Your Shelfies

Recently in our newsletter, we were celebrating the wonderful ways in which we surround ourselves with books in our own homes. From vast walls of bookshelves to small piles next to the bed, it’s always a good sign of a thriving, thinking home! And hey, we were CURIOUS – so we invited you to share YOUR “shelfies” – perhaps a quirky bookcase, well-placed pile or piece of furniture that you’re particularly proud of. We received dozens of great examples (thank you!). Sorry we cannot share all of them, but here are some of our favourites…

Veronica Sorace proves that while having a fancy laddered bookcase is nice, sometimes, the books just need a sit down wherever they are.

Jemima Shafei-Ongu displaying her picture books the way they look best!

Hayley Gannon – we love the pops of colour throughout this one, with those crayons clearly quitting. Very nice!

Tony Neilson’s shelves here contain JUST his collection of more than 400 Isaac Asimov books (with many more he still doesn’t have!).

Tania Connolly is “very proud” of her colour-coded bookshelf, and so she should be!

Alex Fullerton’s shelves (including the childhood encyclopedia collection) and her coveted reading chairs, also appropriately upholstered as shelves!

Rosalyn Bent is just showing off with this one – the shelves came with the house, but she added the ladder!

We love Leila Wright’s shelf with antique phone and other cute trinkets.

Beth Clapton went arty with this shot, which she titled “Day breaks on my Portal to the Universe”. We love it! Very moody!

Portia Stanton-Noble’s large built-in shelf is a timberiffic delight, but we really want to know the story of that lion…!

Ginny Swart’s bookcase (“one of five dotted around the house”) seems unassuming until you discover its location. “This one is in the loo,” she proudly states. Well, you’ll never be short for reading material again!

Shane Tomkins shows off his towering timber shelves.

Just a small section of Teresa Savage’s 5 metre wide French (c.1880s) shelf with decorative hand-carved pelmet. Ooh Lala!

Sara Choudhry not only has a rainbow delight, but alongside it a charming cart containing her all time favourite reads and her current ones. Nice!

For Alan Stainer (left), this is less of a shelf and more of an exhibit, for his coveted first editions collection. Meanwhile, some may think that Marion MacLennan (right) has simply played Jenga with her book collection – but on closer inspection, you’ll see that this is indeed a shelf! Great for tight spaces.

Just one of the walls that Celia Sutterby has lined with books in this room. What a lovely spot!

Jacquie Byron channels many bedsides here with her impressive pile. But, this was taken AFTER she had culled the pile back as it was taking over the room. “I think I need to go to Books Anonymous” she pleads.

And this one wins the inventiveness prize. “We are always recycling,” says Michelina. My husband recycled some very old wooden water skis into shelves for our rumpus room…” Very creative indeed!

For Donna Marriott, it’s as much about the provenance as the shelf itself. This is one of the shelves she inherited from her grandfather, and was MADE by her great grandfather. (No doubt using wood from… you guessed it… the family tree! Boom tish.)

This pleasant library is April Whitehead’s “pride and joy”. During lockdown, she colour-coded her spines (as we’ve seen elsewhere), but confirms what many of us think when we see these. “It took ages and looked amazing, but trying to find anything was a complete nightmare, haha. Safe to say it did not last!”

Lynda Grande Alaba put this beauty together herself over TWO days – one of her lockdown DIY projects! “Exhausting but worth it,” she says. Nice work!

We quite like this ‘low angle’ shelfie from Hannah Bouma – everything in easy reach!

Andrea Wendt’s main collection has “loose categories alphabetically arranged” apparently!

Here we see Barbara Stacey’s unassuming stack of books also sneakily performing the noble household task of stopping the door from slamming shut in a cross breeze. Kudos book pile!

Yet another recent lockdown project – this time the “good as new” treatment on this shelf by Inessa Jackson. Nice work!

What a charming ride/read this would be, sitting atop Debbie Guertin’s Nonna’s piano.

Liz Haberman admits that her kid’s shelf on the left is fine, but hers “clearly shows I have a problem…”

Richard Gilzean says he built this one “myshelf” (with a little help).

For Valerie, this lovely example is a his and hers affair. “My side is the left hand side, the middle is also mine and holds all my classic novels. My husband has the right hand side… it’s the same with our walk in wardrobe – I’ve taken more of the space 🤣”

Pen Astridge’s photo is part shelf, part shrine. “Just waiting on the final book of the series to complete this shelf!”

And finally Leah Milston’s small collection is a reminder of the power (and fleeting nature) of books.
“This photograph of a small bookshelf means the world to me but maybe not to others. On the 30th December 2019 I had thousands of my own books and a bookshop full of books. On 31st December, thanks to the bushfires, I now owned four books. This shelf has some of the first books I collected from charity shops in six months.
I used to have a large collection of old books so this little collection helped me.”

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