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Health & Fitness

Book Lust

A few musings on books, how to store them in your home and how awesome Island Books owner Roger Page and his staff are.

We’re big readers in this house. We like books. A lot. I would like to say that we are good library book-checker-outers, but we aren’t. We can spend hours at . In fact, I put myself on a book diet last year because I realized I had a problem. That diet went just about as well as any other diet I’ve ever been on and I have a stack of books on my bedside table just waiting to be devoured.

Brett, the Philistine, has gone to the dark side and reads ebooks. I personally can’t do it. I hear all the reasons for it and I understand and respect them. Being someone who travels a lot, I get the convenience of having an ebook instead of carting around two real books, you know just in case you finish the first one. But I like the smell of books and the feel of books. I like taking a book in the bath with me and I don’t like the idea of holding an ebook in a baggie while I’m in the bath. It just kills the mood. Plus, I like to talk to Roger and the staff at about their recommendations and I just don’t feel good about taking that awesome service and then going to buy the book somewhere else. That high-touch experience is something I love about buying from local and independent booksellers. (If you feel the way I feel about this, you must pick up "It’s a Book" by Lane Smith.)

I like to keep my books. I re-read my books. I like to write in my books, underline passages that I like, mark places I want to refer to. Maeve and Ainsley have inherited this gene as well. Needless to say we have some issues with book storage. The excess is currently stacked near the fireplace, which some recent posts have led me to believe might be okay.

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Check out this post on fireplaces as book storage. How gorgeous is that?

Also, stacking books as object d’art is an excellent way to take your beautiful books and give them a home in your décor.

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We have a very long bedroom that begs to be separated into two distinct spaces, one for the bed and another for a little sitting/reading/writing area for myself. I dream of these corner books shelves and am wondering how difficult they would be to build. And maybe this gorgeous dove gray Eames chair to cozy up with a good book and a cup of tea.

Right now, it’s raining outside and I love the sound of the pitter patter on the skylights.  It’s soothing and cozy and makes me want to crawl back in bed with my book. I am currently re-reading The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand. I can’t help myself with the architect thing. It’s a very different read for me than it was twenty years ago and I am not sure how I feel about it. Another architect-type book I am dying to read is a historical fiction about Frank Lloyd Wright by T. C. Boyle called The Women. I think that will be next on the list.

What are you reading now and where do you like to read it?

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