My Bookshelves
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- čas přidán 22. 06. 2019
- Let’s have a chat about my bookshelves. And no, this is not a bookshelf-tour!
Adam’s video Object-oriented #1 / Bookshelves: @mementomori: • Object-Oriented 01: Bo...
Find me elsewhere:
website: www.brittaboehler.com
twitter: / britta_boehler
goodreads: / 5497508.britta_b_hler
facebook: / britta.boehler1
Instagram: / brittaboehler
By the way:
I stole the name ‘The Second Shelf’ from the title of Meg Wolitzer’s article in the New York Times: www.nytimes.com/2012/04/01/boo...
I also wrote some books:
The Decision (2015): hauspublishing.com/fiction/the...
or in the German original: Der Brief des Zauberers (2104): www.aufbau-verlag.de/index.php...
Dutch non-fiction: De goede advocaat (2017): www.uitgeverijcossee.nl/boek/D...
as Britta Bolt (together with writer Rodney Bolt), The Posthumus Mysteries:
- Lonely Graves (2014)
- Lives Lost (2015)
- Deadly Secrets (June 2016)
www.hodder.co.uk/authors/deta...
and for German readers:
- Das Büro der einsamen Toten (2015)
- Das Haus der verlorenen Seelen (2016)
- Der Tote im fremden Mantel (February 2017)
www.hoffmann-und-campe.de/auto...
Glorious! I hope this starts a trend (I am a trendsetter) of the way people do 'bookshelf tours' -- I LOVE hearing the way people setup and organize their books but do we really need to go over individual titles which we likely have seen you talk about in other videos?!
Love the distinction between Curators and Documenters! Super fascinating. And 4 BEDROOMS! When I'm on the street, I AM COMING OVER (with the orange shelves of course) !
Yes, we missed your trendsetting capabilites when you were gone! I dont hope you end up on the streets, of course, but would love to have your gorgeous orange bookshelves (and you can come, too). LoL.
Lovely book room, lovely study...and even lovelier bookshelves. Adam did something wonderful for us book lovers that are so curious to know how everyone else organizes, stores, and houses their prized pieces of literature. This feeling is the same I get when my husband and I are driving at night. He always drives slow through neighborhoods just for me because he knows I absolutely love to get a glimpse of people inside their homes. Not in a creepy way...I just love to see how others live...if they have lovely comfortable surroundings...how their living rooms look from the street view. It's a pleasing aesthetic for me.
Aww, thank you! And yes, I can absolutely relate to the joy of getting a glimpse of how other people live, and especially how they organize their books. I hope we will see many more of these video's!
I have the same curiosity about the others' life! A little glimpse of this.
Hi Britta. Loved this video and this concept of discussing bookshelf organisation. It was great to hear about the way in which you go by acquiring and organising your own books. Really like your rule of reading as much as you acquire and think it's a really healthy way of keeping ones consumerism in check. It sounds like a rule I should adopt for myself. I also like your categorisation of the types of collectors. I think I collect books with a "Curators" mentality. I buy books that I intend to keep based on the strength of a good recommendation that also support my current interests. I am also a frequent user of the Library, which helps to minimise the need for culling with what little space I have to play with and I agree with Adam's sentiment of "having a book earn its place on your shelves". I guess this steers me into the Curator's category and hopefully it doesn't get out of control into "Steve Donoghue" territory, where I end up having to substitute my bed for sleeping under a pile of books.
Thank you, Patrick, very happy to hear you've enjoyed the video! And it's fascinating how people organize their books, isn't it? Using the library certainly helps keeping the book buying in check. I'd love to use mine more, but in germany they carry very few English language titles which is most of my reading. But I started to use Scribed as a kind of e-book library. So: progress!
@ Yes, I find it quite interesting to see the ways in which people arrange their books. The bookshelves are often one of the first things I gravitate to when I visit someone's house. You get an insight into peoples interests. I also get a kick out of seeing the level of organisation and how people categorise their interests, for instance with your Thomas Mann books, The man booker prize category and the neuroscience stuff etc.
