Library Tour
As you walk in the room, these shelves are on the right. You can see the complete set of Henty books given to us by the Robinson family.
To the left is my bookstore. Most of these books aren’t listed on my website yet, but where there’s life, there’s hope!
Across the room you can see the stacks of shelves, just like in a “real” library. Each stack is 8 feet long.
This is a close-up of the biography section. You can also see Landmark books and other sets in the foreground.
These are the bunny bookends Steve gave me for Mother’s Day, sitting on the coffee table in the seating area in the center of the room.
I found this dictionary stand in our little town in the store where I used to have my bookstore.
At the far end of the room is the window seat (with storage inside). We are having cushions made soon. I did not give birth to those children reading on the floor.
This is a corner of the children’s library. I just found the little wooden table and chairs which fit perfectly under the window. There are floor to ceiling shelves on facing walls for the picture books and other books appealing to the younger children.
This easel has a whiteboard on one side with pictures from Peter Pan, and a chalkboard on the other side. Just above it you can see the “window” for our puppet theater, which opens into the larger library.
Tolle Lege means “take up and read,” the words Augustine heard which urged him to pick up his Bible where he read Romans 13:14-15 and was convicted of his sin and converted with repentance and tears.
May 9th, 2005 at 10:20 pm
Oh Carmon, I love it! The pictures are great. Here in Birmingham, I have the hardest time finding really good large used book sales and at this stage of my life I just don’t have the time to get to estate sales or all the smaller library sales around town.
This past weekend our family went to Atlanta where Jay accompanied me to two used book sales – one homeschooling sale and one large secular book sale. I was so excited to be at those sales as it had been too long since my fingers had been able to meander through piles of books, looking for treasures. I literally could barely sleep the night before the first sale, I so desperately couldn’t wait to go!
The Lord blessed us with some wonderful finds, my favorite being a copy of “Father ten Boom, God’s Man” that Jay spotted for me under loads of “inspirational” twaddle in the Religion section at the secular sale. Corrie ten Boom is my heroine so for me that book truly was a “buried treasure”.
Our book collection is not as large or sophisticated as yours, but I share in your joy no less. Lord-willing, you will indeed get to attend the sale on Wednesday and I pray you find lots of great stuff! Husbands who are truly supportive of home libraries and who understand that spending money on quality books is a worthy investment are to be commended. I’m so thankful Jay trusts me with his hard-earned money and allows me a lot of freedom at book sales. If it weren’t for him (and the Lord’s provision), we wouldn’t have the library we do.
Have a GREAT time at the sale on Wednesday. I’ll be thinking about you.
May 10th, 2005 at 4:53 am
My heart skipped a beat while looking at your “library”. The stacks almost made me faint from pure joy.
May 10th, 2005 at 5:26 am
Nicely done, Carmon! Ours is a little less than half the size of yours, since we don’t have that large of a room for our library. Well, we would if I turned the Dining room section of our now-closed-in garage into more library
. I already use the DR table for making or restoring books at home. That is, those for which I don’t need all the big bookpresses or other big equipment. In such cases, I work on them in the workshop at the guild where I am learning restoration and bookbinding.
We have the rest of our library spread about the rest of the house, though…
Great pictures!!
May 10th, 2005 at 10:01 am
Beautiful and amazing!!!
What a glorious library!
Where did you get that cute easel?
Donna
May 10th, 2005 at 7:01 pm
Carmon~
How lovely! I think your condition must be contagious! It would be so nice to go to a library where you didn’t have to sift through twaddle or inappropriate material to discover the real gems.
Thanks for sharing,
Roberta
May 12th, 2005 at 6:23 am
Wow! Now the books are breath-taking as are the shelves. I just want to know one thing-how do you keep them soooo neat? Our bookshelves, of which we need more, suffer from that awful tendency in our family from “stacking.” The reader takes a book or books from the shelf and then stacks them back on top of the properly shelved books or on top of the shelf itself. Then when I can’t take it anymore we do a massive reshelving job. Is there a latin term for this kind of suffering?
I am glad that you didn’t birth those children on the floor. Some how they just don’t seem soft and cuddly. I sure hope I don’t sound harsh and judgemental of them. They look cute:)
June 15th, 2005 at 3:11 am
What a wonderful treat for all of you to have this library! It is a great balance of whimiscal and studious!
WELL done!
January 9th, 2008 at 7:53 pm
[...] boxes in the garage. I’m ashamed to say that our shelves don’t look nearly as neat as Carmon’s and MMV’s; we have a bad habit of stacking things on top of the books in the [...]
August 20th, 2008 at 9:51 am
“Tolle lege” hasn’t been there since 2005, has it?
August 20th, 2008 at 12:11 pm
Nope, added it later. I will probably do that from time to time if I change anything in the library. Thanks for noticing, Pieter…it’s so nice to have someone keep my on my toes.
February 1st, 2010 at 1:48 pm
Thou shalt not covet, thou shalt not covet, thou shalt not covet…this is so, so, so amazing. Wow. I am speechless…which is rare for this Aussie gal!