Vlogging the Bookshelves: Red & Maroon Shelf
Remember how waaay back in October I did a vlog about my colour-sorted bookshelves? And how I was supposed to talk about another shelf at some point and make it into a series? Well, that never really happened; mainly because I felt kind of ‘meh’ about that vlog. But today, which is my usual Library Loot vlog day, I found myself without my library books to record (due to me being a pansy about driving in snow). And I thought, maybe I’d try it out again. I’m still feeling iffy about the whole thing, but I promise that if y’all leave a comment saying I should do a vlog about the orange one, I’ll do one in March for sure. And if you say ‘This is actually a miss, Eva,’ my feelings won’t be hurt at all. (Oh, and after Youtube processed it, I discovered I’d forgotten to edit out the very beginning, with me getting into the frame and stuff. But I don’t want to re-edit it and then wait forever while Youtube processes it again. So you’ll just get a ‘behind the scenes’ peek, lol.)
On to the vlog:
My roommate is from Russia, and I love hearing her talk to her parents in Russian. Instead of the Barnes & Noble classics, I collect the Borders classics series because I love their covers. (Except now they’ve redone it so I’m stuck getting them from Paperback Swap.) I added two of the books you highlighted.
I vote for you to keep going with this vlog series. I just enjoy hearing about what books others have on their shelves and why they’ve kept them.
Isn’t Russian pretty?! When I first started studying it, I was surprised at how much I loved to hear it. :) I haven’t seen the Borders Classics series; I’ll have to pop into the store and check them out some time.
I love how you color coded everything! My books are currently arranged in alphabetical order but I was thinking of changing it up when I move in a few months.
Thanks! I love it too, and it’s actually really easy for me to find a book still. I wonder if that’s because I did it myself, so I remember the various spines or what.
I loved this vlog! I love seeing how other people organize their shelves. I only have one bookshelf at the moment since moving into the apartment. When I lived with my parents I used the linen closet outside of my room to store my books and they were much more accessible. Now only my classics are on the shelf and the rest of my books are in boxes in the closet.
I also really like the Barnes and Noble Editions. I think they are well done and relatively inexpensive. Although, I just picked up a few Borders editions as well. I also tend to stray away from either when it is a translated book. Something always seems to be lacking that other editions have.
I’m glad that you enjoyed it! :) I wish I could take over my parents’ linen closet, lol. My bookshelves are cheap ones from OfficeMax, but they get the job done! I’m so picky about translators, so it’s good to know others are too!
That is a fascinating way to organize your books–it gives you an interesting look into the mind of the book designers and what colors they use for different types of books. I’m going to be relocating this year, and I just might look into doing some color coding on my new bookshelves and see where it leads me.
I really like them! It’s like having a book rainbow along one wall. :D
Eva, more please! I was even wondering the other day when you were going to do another one, so yay! I haven’t read The Odyssey (and Iliad) because I couldn’t decide which translation to read, but you sound like you really loved that R. Fitzgerald one, so maybe I’ll look into it, thanks! I loved The Brothers Karamazov but mine’s the old translation. I’ve a copy of The Idiot in the old translation as well, and wonder if I should instead go for the Pevear-V when I read it?
Aww-thanks Claire! I’d definitely recommend Fitzgerald. And you know me; I’m a P &V groupie, so I’d say you should go with their version whenever they’ve published one! ;)
Hi Eva,
I’ve only just recently discovered your blog/began to follow it, but I thought this was such a great entry that I wanted to let you know so! Like someone else mentioned, I think it’s so interesting to see what books people own and how they organize them. Whenever I go to someone’s house, I’m always checking out (aka judging) their book collection.
Looking forward to your next post!
Thanks so much for taking the time to comment! :) I always scope out people’s books when I’m in other houses too, hehe.
Well, I don’t even have to say…you *know* I vote “yes” for keeping the series going. Orange, orange…I want to see the orange…
Well, if you want to see orange, then you’ll get orange! I’m thinking about dressing to match whatever shelf I’m talking about. Would that be too twee?
Well, I suppose I’m a little biased as you know how much I love colour-coded bookshelves! I created a purple one a couple of weeks ago and it was so much fun.
I’d love to see your orange one; my orange one was a favourite.
I love Eudora Welty too and was going to comment and say, “oh yeah, I have her collected stories too” but then I realised that I don’t … I have Flannery O’Connor’s instead. I confuse them in my head a lot but have a deep affection for both; Delta Wedding is on my wish-list (I’m hunting down a green Virago copy of it, y’know for the green shelf…), The Robber Bridegroom on my TBR, and I enjoyed The Optimist’s Daughter.
