Here we go – the third in my three-part bookshelf tour (tired yet?). When we moved into this house, my first bookish priority was to get the upstairs shelves unloaded and organized. (Not my first priority in general, of course – that came after getting the kids’ clothes and toys unpacked and put away; the kitchen organized; and our clothes in the closet. Then, and only then, books.) Over the next few months, I both acquired new books and turned up old books – especially those belonging to Steve – that had been in storage for the past few years. We finally had the space to keep them all out where we could get to them easily, so I ordered three Billy bookshelves from IKEA and set them up along the back wall of the family room, next to the kids’ library cart bookshelf (which originally lived in Peanut’s nursery and which I will keep forever).

From the top left:

The top shelf is overflow paperback and some small hardcovers – mostly literary fiction. Some of these, I’d really like to move to the main shelves – especially the Gilead quartet. Once I have a chance to read and whittle down my literary fiction shelf upstairs – and bring a few to the library donation bin, which is finally accepting again – this shelf may shuffle a bit.

I think of the second shelf as the “cozy shelf.” Christmas books on the left, knitting on the right. Does it get cozier than that? (I haven’t knitted anything in ages. Maybe I’ll start up again this winter.)

Finally, the third shelf is roughly divided between beverages (mostly Steve’s books about beer, and some of our joint wine books) on the left, and overflow cookbooks on the right. I keep most of my cookbooks upstairs – on shelves in the kitchen and dining room. These are the few that didn’t fit anywhere else.

On the lower left, this is Steve’s domain. He has half a shelf full of copies of a law review in which he published an article about punitive damages (the red journals are the law review issue in which his article appears, and the blue are individually bound copies of his article and a few copies of another law journal, which reprinted his article). (This is a huge achievement, and we proudly display those journals!) The rest of the shelves contain his fiction and nonfiction books, mostly organized by size.

Shelf two is almost all overflow book storage for me. The top shelf houses children’s books that didn’t fit upstairs – and my favorite old movies on DVD. (In the days when I had more time, I was a little bit of an old film buff – especially when it came to 1930s screwball comedies and anything starring Katharine Hepburn or Lauren Bacall. These days, I am last in line for the TV and the kids hate my old movies.)

Lower shelves – overflow hardcover and paperback classics, and my comics and graphic novel shelf. I need to spend more time with this one – I especially want to get to those omnibus editions of golden age Wonder Woman (I always said I would not be a superhero comic reader, and I’m not, but I make exceptions for Wonder Woman – my favorite – and Ms. Marvel).

The bottom three shelves on this bookcase are more overflow – classics, nonfiction, and oversized/coffee table books. I can’t wait to get to The South Polar Times. Soon!

The last shelf doesn’t have any books on it! I know – you’re shocked. Top two shelves are more DVDs (so vintage!) and underneath that, some of Steve’s Buffalo sports memorabilia and a stack of puzzles that Nugget and I like to work on together (when we have free space on the dining room table, which we haven’t for about a year – thanks to virtual school and workstations – that’s changing so maybe we can get back to our puzzling; Steve and Peanut think it’s a ridiculous activity and refuse to join in).

Finally! Last section of the last bookshelf. Top shelf has more puzzles – mostly adult puzzles that I do with Nugget, but a few of Nugget’s own puzzles, too. (Like the “Search and Find – Arctic Life” puzzle, which is super cute.) And then our board game collection, which Steve and I have added to over the years. Most of these are our grown-up games; we like to pull one out and play a game over wine (after kiddo bedtime) a few times a month. (Most recently we’ve been into Illimat and Marrying Mr. Darcy. Whenever we have guests, though, I agitate for my longtime favorites – Clue and Scattergories.) The kids have a few games in here, too – mostly games that are fun enough for Steve and me to be willing to play the for family game nights. Junior Rangerland, The Scrambled States of America, and especially Charley Harper’s Name That Bird, which Nugget got for Christmas and with which he, Steve and I are all obsessed. This is reminding me that I need to get another family game night on the calendar, and another grown-ups’ game night too.

If you’ve hung with me this long, well done you! That’s ALL of the bookshelves, with the exception of the cookbook shelves (unless you really want to see those, I think we’re done here). So – can we all agree that I need another bookcase or two or ten?