losing your marbles and can't remember the plot to the books you've read so many times! :-)


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>A lot of this goes back to upbringing. I was raised surrounded by books, and my brother and I seem to have inherited the 'book gathering' gene.

It wasn't on a farm, by any chance, was it?