I haven’t done a bookshelf tour in so long (not even sure I’ve done one officially) but I recently went through a lot of effort to reorganize and rearrange, so here we are today! Some quick backstory on my book situation and purchasing habits, then I’ll dive into the brief shelf tour.
Book Buying Habits
I’ve been super up-and-down with my book buying. When I first started blogging, I went WILD and bought so many books. Not even great books. Just any books I saw on sale in the store that looked moderately interesting. I didn’t check Goodreads right away (simpler times!) and just spent recklessly on kinda crappy, random books. My shelves have been filled of those books for years because I kept thinking MAYBE I’d read them. I refused to admit I had wasted money on books I’d never get to. I did move a lot of lame books from house to house, plus storage in between when we moved to Maine. I started to be way pickier about what books I purchased, like only books by favorite authors or guaranteed wins. No more gambles haha. The last year or so I started picking up books more freely and subscribed to BOTM, but I still made sure to pick up books I genuinely wanted to read instead of some just because they were on sale. I also frequently check if the book is on Scribd or Hoopla before purchasing for now.
Last weekend, I decided to purge a bunch of books and brought them to the Book Barn. I got $15 in store credit and went ahead and bought a lot more books than that lol. I got home from the store, reorganized my shelves, and pulled out a bunch more to bring to the local Goodwill later in the week just to get rid of them. I was able to fit everything between my bookshelves and book cart – no books on the ground (except for 3 that I borrowed from other people and need to return, so they don’t need a specific spot on the shelves).
Bookshelves
We live in a super small rental house for now and we’ve been here since 2018. We have two large/normal sized bookshelves and one thin, smaller shelf next to our TV. I have another corner shelf upstairs, which houses some of my favorite books/authors separately (not pictured here because it’s a mess and I haven’t gotten to it yet). I also have a TBR cart which is full to the brim. I do have a bookshelf at my dad’s house that has a bunch of my already read books – I tried to only take TBR books home when we got back from living in Maine and kept my finished books there. I won’t show a picture of those messy shelves but just know they exist haha. Without further ado, here’s how I reorganized!
Top of the bookshelf: Skinnytaste cookbook collection
First two shelves: YA fantasy and paranormal books
Middle shelf: A few larger nonfiction “coffee table books,” comics/graphic novels, most of my hardcover cookbook collection aside from the Skinnytaste ones
Bottom two shelves (not pictured): ARCs
Top two white shelves: YA mystery/thriller with two lone historical fiction/retellings
Bottom white shelf (mostly not pictured): Nonfiction (feminism, intuitive eating, memoirs)
Top two shelves: Adult contemporary romance/fiction (including a double stack of mass market paperbacks)
Middle shelf: Adult mystery/thriller (including cozy mystery mass market paperbacks stacked on top)
Bottom two shelves: YA contemporary romance/fiction (this is where I ran out of room so I double stacked them, and the ones you can’t see the spines of are my Gossip Girl books)
Book/TBR Cart
My TBR cart contains a lot of books I’ve deluded myself into thinking I’ll read sometime in the near future. In actuality, a lot of them are just newer books that I got and moved onto the cart because my shelves were a mess. I’m going to have to do swap-outs when I finish these books and move them downstairs.
Top of cart: iPad for when I watch YouTube in bed
Inside top: mostly writing supplies and journals, random stickers and things
Middle shelf: paperback TBR, book sleeves of all sizes, remotes for the TV, hanging cup of markers, toys and chews for Miller (my dog), a bag full of pens and highlighters, and my neck booklight
Bottom shelf: hardcover TBR and a couple of paperbacks
Love the shelves and the cute yellow chick planter!
It’s from the Target dollar spot a few years ago! I refuse to only use it as an Easter decoration haha