Alright, my loves, it’s time for one of my most highly-requested posts of all time… the introduction to my SHELF TOUR series!
Before we get started, a disclaimer: I own a lot of books. Reasons:
1) We could never afford books when I was a kid, so I make up for it now. 2) I have always wanted to have a massive, full-room library, and I’m working my way up to it. 3) My MI symptoms include impulsive purchasing habits that can be difficult to control.
All of this is to say: if you plan on commenting anything rude about my collection’s size, please just close this post now. 99.9% of my friends and followers are amazing people, but I have received some very unkind remarks in the past and won’t stand for them anymore.
All of the boring bits aside… let’s jump in! Since I have several shelves, I’ve decided to break this up into a series of posts. I had a hard time deciding what to begin with, so I opted to kick this off with my new TBR cart! After wanting one for almost two years, I finally purchased one recently and have loved it. It lives right beside my desk, and at any given time, it houses:
- current reads
- ARCs I need to read ASAP
- seasonal TBR titles
- miscellaneous recent hauls I’d like to read soon
Since the cart’s shelves hide the bottom halves of the books’ spines, I’ll add a collage underneath each shelf with the books there. Let me know if this is something you’d like me to keep doing, or if you think the photos of the shelves are enough on their own!
top shelf:
This top shelf is all current reads and ARCs that I want to read ASAP, though I took this photo a few days ago, and have actually finished In Darkness, Delight since then. Also… I don’t even know why The Raven Boys is on here. ? I think I’d planned to reread it and didn’t get around to it, but its dust jacket is on the regular bookshelf with the rest of my Stiefvater collection.
This shelf also features a couple of freebie stickers I got for We Sold Our Souls and Vengeful. (I actually have 2 of these WSOS stickers, and the other one lives on my laptop!)
middle shelf:
This shelf is mostly slightly-lower-but-still-high priority review copies, plus some seasonal TBR items, and Bones, which I’ve finished since taking this photo, too. Some of these are pretty overdue (whoops).
This sticker is for BodyArtForms.com, the site I used to buy all of my jewelry from. I don’t even like the sticker that much, but I’ve been shopping from the site for so long that the logo is nostalgic. ?
bottom shelf:
This is basically a continuation of the top shelf (I’m realizing as I type this that it makes no sense to have them in this order ?): mostly review copies that are high priority, though a few were gifts that don’t require reviews right away (The Grief Keeper, If I’m Being Honest, These Witches Don’t Burn, Heroine).
No stickers on this one (yet)!
29 Comments
I love it! I recently bought myself two new book shelves and I’m reorganizing all my books. I’m looking forward to seeing the rest of this series to get some new ideas ? Happy reading!
Looks great! Fun way to keep all of your ARCs together. I love the idea of decorating it with stickers too. Makes it more personal!
I love this! Can I ask where you got your cart from? I’m looking for storage space for my ever growing book collection and I really like the idea of a book cart 🙂
So sorry for the late reply! Just in case you’re still looking for one, I got mine from Target! I think Michael’s also sells them!
I’ve been going back and forth about getting a cart for myself. I love this post!
I feel you on the unkind comments about your book collection. If that kinda thing makes you angry, why open the post? So annoying. Also- I have hard to control impulses like you do, and seeing someone say that out loud really touched me. Thank you.
I have been dying for a TBR cart! I saw them in Michaels when I went to get a few things for my wedding. I am trying my very hardest to refrain from buying it until after the wedding for now but uhgg I love them so much :]
I am very much looking forward to the rest of this series! Keep doin you girl!
So sorry for the late reply, but thank you for what you said about the impulse control issues – it’s really hard to open up so it meant a lot to me to see that it resonated with you, too. ♥
Great post, love how you organise your TBR cart. Can’t wait to see the rest of your shelves ???
This is amazing! I have one of these carts and I am going to dump my stuff out of it and put one of these together right now. I’m so inspired right now.
As for unkind comments about your book collection – I just wrote about the power of buying books. I have been shammed by people who think nothing of buying a new purse or a 15th pair of shoes but are appalled that I own books. Truthfully, I think this speaks to their own shame in not reading more than our collection. No one can stop me from buying all the beautiful books!
IT’S GORGEOUS!! I’m so sorry you have to deal with unkind comments about your book collection, I don’t understand it. It’s awesome that you have so many!
Aaa, I’m really thinking about getting one of these carts now… Maybe after I finish clearing out my room, it can be my motivation to get everything sorted! I like the collages, I think you should def keep doing them. I find it helpful to see the covers in addition to the spines. 🙂
The space I live in is too small to accommodate any sort of shelving and we can’t mount anything on the walls so I actually picked up a cart to organize my TBR stack yesterday! It’s such a nice way to organize things.
I’m sorry to hear books were hard to come by growing up but how great that they aren’t now! Sad to think anyone would have negative crap to say about someone sharing their library, internet trolls are a pain in the butt. So far a fun start! I’m happy for you too that you have the opportunity to build and have a big library. 😀 Fabulous!
This is so cool!! We’re about to move and I’ll (finally, after almost 27 years!) be able to start creating my own library, even if it isn’t bought-a-home-and-built-in levels yet. I may have to try a shelf tour post, too, if anyone is interested. But I like your cart idea! I should try that, too. Maybe I wouldn’t get so behind on ARCs if I did….:P
I love seeing people’s TBRs!I’m currently debating if I should read Middlegame of If I’m Being Honest next in the coming week, and even though they’re such different books I’m having a hard time deciding which to read first! Also, I love the fact that this is going to be a series! I can’t wait to see the next installment!
Also, I very much appreciate the collages!
I keep thinking I need to sort my books by read to unread but not really fully sure on that. I do know that while rainbow shelves were fun for a while I need to undo them.
Also, I have only read 2 of the books on your list, Raven Boys and A Thousand Perfect Notes. ATPN is such a beautiful, raw and tragic book, so good but also keep tissues nearby.
Oh I love bookshelf tours! Can’t wait for the other parts 🙂
(www.evelynreads.com)
[…] Lala, shared her bookshelf tour and the lovely Destiny @ Howling Libraries also shared a blog post about her bookshelf, and I thought, “It’s a sign! Time to do one […]
Great to see how you are using your tbr cart. 😀
YES!! Please do more of these!! I have been thinking about doing one of these myself, but will likely wait until we move as I currently have books all over the place and my current bookshelves are HIDEOUS!! (I’m getting new ones in the new house ?)
[…] Shelf tour #1 — TBR cart (new post series) […]
I made myself a little reading cart too recently that is kept next to our couch since we don’t have any sidetables. It’s a combination of my TBR, books I need to enter quotes for and all my annotating, and note-taking supplies. It’s very full and I’ve thought about having a cart just for books but our house is small and I’m pretty sure my mum would be annoyed aha… But I’m always tempted. I could probably just fit another small one next to it…
[…] for another shelf tour installment! Last time, we explored my TBR cart; this week, we’ll start on the first of my “main” bookshelves in my library […]
Ahh, I love this! ?????
[…] │Destiny @ Howling Libraries│SHELF TOUR TIME! #1 — INTRODUCING MY TBR CART!│ […]
[…] Tours #1 & […]
I love this and you better keep doing this series! I want to buy a TBR cart because aesthetics, but I kind of wonder if it would make things worse??? Do you find it helps at all???
I think it has helped some, yes! Right now mine is a mess and needs to be organized and re-filled, but before it got out of hand, I was using it a lot!
[…] you have grouchy things to say about large book collections, please refer back to the disclaimer in the first post of this series, and be kind. […]