I’m excited about my orange one since so many of my Penguins live there! :D You know, I’ve only read one O’Connor short story, but it was so good. I did read all of her collected letters, so I should read more of her fiction! I’ll have to go for The Optimist’s Daughter as my next Welty. :)
I feel like I have personally been rummaging around in your book cases. I love the Tarot Card book. I used to do them years ago, but haven’t since having my girls.
I wanted to be a journalist once too, but I was too lazy to look up courses. Great vlog and more please.
I’m glad you enjoyed it! Tarot’s so fun, isn’t it? I realised during my journalism class that I only wanted to be a glamorous foreign correspondent…not an everyday journalist! lol
You’re books are so pretty. I like seeing what books you keep around, especially since you say you’ve worked hard to only keep ones you really like or want to read!
Thanks! :) I do cull on a pretty regular basis. But especially now that I’m sorting by colour, sometimes it’s harder to get rid of a book with a nice spine. LOL I need to do another sorting soon, though, because not all of my books are fitting in my shelves right now. That’s my main rule for sorting books!
Hi Eva! I vote that you keep doing this vlog series. The Barnes & Noble covers are great, aren’t they. I agree with you though about only bothering with the titles written in English. Hope the snowstorm clears up so you can get to the library :)
Thanks! :) I picked up most of my B&N classics when they do those sales. So exciting!
More please. :D I love seeing people’s videos about their bookshelves and I absolutely love the way you’ve got yours set out. So pretty! <3
Aww-thanks Ceri! :D
Thanks for taking the time to post this video, Eva. I know what you mean by YouTube taking forever. I once tried to upload a video of my daughters to share with my family, but gave up on it. Eventually found a way to do it via Facebook. Anyway, it had never occured to me to color-code my bookshelves–visually definitely more interesting than just randomly. Look forward to your March vlog–agree with the others who have commented how fascinating it is to see what books people have on their shelves and to hear them comment on them as well.
Was it longer than 10 minutes? Because then it won’t upload and won’t tell you why (ask me how I know, lol). Before this, I’ve sorted my books by ‘tbr’ and ‘read’ (the latter also sorted by genre), by subject for nonfic and author nationality for fic, and a couple other ways. I love rearranging them! (Except my back hates me the next day, lol.)
It was interesting to see what you have on your shelves! I agree on the Barnes and Noble classics – they’re great for English works and not so much for translations. I have War and Peace in that edition and really want to reread it in another translation. I also bought the Mary Queen of Scots book on clearance at B&N. It’s fun to see some of the same books we have, and some that we both have but have different editions of, like Dracula, The Age of Innocence, and the Odyssey. And I enjoyed The Thirteenth Tale as well.
Is the Mary, Queen of Scots book good?! I really enjoyed it!
What a neat way to incorporate a sense of design into your books – mine are just haphazard all over my shelves (and floor and dresser and desk and counter and coffee table and any other open surface)…
lol! Thanks Kerry. :) One of my ‘rules’ is that I’m not allowed own more books than what will fit on those shelves, so that helps keep them neat. But the video conveniently didn’t show the stacks of library books I have on my floor! :D
Love this, Eva! Do more!
Ok!
I read Delta Wedding a few years ago and, will I really enjoyed the writing, the story didn’t do much for me. One of these days I really need to pick up some more Welty.
Not a bad vlog, but you need to try and get better lighting. Everything was really dark and when you held the books up, I couldn’t see anything except black for the most part. Also I’ve noticed for everyone who does a vlog about books, everyone flashes the book in front of the camera real fast so it’s a blur and we can’t see the title/author or book cover. I like how you have your bookshelves and it’s interesting to see what others have on their bookshelves.
I can’t do a vlog because I don’t have a video camera but I don’t know if I would anyways, just because I’m self-conscious about how I loko.
I hear you; that’s why I do all other vlogs in the other half of my house, where there’s a lot of windows and natural light. I had all of my lights in my room turned on, and my webcam is not fancy, so I think it just couldn’t handle things. It focuses much better on covers in my library loot vlogs.
It’d be fun to see you do a vlog, and I’ve found video is much more forgiving to my looks than still photographs!
I love that they are organized “by the rainbow”. I’ve always wanted to organize my books this way but my husband always vetoes that plan.
I’d just do it while he was at work and present a fait accompli. LOL
I really love reading your blogs, and its a great way of organising your shelves. I think this is great series, can’t wait for orange!
Thanks Becky!
Loved your idea of arranging books by their colour! It really does give a rainbow feel!
Russian definitely is beautiful to hear! It was interesting to see so many Russian books on your shelf :)
And, of course, it will be wonderful to see your vlog on orange :)
They’re all left over from college of course. :) But yeah-when I first decided to arrange by colour I worried I wouldn’t have enough variety for a full rainbow. Luckily I was wrong!
My grandfather was born in Russia (escaped during the revolution) and I loved his accent.
Fun vlog!
How cool!!!