My Photo

2025

  • Adrian Tinniswood: The Power and the Glory
  • Martin Williams: The King is Dead, Long Live the King
  • Gavin Plumley: A Home for all Seasons
  • Robert Harris: Precipice
  • Nigel Slater: A Thousand Feasts
  • Joan Aiken: Tales of London Town
  • Alan Connor: 188 Words for Rain
  • Ben Robinson: English Villages: An Extraordinary Journey through Time

2024

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018

2017

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011

Cornflower book group

« Reading habits | Main | Good lines: symbiosis »

Comments

Feed You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.

Harriet

This is not a question I'd ever given any thought to before, but looking at the photo makes me realise that I would immediately want to fill that gap.

Julie Fredericksen

Gaah, that picture bothers me. I would have to get one of my doggie bookends and straighten those books up. I have a collection of these, mostly Scotties. Just Saturday I found a lone spaniel bookend. He is so lost without his mate but I bought him anyway.

BTW, my bookshelves are crammed - there is no space in them whatsoever, so I have started putting books on end tables, dressers, etc., hence the need for bookends. There are also books hiding under table skirts, crammed into closets, hidden away in cabinets, etc. And still the books keep coming in.

Cornflower

I like the sound of your doggie bookends, Julie!

Sandy

I dont mind the loose-living books but it would be a signal that there was room for more! Conversely, the picture would be straight 5 seconds after I saw it and repetition of this slouch would mean 2 hooks...

Deirdre

I am fine with this look! I clicked on the picture to see the book titles (do you ever do this with magazines? Look closely to see what is there on the coffee table, for example?) and I have Cultivating Sacred Spaces given to me by my father, who is no longer with us, so it is special to me! It is not the same, but I did think of it when I read your Don Pearson post yesterday! Actually, I also thought . . . another book title for my list!

Cornflower

I like that book, too, Deirdre. Come to think of it, I wish my own garden better reflected my gardening book collection!

Simon T

I'd love to have gaps ony my bookshelf! Chance would be a fine thing... But, aside from the fact that it would give me more room, I have no aesthetic problem with it!

Anna

I don't think I've ever had such a gap in a bookshelf... Which is kind of sad, really. But I'd leave it that way, if I did (and I'd already found shelf space for all the book stacked on the floor). I like the slightly haphazard look.

Carolyn

I would eventually want to fill it (the empty space does bug me), once I had decided on the right category of books that all seemed right together. But I don't think I'd randomly throw books on a shelf just to fill it, right now I have various stacks of books on the floor waiting for me to decide on the right ones to go together on several empty/half empty shelves!

Dark Puss

I don't have any gaps, but probably I'd like my books to be fairly straight. This is partially because it will lead to less damage, particularly to paperbacks, but it probably also stems from a general desire for visual neatness. Unlike Carolyn I'd much rather have my books unsorted on a shelf than on the floor. I have never kept books on the floor and I doubt if I ever will.

jodi

I don't have any gaps. The books here are stacked and pushed to one side and the other side are generally photos or knick knacks. Love the title of the post!

Joan

No gaps on my shelves and yes I straighten pictures .

Simon (Savidge Reads)

I initially thought I would want to fill the gap, but actually its a sign of possibly book joys to come. I would have to straighten them however. Ha! What a great fun and slightly insightful test this is.

Susie Vereker

Well, I don't mind the leaning look at all, but it wouldn't happen here. Too many books to cram in. I don't suppose many Cornflower commenters would like my untidy bookshelves as there are books sitting sideways on top.

Desperate Reader

it's not an empty space, it's a space waiting to be filled...straight doesn't worry me, it's finding things - as long as I know where the books are that's all that matters to me

Annabel (gaskella)

I aspire to have space in my bookshelves, so I can artistically slant a book or two, and use treasured objects as bookends, but sadly, it ain't gonna happen!

Margaret Powling

I don't recall ever having gaps on bookshelves! The overflow live everywhere there is a flat surface and I now have a self-supporting pile of books in the study which is almost a coffee-table in itself! And yes, books sideways on top of others on the shelves. I don't like this - I would like to get all the books off all the shelves in the house and sort them out, so that my antiques books, for example, aren't 'separated' ... some are in the study and as that section grew, the overflow is upstairs in what we refer to as the workroom. There was a system when we organized the bookshelves ten years ago, paperbacks on smaller shelves in the dining room, leather-bound pocket books, various series, country books in the sitting room, all non-fiction in sections in the study and so on, and hardback fiction in the bed sitting room, and my Persephone books on the revolving bookcase in the bed sitting room. But as books for various sections continue to find their way into the house (they don't have any help from me, I assure you!) they are often put on a table simply because there is no room for them.
As for examining the spines of books for titles in photos and magazines: when I get a new magazine as well as picking up my reading glasses I go and fetch the magnifying glass just for this purpose ... "Oh, she's got that ... oh, I've got that, too!"

Cornflower

Susie, you should see some of my other shelves!

Verify your Comment

Previewing your Comment

This is only a preview. Your comment has not yet been posted.

Working...
Your comment could not be posted. Error type:
Your comment has been posted. Post another comment

The letters and numbers you entered did not match the image. Please try again.

As a final step before posting your comment, enter the letters and numbers you see in the image below. This prevents automated programs from posting comments.

Having trouble reading this image? View an alternate.

Working...

Post a comment

Your Information

(Name and email address are required. Email address will not be displayed with the comment.)

Current reading:

  • Adrian Tinniswood: Noble Ambitions

Please note

  • Sidebar book cover thumbnail pictures are affiliate links to Amazon, and the storefront links to Blackwell's and The Book Depository are also affiliated; should you purchase a book directly through those links, I will receive a small commission. Older posts may also contain affiliate links to one of those bookshops. I am not paid to produce content and all opinions are my own.

A request

  • If you wish to use any original images or content from this site, please contact me.

The Book Depository

  • Free Delivery on all Books at the Book Depository

Cornflower Book Group: read

2010

2009

Statcounter 2

  • Statcounter 2

2021

2017