Keeping Lots Of Books Is NOT Hoarding

If you’re a reader, you have an innate problem: Where to store all your books.

If you have an eReader, that’ll help. But there are some books that are so beautiful, so beloved, so timeless that you absolutely must have a physical copy. What if your eReader dies? You cannot risk being without certain books. It’s unthinkable.

And I like having my nonfiction books in physical form. I’m a big underliner and notes-in-the-margin girl. I feel like I can’t properly absorb unless I have a pencil in my hand—writer problem, I suppose.

So, you must have physical copies of at least certain books. But where to put them?

Most of us are not lucky enough to have a dedicated library in our homes. If any of you do, be gone! I won’t speak to you again. For the rest of us…

I have a couple of bookshelves in our dining room. That’s been a standard part of our home for most of our marriage. But there’s only so much room on a couple of shelves. It might be enough room for normal people, but I’m a “reader.” We never have enough bookshelf room (unless you have a dedicated library, but we won’t speak to those people).

The trick is to keep books in nooks and crannies all over the house and somehow not appear to be a hoarder (by the way, keeping books is definitionally not hoarding) by keeping them tidy or out of sight. I have a bookcase in my office and a small bookcase inside my office closet. For my daughter’s books, we have them on two shelves in her room, under the coffee table, and one more shelf up in the loft. And my husband has a bookshelf inside his office closet. And…there may be a few more books scattered here and there. But you’d never know that I’m a book hoard— uh, reader by walking into our house. Books in our house are like roaches, always lurking just out of sight.

What books can you not live without? A few of mine are:

-          The Bible (obviously)

-          Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

-          Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

-          Man of Shadow and Mist by Michelle Griep

-          And of course my books! Never Miss, Dangerous Beauty, and The Lost Library

 

Check out Melissa Koslin’s latest book: The Lost Library

Her past has caught up with her. Again.

Cali Lebeau has been aiding hackers with her cryptology skills to track an apparent terrorist organization. When they discover what she’s been doing, they target her. Asher Cross, billionaire recluse, insists on aiding her, though she doesn’t understand why.

Asher Cross has secrets. He must help Cali, keep her alive, but he cannot let her understand his past or his motivations—in order to protect her.

They discover that the terrorist organization is searching for the Golden Library of Moscow, which was first assembled by Ivan the Great and had grown over time to include the oldest and most valuable texts in the world, including missing masterpieces. They believe the library holds black magic and the secret to everlasting life. It was stolen from them by Cali’s ancestor, and Cali holds a clue to its location handed down by her mother. In order to free herself and Asher, Cali must race against the terrorists, find the library, and share it with the world.

Will they be able to solve the mystery surrounding the Lost Library or risk losing their lives?

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Melissa Koslin is a fourth-degree black belt in and certified instructor of traditional Taekwondo. During the day, she masquerades as a commercial property manager. She and Corey, her husband of twenty-five years, and three-year-old daughter live in Florida, where they do their best not to melt in the sun.