I have a confession to make. I haven’t been buying as many books lately. Well, that’s not entirely true, I have been, but they have mostly been ebooks. And since I have discovered the treasure trove Project Gutenberg, at many of the books I have been “buying” have been free.
But I still consider myself a sort of book collector. I am someone who, even while working in library full of books, still feels the need to fill my home with them. I don’t feel like I have been too neglectful of my shelves, they are getting pretty full and buying digital books means that I don’t have to weed my collection to make more space.
The Globe and Mail recently published this piece: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/a-lament-for-the-bookshelf/article1488426/. Talking about how the bookshelf will disapear due to electronic books being available on ereader and other mobile devices.
As a rebuttal there is this quote from an article in the Toronto Star by Vit Wagner in an interview with writer John Banville :
“But Banville is capable of becoming equally animated about less lofty subjects, such as IKEA’s Billy bookcase. He recently learned that the Swedish furniture manufacturer turns out 15 of the units every minute of every day of the week – a prospect, he says, “that cheers me up to no end.
“If people are buying bookcases, they must be putting books in them. Isn’t that a wonderful notion? People talk about the death of the book and yet here are people buying millions of bookcases all over the world.
“Books do furnish a room. They are a civilized and beautiful objects – one of the most beautiful artifacts man has ever invented. And it’s one of the greatest pieces of technology ever.
“I know that you can put it on a computer. But the physical act of opening a book seems to me an act that will always be necessary.””
How do you feel, are less books being bought, are physical shelves being replaced with virtual ones? Or do you feel that books are still being bought?
Last month the Swiss Army Librarian posted some images of bookshelves and challenged others to do the same:
http://www.swissarmylibrarian.net/2010/02/11/bookshelves-of-librarians
It has some nice links to photo collections, and other in the comments.
How about you guys? Do you organize on Shelfari or Librarything? Have you set up your own catalogue? Do you have a perfectly organized shelf, or do you create book towers on the floor?
Send in a picture of your shelf (physical of otherwise)! Share a story about your books!
For inspiration check out this site: “Book Lovers Never Go to Bed Alone“
BC LTAS 
Thanks to a nomadic past and shoebox-apartment present, I don’t have enough books to be worth cataloguing (did that provoke any gasps of horror?!). Very few books survive my ruthless pre-move purges. Those that do survive are grouped into genres, with works by the same author together.