bookshelves
i'm learning how to decorate my apartment!
Hey friends!
We’re somehow already at the end of February, so I feel like I can officially say this year is flying by too quick for comfort. These can’t be the same 12 months that used to drag on endlessly when we were kids, right?!
February in particular feels like a bit of a blur as I’ve been very out of the house and social, which is quite a feat for a grade A homebody like myself. And then I got covid and by contrast was very much in the house, but not at all in an enjoyable way. Now that I’m mostly on the other side of all that, it’s time to bring you this, letter #2, and this letter is pretty much all about bookshelves. It might also just be a love letter to Ikea’s Billy bookshelves, of which I am now a big fan and also expert assembler.
Last month I said that one of my major bookish goals this year was to actually get a bookshelf so that I could finally free my books from the boxes they’ve been sitting in for years. Well, mission — mostly — accomplished! One of my major character flaws is that I have absolutely zero home decorating expertise due to the NYC roommate setups of my past (largely nightmarish with a few notable exceptions but that’s beside the point). I’ve always moved into fully furnished apartments that really had no need or space for me to contribute to the furniture and decor situation, so I just haven’t acquired any, which is also why nine months after moving into my apartment I still don’t have a couch. Before you judge, I finally ordered one about two weeks ago, so check back in 4-6 weeks and it should be here!
Since this apartment is my first solo space and the first space I’ve have any hand in decorating, I naturally have the world’s highest expectations, but if you know me at all you know I can’t make a decision to save my life, and so the combination is proving to be quite problematic. I’ve had it in my head for a long time that I wanted to get a really nice, large bookshelf to fill a wall in this little nook in my apartment, but after numerous Google searches that weren’t turning up what I needed to pull off the vision (I learned a hard lesson in the difference between a bookcase and a bookshelf), I decided to take it easy on myself and started to more seriously consider going the Ikea route. It had always been looming in the periphery as an option; my uncle had several Ikea bookcases in his apartment that he recommended, and anytime I consulted with a friend about this particular conundrum, Ikea was always the first solution they offered. But I was resistant, wanting my first real bookshelf and major design element to not just be from Ikea.
But who are we kidding? In this economy, trying to find a large wall shelf is not in my budget, so I finally took myself to the Ikea website, and found the perfect Billy bookcase unit to fill my wall and complete my dreams. Problem solved! Until I added it to my cart and attempted to checkout, which was when Ikea decided to tell me that this particular item was, in fact, not in stock. So, perfect plan thwarted.
Not to be deterred, I decided that I would simply have to go visit the Ikea out in the boonies of Red Hook, and conned my friend into coming along on her recent visit to NYC. Though the bookcase I was after was truly out of stock, I decided to recreate a similar, slightly shorter version with individual shelves. Sadly, plan B was also thwarted by the fact that one of the three shelves needed for that configuration was also out of stock, but I did still pick up two of the bookcases to get the project started for now. When the other shelf is back in stock (note the optimistic use of when and not if), I’ll be able to add it to the wall and put extension shelves on top of the whole thing, to eventually make it to the dimensions of the original bookcase I found.
I tackled the shelf assembly last weekend, and the whole thing was surprisingly straightforward and simple. Ikea furniture assembly is an oddly meditative process, and after finishing that first one (and then a lunch break) I really felt like I could put together 10 more of those shelves. And then came the task of getting my books onto the shelves, which I think actually took longer than putting them together. I did some soul searching about whether or not I would separate titles by genre, but decided to go for a free-for-all mix, because we love a little chaos and adventure. They are alphabetized by author’s last name, obviously, because I am still a reasonable person. I ended up running out of room so I did have to make some cuts from the shelf for now and some books are still waiting for a permanent home, but by and large, this project was a success! For the first time ever the majority of my books are easily accessible and on display, and I love it! It’s also really highlighted the amount of books I own that I haven’t actually read yet, so I think I need to ban myself from buying new books for the time being.
While getting all of my books onto the shelves, I discovered some duplicates, so I decided to turn those into this month’s recommendations. They vary in terms of how much of them I’ve read, but all of these were in some way intriguing enough to me that they somehow made it into my collection more than once, which I think is kind of fun. So in no particular order, except the order that they ended up stacked on my kitchen counter, from top to bottom:
Moon and the Mars - I have not actually read this (so we’re starting this list off strong, obviously). I have both her novels and am excited to read them one day when I have the mental fortitude and copious amounts of time (they are thick books).
Brother, Sister, Mother, Explorer - I read this when reading entries for The Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize and rated it a 7.5/10, which is a solid rating for a solid book. It’s beautifully written but took me a little bit of time to get into it. For a debut novel it’s a really solid read, and will be up your alley if you’re into things with a bit of magical realism involved.
Homes - I vividly remember buying a copy of this collection of poems from Solid State Books in DC the last time I visited. I was really taken with the language in the poems, and I find that I gravitate towards poetry that meshes nature with some concept of being and identity. I have no recollection of having ever encountered this book before then, so I was very surprised to discover a second copy, but it goes to show that I was drawn in for a reason. I still need to read this in full, but I’ve read several poems and am excited to experience the full collection.
Lost and Wanted - I won’t lie to you, I know I read this but I also don’t really remember it. I rated it 3 stars on Goodreads but also didn’t write a review, so do with that what you will. But apparently the blurb was intriguing enough that I grabbed it twice (thankfully both advance copies).
Such Small Hands - Another surprising duplicate discovery, but it’s fantastic and I’m a big fan of Andres Barba, so it feels plausible. Barba’s super weird in a way that I enjoy, and he’s translated from Spanish by Lisa Dillman who’s an excellent translator. As a bonus rec, you should also check out his collection of novellas, The Right Intention.
Cain Named the Animal - Shane is a former professor of mine and is a brilliant poet and I guess somehow I forgot that I already had a copy of this particular collection. This just means that someone else is in luck, though, because if you’re a poetry person then you’re pretty much guaranteed to love Shane’s work. He’s a master of meter and language and I really do mean that!
Real Life - This is the one dupe that I was actually 100% cognizant of; I deeply love this novel. Around the time I moved into my apartment last summer, I was entrenched in a reading rut and also intensely stressed out and in a perpetual bad mood. The only thing I could even think about reading was Real Life, but all my books were in storage and there was no way to figure out which box it was in. I decided to buy a second copy just so I could read it, and figured I’d just have a second copy of a book I love to gift to a friend. If that’s not a major endorsement of this book, then I don’t know what is. The story is beautiful, heart wrenching, and captures the smallest and most intimate details of life with writing that will make you cry. Please read this.
Patsy - In theory this book was everything I could have dreamed of: a queer Jamaican story about motherhood. Unfortunately it wasn’t all that I’d hoped, but I’m still including it on this list because 1) queer Jamaican story about motherhood (!!!) , but also 2) the theme is bookshelf dupes and I am a woman of virtue and honor. I also find that there is often lots of value in reading books that didn’t work for others, and there are very few books that I ever actively dissuade people from reading (but one does strongly come to mind).
As a fun little newsletter thing, I’m offering up first dibs on these dupes here, so if you’d like to lay claim to one of these titles (minus Real Life, sorry), let me know (comment, text, email, DM, you do you)! Some of them are advance copies but typically there should be no major changes from the published versions.
Alright, that’s all I’ve got to say about bookshelves. Next month we’ll be back to actually talking about books (maybe).
toodles,
s
Currently Reading: The MANIAC by Benjamín Labatut (still, lol)