As for the Library, I wouldn't worry too much. I don''t hold it against you, or anyone for that matter, for choosing to buy your books rather than using the Library and in your circumstances it leaves you with no choice. My library is a good choice for me. For one; they have a wide collection and two; the return due date is a good prompt to get the reading done in a timely manner.
I remember watching this when I first joined and found booktubers to watch. I live alone and have three bedrooms. One a sewing room with many books. A guest room - I always seem to have people to stay, and my bedroom which is huge. My piano lives in there. I have bookshelves in every room. After watching this again and thinking about my mess (!) I am determined to make better use of my space. You wont see this Britta as its such an old video but I feel better having written it down and am formulating a plan!😊❤
I see all comments, also on old videos. And it's so lovely that people are still watching the ones from a long time ago. ❤️ Good luck with your re-arranging project, Penelope. Let me know how it is going!
I can’t get over just how enjoyable watching this video was. Thank you for letting us see all your bookshelves. You’re indeed fortunate to have so much room for physical books. Something for me to aspire to!
Aww, thank you so much Juan, what a lovely thing to say!
4 rooms?! Party at Britta’s place!
Yes!! When?
@I'm coming too!
@@RunwrightReads Yesss!!
It always impresses and and inspires me when a Booktuber reads in three or more languages:)
Aww, thank you, Elena, thats so nice of you!
Your books are so well organized Britta! After watching this I want to start organizing mine immediately. I have never been a good curator of my books, all my books live together in hap-hazard togetherness, although there are times when I run out of room and have to donate some of them which always pains me, but must be done. This was very interesting, thank you.
It sure does Ingrid, but it must be done unless I want to get another house just for my books. : )
Haha, at least I make it look like I'm well organized. LoL. And: I like the idea of your books all 'living together',
A possible book about Faust! Yes! Yes! Yes!!! I’d love to read your book about Faust!
Yes, possibly, maybe. :-)
Thanks for such a thorough examination of your bookshelves!! So interesting seeing how you have organized your shelves ... and I loved how you feel that your books are an ever expanding expression of your life. I love looking at my own books and find myself constantly scanning the shelves and seeing the titles. Great video!!
Happy to hear you liked the video, Julie (did I spell that right?), thank you! And: I just discovered you channel and I am a subscriber now. :-)
The was great fun to watch. I'm a little in awe of how well-organized your book storage is!
Thank you so much, Jen! And: in the video it looks more organized than it is in real life. LoL.
You are so well organized, Britta! I love your project book shelf. I only separate my books by fiction, non-fiction, and unread books. I hate putting books on the floor, so instead they are stacked on the top of all of the bookshelves - thank goodness for higher ceilings :) I love the concept of documenting vs. collecting - I am not sure which one I fall in. I get rid of books I hate, but I also keep books that I might never reread but meant something to me when I read them.
Let's say I'm good at appearing organized. LoL. And yes, higher ceilings are a belssing! I guess if you only keep books that mean or meant somehting to you you're probably a curator :-)
Great video! Your shelves all look so neat and organised. Wonderful collection!
Thank you, Julia! And: in the video it all looks more organized than it actually is. LoL.
I find it fascinating to learn how people organize their books. Thanks for sharing your system.
I'm looking forward to YOUR video about book organizing!
@ I keep meaning to film one! Its on the list!
Delightful! I love how you've organized your shelves.
Thank you, James!
I enjoyed your take on the history of books throughout your life and the space they occupy in your home. Thank you for sharing.
Happy to hear that you've enjoyed the video!
4 rooms? Goodness I'm so jealous! And now I feel my response video looks like a trailer tour LOL Loved your video, your take on Adam's prompt is very interesting. Loved the little "Classics" wheeling shelf thing!
I loved your video! And the cat is adorable as well.
