My Library

When I viewed my current house I discovered it had a mezzanine level over the kitchen/family room. My first thought was, I'd finally found the room I'd always longed for in a house. I could have shelves filled with books and make a little library.

The image distorted throughout the move for two reasons.

When we started packing up to move we realised that we had so many boxes, filled with books, that had been in storage in the attic of our old house for the five years we'd lived there. We had so many new books stuffed onto every shelf we could find, it was time to be ruthless. All the books were unpacked, those we really wanted to keep because we'd collected a series by an author or that we knew would be read and enjoyed again, we kept. The others went to a charity shop so someone new could appreciate them. It was quite a surprise to realise about half the books went to charity.

We moved in, got the bookshelves, unpacked the books and discovered they didn't fill all the shelves. I thought, knowing the rate we read, it won't be long before we'd need to buy more shelves but then along came our Kindles and iPads and we're buying more digital than print books.

Now, I still love to hold a print book. To appreciate the cover, turn the pages, be able to judge how far into the book I am simply by looking at it. I tend to read by chapter so I like to be able to look ahead and see how long a chapter is. The thing is, the town nearest me has no bookshops and I have to travel 10-15 miles to get to one. It's so much easier to go along to Amazon to order the book, so I may as well download it to the Kindle as I won't have to wait for it to arrive. If I'm out and about and come across a bookshop I always go in for a look around, see what's new and what they're recommending. My children love the book corners for kids and will happily sample a few books to see what they'd like to read next. My eldest now has his own Kindle and he'll ask me to download books for him, rather than wait to get an opportunity to vist a shop or for a book to be delivered.

There are still some authors who I'll only buy in print. Terry Pratchett's Discworld series is one example  because I've collected all of the series and they have pride of place in my library. So, whilst my little library is a comfortable room, with views over the fields of County Down and the Mourne Mountains in the distance, I find there are still empty shelves, the children have encroached upon it with their Wii (they have their own over-flowing book shelves in their bedrooms and playroom) and I don't spend anywhere near as much time in it as I'd envisioned. I thought I might put a desk in it and set it up for when the writing bug bites. In reality, I use the laptop at the kitchen table.

Do you have a room that you dreamt of, which didn't work out quite as planned?
Do you prefer print or digital books?
If you are a writer or blogger, where do you write?