I spent a morning over spring break with My Ideal Bookshelf (art by Jane Mount, edited by Thessaly La Force). This experience of whiling away five lovely hours thinking about the books other people love just serves to remind me that what I really like to do is read about the best books (as opposed to actually reading those best books).
Here are some of my favorite bookshelves:
Maira Kalman
Nancy Pearl
Mine would look more like this.
You can, btw, have a custom made painting of your own ideal bookshelf.
Lovely idea for a birthday gift. Hint, hint.
And finally, I leave you with a project, one I'm working on myself:
To participate in the Saturday Snapshot meme
post a photo that you (or a friend or family member) have taken
then leave a direct link to your post in the Mister Linky at At Home With Books.
BTW, I'm trying to work on taking my own photos of books and pages for my blog, rather than relying on photos online. Only one of the photos in this post is a photo I took myself. Can you tell which one is mine?
ReplyDeleteAnd I'd love to see your ideal bookshelf.
ReplyDeleteOh wow, I'd love one of those custom bookshelf paintings. I think that has just gone straight to the wish list.... It would be so hard deciding the books to include. My birthday this year is kind of organised, maybe I can work on this for Christmas?
ReplyDeleteI'd love a painting of my favorite books for my birthday. Or Christmas.
ReplyDeleteLovely bookshelves....not like my own, although I do take photos of my own bookshelves. Primarily to show how they are overflowing!
ReplyDeleteThanks for visiting my blog, and enjoy your weekend.
This is a great idea! The custom bookshelf paintings would look great in a reading room. I'm guessing that you took the Nancy Pearl picture! From experience, I would tell you to definitely move your blog towards all your own pictures. If you don't have permission to post pictures and artwork, or they are not clearly free to post, they could be copyrighted. All artwork and photography is copyrighted. I had to take down all images on my blog that were not my own. The artist/photographers have contacted bloggers to remove their work and one had to give a financial settlement. I've been using picmonkey, it is a great free site to upload pictures and you can add text, change effects etc.
ReplyDeleteYes, I agree. I need to use my own photos. I only use Creative Commons photos when I need something other than a book. Apparently it is acceptable to use photos of books if they do not cut into book sales (at least that's what I've been told). Nevertheless, I'd like to take my own. I am just not very good yet at taking clear shots of books. I'll keep trying.
ReplyDeleteA painting of my favorite books would probably be something of a mural and take up the whole side of the house. If I had a reading shed, I'd paint a different book a day onto the wall.
ReplyDeleteNice project!
ReplyDeleteWhat a great and creative idea!! I'd have to think what would be on my very looooong shelf! :)
ReplyDeleteI've been lusting after one of these myself... I just don't know what books I'd choose! They do look so lovely though, and it's quite a personal thing too.
ReplyDeleteI've also been toying with putting pictures, as opposed to images sourced online. I did initially try this when I first started my blog, but the loading just took so long on my laptop (my laptop has definitely passed its expiry date). I think blogs with photos seem more you, more personal... If that makes sense. I hope you do get round to it :-)
So cool, what a neat idea -- thank you for sharing!
ReplyDeleteHere is my SATURDAY SNAPSHOT post!
How cool! And I love your choices but where is the Runaway Bunny???
ReplyDeleteI loved that book, and Jane is so nice- I reached out to her once with a question and she answered it and then befriended me on Facebook and Instagram (and actually interacts). Someday I'll pay her to do my ideal bookshelf!
ReplyDeleteI want to do this. I want to do this! In fact, I should start by reading the book first. My daughter gave it to me for my birthday and I completely forgot about it. Quick, get to it Anne! Thanks for the reminder.
ReplyDeleteWhat a marvelous idea♫ Goes with any decor, can be sooo personalized, is a very full of thought (vs thoughtful!) gift!
ReplyDeletehow clever!
ReplyDeleteWhat a fun idea, although I hate to pin myself down to a favorite, maybe I could pin myself down to 10 favorites. Here's Mine
ReplyDeleteWhat a great idea! I think I'll try filling this in, Deb, thanks!
ReplyDeleteThis is so cool! I am going to do it! I love that you have Ferdinand on your shelf, that is one of my all time favorites. :)
ReplyDeleteWhat a fun idea!
ReplyDeleteSue
Great Books for Kids and Teens
Book By Book
I love this idea ... One Morning in Maine and Make Way for Ducklings would be on my book shelf along with Sophie's Choice and Cold Mountain ...
ReplyDeleteI went to the IdealBookshelf and couldn't find the project you suggested. Can you direct me to the correct link? thanks.
ReplyDeleteAm I having deja vu or did you post about this topic before? I love the idea of an ideal bookshelf, but it would be hard to narrow the number of books down.
ReplyDeleteVery fun project Deb.
ReplyDeleteI've been thinking about this all day. I'm going to start working on my ideal shelf. I'll share mine with you once I'm done. Can't wait to see yours.
ReplyDeleteYes, where is the Runaway Bunny?! And why aren't there any children's picture books on the other people's lists?!
ReplyDeleteYou might be having trouble with The Ideal Bookshelf page because it requires Flash.
ReplyDeleteYou are right, Laurie! I accidentally pushed Publish, thinking I'd set it for a future date, but I hadn't. So I had to delete it and try again!
ReplyDeleteIt would be really fun to see the Ideal Bookshelves of other bloggers!
ReplyDeleteThat is a great idea for a painting, but then I would have to narrow down my favorites list and I have quite a few!
ReplyDeleteThis is a lovely idea for a painting. Now I will have to work on this top, must have list!
ReplyDelete