I loved hearing all your thoughts about your bookshelves. I'm always up for hearing discussions about bookish things. I find myself to be more of a documentarian, like you. I do try to organize my shelves in ways that I find aesthetically pleasing but rarely get rid of books, even if I didn't enjoy the reading of them.
Ah, but you will film a video about your shelves, right? (Because I love watching video's about bookish stuff and bookshelves as well :-) )
Britta, love this video! I'm not typically interested in individual books on shelves, unless they are very meaningful to the reader. Interesting to hear how you organize your genres, and read and unread books. I am slightly voyeuristic and enjoy seeing your rooms and how the shelves fit in! LOL! Your history of literary documentation is fascinating and I honestly never thought of it that way. I've cycled through so many stages of life with my books and looking at them now says so much about the person I have grown into.
Hahaha, love your voyeuristic tendencies because otherwise you wouldn't have liked this video. LoL. And yes, thats what I meant: the books you've read over the years (and liked or disliked) really tell something about you as a person, right?
I organize my books by topics, I'm very interested in the culture of Japan, England and Germany so I have dedicated shelves for books about those countries and fiction from them. Then I have a shelf for fiction from other countries. I have a shelf for science and Philosophy and three shelves for books on music and sheet music. Then there's a shelf for comics and then a shelf for art and nature. And then many shelves full of CD's and Dvd's.
Basically almost all the walls in my appartment are covered with this and I love it.
Thats so interesting, thank you for sharing, Örn. And I love appartments with books everwhere!
This was fascinating and fabulous! I am a collector for sure. The word “curating” just gave me warm fuzzies. 😂
You have to do one as well! And: I'm not surprised, watching your video's you just HAD to be a curator.
All of your rooms and book shelves are beautiful. Also it's amazing your desk is so nice and so tidy 😍☕️ It's off the topic but I can't help wonder how you organize your clothes :)
Haha, thank you, in the video I look much more organized than I am. :-). And as for my clothes: there is separation going on there as well, LoL, I keep blouses with blouses and skirts with skirts (organzied by color, of course). :-)
Loved this, Britta!! Thank you for sharing your bookshelves and book organization with us. I’m a documenter at heart, but when the stacks on the floor seriously threaten to overtake a room, then I have to become a curator. I filled nine bags with books today to take to the used bookstore!A Faust writing project??!! ❤️❤️ I hope you decide to do it!
Thank you so much, Sharon, happy to hear you've enjoyed the video! And yes, sometimes the curator has to step in to save us form the overwhelming amount of books... And Faust: I just might... :-)
6:26 - 6:28..."A lot of rules, with a lot of exceptions". That would be a fabulous title for a book of any genre! ( Books on the floor just freak me out. I'm sure a therapist would have a field day with that neurosis.) Thanks for sharing this.
You know me, JB, rules are nothing without the exceptions. LoL. And I know books on the floor is a highly contested strategy, lot of people hate it, so you're not alone!
Quite enjoyable video !! Really like the way you organize your books , also really love the Tamara Lempicka art you had in your fiction reading room .
Thank you, Adriana, happy to hear you've enjoyed the video! And Tamara de Lempicka is fantastic isn't she? The painting in my bookroom is of course only a 'copy' but I love it.
@ The painting is such a great addition to an already magical room 😍.I love her art and boldness by mixing cubism ,artdeco and traditional academic style .What an amazing woman such a trailblazer that lived by her rules.A movie or a great historical fiction should be done of her .
I don't do well with (summer)weather either but watching this helped a bit, thank you! I love the distinction between curators and documenters and feel I'd fall in the Documenter categorie as well, although sometimes I have to part with at least a few books due to lack of space. I try to seperate unread books from the ones I've read and somehow sort them by genre and authors name and for the ones I'm currently reading and plan to read soon-ish I have a book cart.
Thank you, Silke, happy to hear I've eased the heat-pain a bit. :-). And indeed, sometimes the curator in us just has to take over to keep things manageable...
I love the revolving bookcase!
Thank you!
Loved this! Your apartment is gorgeous! I'm definitely more of a documenter than a curator, which do I enjoy even if it does make moving house an absolute nightmare!!
