A smart person’s house should have a library. It is the duty of any literate, ponderous type person to have a library. But not just any library. A library that covers a wide range of knowledge and disciplines. It should exist for entertainment, but also for growing one’s own knowledge about subjects they know nothing about and possibly never really thought they’d want to know about. It’s also important to have a reference for a wide range of subjects.
The existence of Wikipedia and ebooks can make it seem like it’s no longer necessary to have a wide range of printed books in your own library. But let me ask you this: if Wikipedia went away tomorrow, would you be able to find out what you want to know? You can if you properly build out your own library.
So, as someone who has spent ten years building a library, here are my opinionated tips on the matter. Your mileage may vary; this is not gospel, but it is MY gospel.
First, your library needs its own room. Your library needs a dedicated space, and I don’t mean a corner in your living room or sewing room. No, the books need their own room entirely. The only purpose of the room is to store books and for you to read them. There should be places to sit (and they should be decorated like a library). Ideally, the room should be free from the distractions of the outside world. I will permit a smart speaker or a simple radio to listen to music while reading. The room also needs to be big enough to store a few thousand books.
How big should your library be? There is no upper limit. You should have as many books as you can fit in the room. There should be so many books that you have stacks of them on the floor because you ran out of shelf space. The books should be spilling out the door (but you should be able to shut the door occasionally).
To build in or not build in bookcases? This is up to you. Any shelves will do. I bought Billy bookcases from Ikea. They’re cheap, and they last forever. Yes, the shelves will bow if you don’t organize your books properly, but that just adds character. My biggest tip would be to decide on the color you want for your Billy Bookcases and buy all the bookcases you’ll need at once. Otherwise, you will have a schism like I do in my library. One side is Cherry Veneer, but by the time those were filled, and I started filling out the other side of the room, they had discontinued it and only had a brown veneer.
The difference is imperceptible, but I know it’s there.
Building in gives you more book space, yes. However, I like putting random things in the little space between the top of the bookcase and the ceiling. My ceilings also are not plumb or level anymore due ot the age of the house. Building in shelves would be a carpentry nightmare. There are social media ‘hacks’ that can help you turn your Ikea bookcases into ‘built-ins’, but these are a lie and won’t last the test of time. There should be no lies in your library.
As the number of books gets into the hundreds or thousands, the question of organization will arise. I’m sure some people are perfectly happy to use the Dewey Decimal System, but that’s perhaps a little too far for me. My organization is rather chaotic, and I’m not sure I like it, but I have so many books, I’m not about to reshelve them all again. I organize my books by subject/interest. As in MY favorite subjects and interests (I’m sorry, lovely wife, who must conform to my terrible system).
Examples:
- British stuff (this is 1/3 of my library)
- Science and science fiction
- World War II
- General World Non-fiction
- Fiction
- Fancy books – signed or leather-bound Easton Press editions (for display, not reading anyway)
- Winston Churchill (he has an entire bookcase).
- and so on
Beyond that, they are not organized any other way, certainly not by title or author. Like I said, it’s chaotic. And I do sometimes struggle to find a particular book, but in general, I know where a specific book is, because I bought it and put it there.
Under no circumstances are you permitted to organize your library by color. This is complete madness. Anyone who does this is a secret serial killer. The same goes for the new trend of turning the books around and only showing the white pages. That’s a particular kind of insanity that only Hannibal Lecter would appreciate.
I mentioned needing somewhere to read in the library. We have a couch and a wingback chair (plus an ottoman to put your feet up on). We also have a desk, where anyone can sit and work or write if they’re so inclined. In fact, that’s where I’m writing this little essay.
A library should not be limited to works of fiction. There should be more non-fiction than fiction in a library. A library isn’t just for entertainment; it is for learning and reference.
What should you put in your library? Well, whatever you want, but also what you SHOULD have in a library.
They’re getting hard to find these days, and are mostly outdated, but it doesn’t hurt to have a set of encyclopedias. Good for general knowledge. Buy them, put them on the shelf, and forget about them until you need to look something up. You should also have a good dictionary, bonus points if you manage to find a copy of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), but this is a nice-to-have, not a need-to-have. You should also have a set of ‘Great Books.’ There are several options for this, and they’re relatively easy to find in bulk at a Half Price Books or used bookstore. They will give you the most important books that everyone should read at least once.
