Library Nirvana

It took two weekends, a lot of driving, and several trips to the store to find the right tool, but we at last have enough bookshelves for our books!

Several weekends ago we bravely ventured forth to the Schaumburg IKEA, determined to spend our hard-won Christmas monies on bookshelves. The overflowing piles of book boxes in our family room had simply become too much to bear. So we turned our gaze to ikea.com in search of answers, and one word leapt out at us, promising to solve all our storage needs. It was "Billy". We considered ordering online, but decided against it; we had to witness Billy in person. We had to be sure.

Thus we found ourselves in Schaumburg, IL. Knowing full well the magnitude of the task before us, we stopped first at Macaroni Grill, where we spent another hard-won Christmas present: a "gift card." After filling ourselves with eggplant parmesan and margarita pizza, we began our task. IKEA beckoned. Making our way through the turbulent throngs, climbing floor after floor of home furnishings, and maintaining a sharp, laser-like focus, we found ourselves amidst the Billy showcases. And it was good.

We secured our items and proceeded to checkout. Our plan was to have IKEA deliver the goods to us, but another, cheaper alternative presented itself. There was an on-site Enterprise store with vans available to rent. So we found ourselves driving back home not in our car, but in a full-size cargo van. After one hour to get home, half an hour to unload, one hour back to drop off the van, several minutes of being lost, and one more hour back home in our car, we had accomplished our goal. Bookshelves! At least, bookshelves in a box.

The next day, Sunday, saw us put the bookshelves together. We soon found this was the easy part. Getting them properly aligned and anchored on the wall was a task we left for the next weekend. Working well into the night the next Saturday, with the aid of dogged persistence, wooden shims, an offset screwdriver, and caramel-chocolate-chip cookies, we finally finished. The next day, another Sunday, we put up our books. And, again, just as before, it was good. Billy was right.

From start to finish:







With our books off of the floor and into their rightful place, I couldn't resist cataloging them via LibraryThing. The above shelves hold 346 books of all sizes, shapes, and subjects. We're not done cataloging, but we estimate this is about half of our total collection, with the rest scattered among smaller bookshelves throughout the house.