Thak you Victoria, always so happy to hear from you. And yes, moving house is a nightmare with all the books and whenever I move, I swear that, this time, I will get rid of books. But then I sigh, and I pack them and unpack them and I'm happy. :-)
@ Yes!! The joy of being surrounded by a lifetime of old books makes a new place immediately feel like home. Makes the pain of shifting them all worth it in the end! :)
I have to curate my books. If I took a documenting approach I'd be unable to move about my rooms at this point. I don't have a method for organizing them on the shelves though. They fit where they fit, in no particular order. An enjoyable video!
Hahaha, being able to move around is overrated. LoL. I'd love to see a bookshelf-video from you!
I am sitting in the A/C today. It’s way to hot out today and poor baby Sebastian pants a lot just for the short time he needs out. Thank goodness for A/C Britta! I just recently finished Elenor Oliphant is completely fine and loved it 5 stars on goodreads. I don’t remember if you where a fan of that book. Now I am about finished with Finale by Stephanie Garber it’s the final book in the Caraval series.
I wish we had A/C over here in Germany, it's so hot! Lovely to hear that you've enjoyed E.Oliphant so much. I wasn't such a fan, it was not my kind of book.
I love your set up! Your ratio of read books to unread books is how I wish my situation was....I’ve got it completely backwards, hahah!
I like to think I’m a blend of a collecting and documenting, I shall make my own video on this soon in further detail! I loved your take :D
Ah, yes, plaese make a video about your shelves/how you organize your books. I always love to watch video's about other people's books. (Oh, and I saw that I hadnt subscribed to your channel yet but I remedied that :-))
Britta Böhler I sure will! These kinds of videos are one my ultimate favorites, I’m always fascinated with how other folks have their books set up. It’s a lot of fun and plus, I get some cool ideas. And excellent, I’m so happy to hear that you’ve subscribed!! :D
Thanks for offering a look at your bookshelves. My shelves document my interests over the years and alas attic closet contains boxes of grad school analytic philosophy. Partner has scores of European and American history. One year I tackled two large shelves in living room and succumbed to my occasional obsessional bursts of a energy. and turned to the US library of Congress Classification System. (You can look up titles too - just finished Grand Hotel ,Baum - it’s PT I believe) Of course my energy petered out but it did create kind of skeletal topic structure. Just used the first two call letters. Now I’m happy to find a spot in front of these organized books... The back room, once study, cookbooks, gardening, computer, and left over literature where I found this years mandatory read Pride and Prejudice. Needs serious weeding, E.g. will I ever, ever read Bakunin (?) on anarchy? But then you never know it might come in handy.
Thank you, Helen, happy to hear you've enjoyed the video. I love your approach of your shelves documented your interests over the years. And quite some fascinating subjects. Good luck with 'the weeding'!
I love how Organised you are. You share my passion for mind/ neuroscience/ mental health books. I've just finished a book today that you might like.
A Good Enough Mother by Bev Thomas
It's about a psychoanalyst whose son has been missing for 18months. It's written by a psychologist.
Ah, thank yu for the recommendation, Jacqueline, I will check it out. Books about neuroscience deeply fascinate me.
Great video, thank you !
Happy to hear you've enjoyed it!
Well this is MAGNIFICENT - I could spend hours exploring those bookshelves!
Thank you so much, Emma! I hope you'll do a video about your book organization as well. X
Whoa! Such a great system! Wow 1800 books!
Yes, I'm extremely impressed with myself, hahaha. I hope you will film a video about your bookshelves as well! Would love to wacth it.
@ thanks! It would be super boring! I just have the two shelves alphabetically
Greetings from an even hotter Texas.
I'm moving into a new home and every room with the exception of the bedroom, bathroom, and kitchen, have books. I think about 20 bookshelves cover it. The living room has history, art, photography, and graphic novels, although my Henry James collection is there too, along with Ian Fleming. The den, which is huge, has fiction and comics, and is wall to wall. It is organized by important authors, to me, on one end Gore Vidal the other Carlos Fuentes and it trickles down from their. Thomas Mann, whom Vidal and Fuentes both admired, is there too.
