Tending Your Bookshelves

The Wifey and I aren't so good at this (and, I must admit, I'm better at it than the Wifey); our recent solution was to buy some taller shelves to put more books on. Laura Miller of the New York Times was forced into the position by a need for repainted walls. Like a fine English garden, you need to do some pruning and cultivating for a book collection to remain clean, pretty, and wanderable. Your criteria for what's a weed and what's a flower is a matter of your personality.

The Bookshelf Staircase

Making more room in a loft apartment always means being creative with space -- such as this staircase bookshelf:


Those wider steps appear to be designed as seats, if on your way to bed you're suddenly caught off-guard by a book's spine and have to stop for a bit of reading mid-stride. My problem: I tend to drag the tip of my shoe against the riser (hence the worn toes on my shoes) which will, on this staircase, keep me kicking the books as I walk.