Personally, I’ve been collecting the Harvard Classics Easton Press Editions, the ‘five-foot shelf of knowledge’ that gives you an excellent overview of the entire Western Cultural Tradition. My set is almost complete. I pick up a few volumes every year. It’s a multi-year-long quest, made easier by eBay, but I’m not in a hurry because it would take me years to read them all anyway once I set out to do so.
Then you should collect your favorite series of books. For example, I have the entire Master and Commander set by Patrick O’Brien. Have I read them? No. But I will one day. One should have the complete works of their favorite authors – I have all of Hemingway. Most people should also have Jane Austen, Dickens, Twain, etc.
You should also collect the most notable books in your favorite subjects. For example, I have a great interest in World War II, so I have iconic titles such as the Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by Shirer, Richard Evans’ Trilogy, but also singularly important titles like Stalingrad or The Battle for Spain (which should be read with For Whom the Bell Tolls). I also think it’s important to understand other cultures, so I recommend having the major religious texts of all the major religions and books about them (I have the Koran, Bible, etc). You might as well have Marx as well as the major Capitalist thinkers. It is important for us to understand each other.
It’s also important not to think of your library as a to-do list. You will never read all of these books. I’ve come to terms with the fact that I will never read all the 2,500+ books in my library. But I could read them all. They are a promise of future knowledge. When curiosity strikes me, I’ll have the book I want. I can just go down the hall and get it.
How can you do all this affordably? Books, it turns out, are a remarkably cheap hobby to pursue. Don’t just build your library from Barnes & Noble. Books are surprisingly worth little after they’re purchased. Regularly raid the secondhand/used bookstores in your local area. They will have books for only a few dollars a title. Some are almost free. It’s a great way to build up the ‘classics’ part of your library. I generally avoid library sales, as the books are in too bad of shape. Don’t get me wrong, I have bought far too many books ‘new’ from the bookstore. But I’ve bought way more from my favorite used bookstores (my favorite of all is Lowry’s Books and More in Three Rivers, Michigan). I’m also very lucky as the editor of an online publication that I get sent lots of books for free to review or talk about on my podcast. Those are very welcome additions to the library!
How to keep track of it all? Why bother? I used to use an App called Libib, and I meticulously scanned every book in my library. But I realized it was only useful in the sense that I could make sure I didn’t buy a book twice. I stopped scanning the books years ago. I can remember who I lend my books out to, if I do at all. I can also generally remember if I already have a book. I’ve only bought a book twice, a few times in ten years of library building. Double books make good gifts for friends (or a contest for my publication).
Most of all, you should never treat building your library as work because your task will never be done. I’ve been building my library for ten years. The walls are all filled with bookcases, all the bookcases with books, yet every week, new books magically appear in the library. They are stacked on the front of the shelves. Stacked on top. Stacked on the floor. It’s only going to grow. It’s all right. There is actually virtue in having too many books. It shows you want to learn about things, and understand things.
Your library is your own personal island of knowledge, safe away from the world. No one is ever going to take it from you. They’d have to burn down your house to take it away. Besides, who’s going to move 2,000 books anyway? That’s a problem for your heirs.
Rotation is also important. You’re going to hate books you kept in your library for years and finally read. Don’t be afraid to cast them out if you no longer think they deserve a place in your library. You shouldn’t be afraid of knowledge you don’t like, but if you’re never going to read it again, let it go. There are also books that, once you read them, you realize are fluff you’re never going to read again (like a celebrity memoir). You can let those go, too. Perhaps you could have a Little Free Library in front of your house for cast-offs. I keep an ongoing box of books going to the second-hand bookstore that I can trade for more books.
In today’s practically post-literate world, the most important virtue is to want to understand and learn rather than just have a blind opinion based on ignorance or a lazy desire to just believe everything you see on social media. So, start building that library. It’s your duty as a citizen of a literate society. It is the only thing that will protect you from lies, incorrect facts, and ignorance.