I love appartments with books everywhere! And your collections sounds amazing.
I had to come back and finish the second half of this as I got waylaid yesterday! I love the approach to curating and documenting your life with books - I think I constantly move things on because I’m conscious we may need to move again and I already have my library in Melbourne still that didn’t make it to Houston so I can’t really repeat that 😂😬🙈 Definitely think I’ll give this a go, even though my shelving situation where we live now is a kind of organized chaos 🙃
Ah, yes, please a video about your oganized choas! Please! And yes, I know re moving: I have books in storage in Holland (only Dutch books), not sure when I will see those again... And I was wondering: do you re-buy books that are in your Melbourne library?
May be mortifying but I’ll try and do it this week 😬🙈 I haven’t rebought books that I have in Melbourne as I plan to ship them eventually if we settle here (and I’d have to deal with the texas library I have now as that’s possibly bigger than the Melbourne one 🙈🙈🙈 I’ve clearly learned nothing lol
@@SixMinutesForMe Fantastic, looking forward to seeing your shelves!
I wish I only had 100 unread books but during my studies and before that I was kind of unstoppable and didn't use your good rule of not buying more than I was reading. :D I liked the distinction between curating and documenting (and Steve :)) - I probably like you fall into the second category for the most part. I hardly ever get rid of a book.
Sorry for not answering earlier, for some reason I missed mayn of the June comments... Anyway, I guess there are worse habits than accumulating books, right? :-)
Fascinating! I love hearing about your book collection. This was probably even more interesting than a bookshelf tour. And I enjoyed hearing a booktuber saying they don't get rid of books. There are so many unhaul videos that it seems to bring an expectation that everyone does it and I don't. I occasionally give away books that aren't particularly meaningful to me (like ARCs that I intend to replace with finished copies, or review copies that I didn't care for) but otherwise, I have only gotten rid of a few books when I was moving.
One request though - please show us your collection of Booker winners. I am slowly collecting them too as I try to read them all. I've acquired quite a few so we can compare ;-)
Thank you, Karen, happy to hear you've enjoyed the little tour. And even happier that you dont get rif of books either! I will take a picture of my Manbookershelf. Are you on Voxer? Then I can send it to you there. X (PS: I'm sorry I've been so bad re commenting on your video's but I watch!!)
@ Yes, I am on Voxer as Runwright Reads
Delightful!
Thank you!
I loved this video. Your book room is very well organized. I like the little shelf you have for your classics, about how many books can you put in it? Thank you for sharing with us.
Thank you so much, thas really lovely to hear! The little rotating bookacse has more storage space than you'd think: it fits about 100 regular sized paperbacks.
I hope everyone does videos on this, it's really interesting. I definitely have curated shelves, I basically only keep books I will re-read. Do you have a separate shelf for the books you have written?
Happy to hear you've enjoyed the video! And yes, I do keep my own books in a separate bookcase, one copy of each edition/translation. :-)
I really like your channel and most of the times i see your videos up to date. I liked your organization of your shelves. I don't get rid of books as well. I liked the idea and since im not a youtuber, i will do it on Instagram.
Greetings from Iraq and have a wonderful day.
Happy to hear you've enjoyed the video, Marwa. And all the way in Iraq, wow! I will check out your instagram. I love books on instagram.
Hi Britta! Thank you for this wonderful video. One day I hope to have as nice of a library as you do 💖. I personally always go back and forth on whether I should separate my books by language (Swedish, German, Italian, English) or whether to keep them as they are, simply organised by author last name.
I have a question regarding Thomas Mann and assume that you've read his diaries? Personally I've read all of Klaus Manns diaries and most of his books, but Thomas always daunted me. Do you have a certain volume (span of years) of his diaries that you'd recommend me to start with? I am currently writing a seminar paper on German exile literature, so perhaps something from that period? If you don't know then that's totally alright. Thanks again for the video!
