Books Galore

(Maybe this post should be titled 'Heidi's Addiction.')

Levi said the funniest thing the other day. It was something along the lines of, 'I've run out of books to read.' Granted, this boy is a voracious reader, but I have something to admit to you. I have an addiction. A book buying addiction. I've had it for many years. It will take a long time for Levi to get through the books I've purchased.

His comment did inspire me to share the book collection with y'all, though. Below is what I would lovingly refer to as 'the book tower.' It is the main collection of children's books (picture books, anthologies, easy readers, first chapter books, up to young adult fiction). It resides in the boys' bedroom and is within reach of Levi's bunk. Unfortunately, it is also within reach of Leif, who happens to enjoy stripping multiple shelves of books onto the floor.

(As a side note, the bookcase is very firmly bolted to the wall. This is very important since the boys like to use it as a ladder to reach the top bunk. Thank you, Dad, for making it so sturdy. It has lasted twenty years, so far!)

It seems as if I need to weed out the collection or find space for a second bookshelf. (Or stop buying books, heaven forbid.)
This next picture shows the incredibly distressed bookshelf of incredibly distressed board books. They have been, ahem, well loved. By you-know-whom.
And then there are the 'school books' in the 'school room.' I'm ordering (well, wish-list type ordering) custom built bookshelves to fill this space floor to ceiling (and all the way to the window on the right). Dad? Dad, are you there?

On the left, we have reference type books on the top shelf and four shelves of history and literature divided by time periods.

The right shelf holds a wider selection of Childcraft Encyclopedias, Math, Language Arts, Languages, Art, Music, Geography, Bible, and miscellaneous. The bottom shelf is full of science books. (Hmmm. Now that I think of it, I have a drawer full of beginning readers in the school room, too.)

The books we are currently using for lessons find their way to the stacks on the desk behind the couch along with library books and videos.

Our Christmas books are currently living in a basket on the ottoman.
And on the little table next to the couch.
And the music-related Christmas books are living on the piano with Levi's lesson books.
Just for fun, my 'pretty books' are on the shelf near the kitchen, along with cookbooks, decorating books, coffee table books, and gardening books.

But where do The Count of Monte Cristo, Pride and Prejudice, Ender's Game, The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, and Uncle Tom's Cabin live? Maybe in another installment...

The nursery shelves held books galore!

Books cluttered up the nursery floor!

And in the bedroom, by the bed,

More books were waiting to be read!

Such wondrous, fine, fantastic tales

Of dragons, gypsies, queens and whales

And treasure isles, and distant shores

Where smugglers rowed with muffled oars,

And pirates wearing purple pants,

And sailing ships and elephants...

~Roald Dahl, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory