I’ve moved a lot in my life. I’ve lived in nine different places since I landed in New York City after graduate school—one place in Queens, two places in Manhattan, five different places in Brooklyn—and there’s also our weekend house in upstate New York. Whether I was living with a family friend, strangers off the Internet, friends of friends who became friends, or my boyfriend who became my husband, one thing always remained a constant. I had to bring my books with me. The last time we moved, the mover remarked that he had never seen someone with so many books. It didn’t help that he had to lug them all down the stairs of a 4th-floor walk-up.
When we had the opportunity to design our home in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, I didn’t have too many demands. I just wanted a soaking bathtub and a place to put all my books. Well, if you want to get technical, not ALL my books. I do have a book diaspora—there are the books that I have upstate, the ones in my office, and the bunch still lingering at my parents’ house.
So now, for the first time in my life, I actually have space on my home shelves for more books! I can’t wait to fill them all up. We designed our brownstone with built-in bookshelves to take advantage of our double-height ceilings. Let’s see how long it takes before these shelves are busting at the seams too.
This post was originally published on GetLiterary.com.