Hi Sara, thank you for your lovely comment. I've separated my books by English, Dutch and German 😊. As for Thomas Mann, yes I have read his diaries, more than once even (I re-read them also as research for my first novel), and love them. I would start with the 2nd volume 1933-1934, because those years really tell you something about Mann and politics.
@ Thank you so much for answering! I will make sure to check that volume out then. Have a great day!
Come on shows us all your books!
Hahaha!
Awesome! Lots of information around yourself!
Thank you, Lilia, happy you enjoyed it!
I'm pretty much on the same page as you Britta, I have a classics shelf and translated fiction, nonfiction separate from fiction, I just have a lot more unread books than you do and tend to give any books away I think I won't reread. Also I'm waiting for more bookshelves so have many unruly piles around my house, I'm definitely more of a documenter than a curator though, I don't even care about what editions I have 😉😊
Great minds think alike, right? :-) And I dont care about editions much either, except that with some classics I prefer certain editions because of the cover/font. The Penguin English Library is my favorite for classics, I just love the paper and the printing and the outside as well.
_Very_ interesting; indeed, Ive to spend more time w/you and your channel! (Im buddy reading _Berlin Alecanderplatz,_ w "Intellectual Reads," next month, and am looking forward to it ... Wish us _luck!_ --Allen 🇮🇪🤯🍀 Post script: I _love_ your "Only rule," to boot 😁🤗🤬
Thats great to hear, thank you!
I do envy the space you have for books, Britta ^^ I loved seeing the overview of your collection. I always pictured your shelves just doing a circle around the room you're recording from so to see the rest of your apartment also gets some book love was really interesting.
Adam indeed inspires evil in people.
The weather is killing me. I'm sad to report your Eastern neighbours have it freakishly hot as well.
You mentioned here and there that you split your living between Germany and The Netherlands. Do you have a place there as well? If so, does it have no books? Just a quick question that struck me while watching ^^
No, I dont have a place in The Netherlands anymore at the moment. I do have books there, though, but they are in storage toegther with the 'Dutch' furniture. And yes, I'm lucky to have so much room here. But then, you never have enough room for books, right?
@ I believe that's how that old Chinese saying goes, yes :)
I keep my classics on a separate too. I need to separate my fiction and nonfiction but I am so chronically disorganized. I have to get rid of books, my family despair's over the amount of Books I own. If I really love the book I keep it or if it's something I collect I keep it. Other wise I take them to a book trader to get more.
I always love to hear how other readers organize their books, so thank you for sharing, Debbie! One of the perks of living alone is that nobody complains about the amount of books I accumulate. LoL.
Britta! Rather selfish maybe, but I am really interested in philosophy and love reading books by- and about ancient and modern philosophers. Would you ever consider making a video about philosophy, philosophical ways of thinking and/or your collection of philosophy books?
Ah, thats a great idea, Luke, so I will think about it! Thank you for the suggestion.
This was fantastic! Thanks so much for showing us! Out of curiosity, do you keep a stack of books on your nightstand too? Really great video. :)
Thank you so much, happy to hear you've enjoyed it! And no, I have no stacks on my nightstand. I just take the book I'm currently reading when I go to bed. (I do keep a small stack of current books on the livingroom-table, though...)
I like this video, what a great idea 👏 Hello from Denmark.
Hello there in Denmark and: thank you!
😻😻😻
:-)
Britta, why do you keep your classics and Booker Prize winners seperate? (just kidding)
I like your categories. I document, I dont curate.
Hahaha, you couldn't help yourself, could you? And I'm not surprised, I always thought you were a documenter!
A four room apartment, even that doesn’t feel like enough space for books 😂
Never enough space for books, ight? Unless you are a curator, of course...
I curate a little but I love having unread books
Did I hear a hint of a book about Faust that you might write?? 😱
Possibly, maybe :-)