This week, Modern Mrs. Darcy is doing a link-up of bookshelf displays. Naturally, I couldn’t wait to jump on board. (For those who are new to this blog, it was originally focused on books and reading. Reading was the first, and longest, love of my life.)

Voila, my bookshelves! 

This is the “public display” bookshelf. It’s a focal point of our living room. My father-in-law made this shelf for us as a housewarming present when we moved into our first apartment. Beautiful, no? The books here are part quick-reference, part coffee-table. The lower shelves (not pictured) are for DVDs, cookbooks and board games. (The space on the second shelf is for family photos; I like to display picture frames and a knick-knack or two, but didn’t want to include them in the post.)

This is a close-up of that second shelf, containing some old books (there’s a history of the United States from 1867 that we found at a used bookstore) and a selection of our nicer music texts, as a nod to my husband’s and my joint music-college background. And, of course, a little Gene Kelly musical collection.

These pictures are of the bookshelves in my home office. I love this space. The shelves themselves come from our cheapie post-college days, but the books they house are precious. There’s a nice mix of academia, literary fiction, nonfiction and popular fiction. My top shelf, of course, contains all the Harry Potter books, along with some favorite nonfiction books. On the left bookcase, there’s one shelf full of a very special art book collection, recently passed down to me from my grandfather. I can’t wait to show them to Edwin when he gets old enough to appreciate them.

This is the bookshelf in Edwin’s room. He’s only into reading the books on the bottom shelf right now, but boy, does he love playing with the ones on the top two. He gravitates toward this shelf twenty times a day (making his mama proud). My father-in-law made this shelf, too. It was a surprise for my baby shower- all the guests brought a book as a wishing-well gift, and wrote a message to Edwin inside each cover. I was very touched. (You know that you’re well-known for something when it becomes the theme to your shower.)

And finally…. here’s my guilty pleasure, not-for-display-purposes collection:

Yup. I keep them in a box under my bed.

Now you know.

(See my posts: Comfort Books and I Heart the BSC.)