What I'm reading...

I'm a sucker for "self-help" type books.  The problem is that now-a-day so many of them  are nothing more than New Age clap-trap and are very dangerous to one's spiritual life.

I was not overly optimistic when I checked out "The Courage to be Brilliant", by Marta Monahan from the library.  The title sounded a bit fishy, but the price was right.  I have found it to be a very simple to read and quite inspiring book and would highly recommend it to anyone.  Check to see if they have it at your library or grab a copy from Amazon (they have used ones starting at $1.91.)

From Amazon:

Have you ever believed that you can do more, be more, or have more? Do you see flashes of your lost brilliance in the accomplishments of others? Are you hiding your truth simply to keep the peace?
If so, The Courage to be Brilliant is just for you. Marta Monahan, one of the USA's leading voices on personal achievement, shares her secrets for avoiding the dullness that comes from settling for less. Her Five Acts of Improvement begin working the moment you try them.

You will also discover:

• What holds you back and clouds your purpose
• The Three Levels of Thought and how they affect your actions
• How to develop your unique Five Acts of Improvement to alter the course of your life
• Why radical changes never work
• What to do if you cannot envision a life of brilliance

At any given time I am usually reading four of five books.  Each day I try to read something "intellectual" (usually history or politics), spiritual, self-improvement (which really can be the same as spiritual), and for fun there is always mysteries or novels.  I just started Jane Smiley's new book, "Private Lives",  and it looks like it will be as good as A Thousand Acres, for which she won a Pulitzer Prize.

Bookcase Work Continues

Journey of a Bookcase - Part Deux

One of the items on my Ten Tasks for Ten Days (otherwise known as the kick in the rear patoot challenge from Gina over at the Shabby Chic Cottage), was to finally finish my bookcases in the living room.  In Part One you were able to see the shelves in complete disarray (horrible sight!)  That was almost two months ago. As you can see, I'm not one to rush into things.


I finally took everything off the shelves and started the painting. As soon as I'm through with this post I'll finish the back of the shelves.  The shelves themselves are completely painted. Doing a task randomly is the hallmark of a person with ADD.  But guess what? It gets done, and that's all that matters.

A Note on the Bookcase:

I'm a huge fan of standards and brackets. This wall in the living room was completely useless.  The hall is directly to the right which meant you couldn't put any furniture there unless you wanted to climb over a chair to get into the living room. So up went 8" deep shelves on standards and brackets. I talked my hubby into slamming up end pieces to enclose them and he added crown molding on the top. Voila - shelves that look built in.

I clamped two inexpensive lamps (I think they were $5.00 on sale at Wally World) on the crown molding for spot lights.

 

 

Arrrrrgh!  Big pile of books in middle of room.

 

One thing that has made the painting less than fun is the wood stove.  It's right next to shelves and my hubby has been starting fires early in the morning.  I'm trying to tell myself I'm really in an expensive spa having a steam bath. So far it's not working!

 

Next I get to do the fun part of arranging the books.  A reward for sure!!


Arranging Bookshelves Info:

• Tips for arranging bookshelves using the "Zig Zag" formula 
• Design Dilemma: Arranging Bookshelves

If you didn't sign up for the last challenge at  The Shabby Chic Cottage, Gina will be starting a new challenge soon.  It probably won't be quite so, well, challenging!

More on bookshelves...

Color Coded Bookshelves

This is a guaranteed headache maker in my opinion. What were these folks thinking?
This looks nice but how many of us are lucky to have books that seem to match (unless you arrange by color rather than subject)?

from the combox:

MightyMom has left a new comment on your post "Journey of the Bookcase Part One Now that is on...":

girl. I stopped making brown paper covers for my books in the 6th grade!! hated it then hate it now. and I REALLY don't like the look of a bunch of covered books with hand written titles....no matter how pretty your writing is. each book is different...and as such adds to the prettiness of the shelf. I like the proposed paint job. want to do that to my shelves but my hubby has vetoed the project on principle. now if those were my shelves.... (be warned..you're gonna hate this) all the books would go down the middle, no boxes or anything all alphabetized by author's last name. Then the pretties would be arranged on either side...symmetrically (or at least balanced)

Obviously Mighty Mom has no trouble saying what's on her mind and that's why I like her so much. The book covering project has been in major stall mode for just some of the reasons MM has so nicely stated. I can't find a book without a name and making labels turned into a nightmare of epic proportion, so I switched to hand written (just a minor nightmare), but hated the way they looked.

The other major problem is the craft paper actually clashes with the future background color. Oy vey! Alphabetizing by author is out of the question as I cannot always remember the author's name or even the title of a book. I can, however, always find a book by it's spine color and design. I'm a visual person and my color memory is excellent. For that reason my books have always been arranged by subject and will have to remain so.

I'm headed on the path of ripping off the silly covers and just arranging my shelves as I always have, which really have always looked pretty dang nice. I spend way too much time obsessing!

Below are some examples of neutral color covered books. Very zen, but no titles on the spines. How in heck do they find a book?


More zen booshelves

In doing my research, I did run across someone who suggested that checking your arrangement by taking a photo was a good idea. Whoee! I figured that out when I took the "before shot." Was that a "great minds moment??"

Journey of the Bookcase
Part One

Now that is one ugly bunch of stuff crammed unto a bookshelf. This is the last big part of my painting and re-doing of the living room and everything in the bookcase is already in disarray. The paper rolls are there because I saw some pictures of bookshelves where the books had all been covered in neutral paper. Being a bit nuts, I decided that was a splendid idea and I started to cover my books. Arrrrrrrrgh! Not all that much fun (to put it in family friendly language).



I also learned the trick of putting paperback books in photo boxes. Lets face it - paperbacks are a bit ugly and the box idea was a winner in my mind since I love boxes.

I'll be covering some of the boxes with different paper. I love ephemera (including stamps), and have kept much of the mail sent to my husbands business over the years from all over the world. I used some of that to cover this photo box.

Next Step:

Everything will have to come off the shelves while I paint the back a lovely shade called Agate. The shelves themselves will be pulled out and painted Arnica, which is a shade of white with a hint of yellow. Very bright and a match to the woodwork and ceiling.

While the paint is drying I'll finish covering the books (or I may abandon that idea as sheer insanity), and then I can have fun arranging everything.