I have an island of books in the middle of my living room floor.
It measures approximately 4' x 4' x 2' and consists of 25 separate stacks spaced an inch or two apart.
Big books, medium books, pocket sized paperbacks — around 50 linear feet all told, which will only half fill the half dozen new bookshelves we've ordered.
It's strange in this space but cool to look at, a nice centerpiece to the room, with a sort of sculptural aura. Too big to jump over without a running start. If you squint it could be a very large uneven non-functional coffee table. When you walk the periphery the wood floorboards displace the stacks slightly; you can see them sway slowly like skyscrapers in a strong breeze.
The main impression I have looking at this — nearly all the books I own (together with Jinjin's, and minus a few dozen on my desk and nightstand shelf) — is: this looks like a much more modest collection than it felt like when we were loading up and moving and unpacking it! Put another way: this puts into perspective how 900 some odd books is but a tiny sliver of my antilibrary — which itself is a tinier sliver of all the books out there, total.
Unpacking was actually pretty quick, and fun in two ways:
One, the simple act itself of stacking and sorting books into piles of different sizes, straightening them and seeing how high feels reasonable before the stacks start to feel precarious.
Two, the process of recognition and rediscovery, coming across books I forgot I had, or old favorites, or interesting juxtapositions.
New shelves are en route, albeit slowly, and I expect book island to disappear completely within the next few weeks, but for the time being it's a nice conversation piece and fun reminder of the shape and substance of my library.
Have you ever seen your entire library laid out like this, in one place? What does it look like? Or…what forms might your library take, in your imagination?
Brendan