Prompt 272-Bookshelf

What kinds of items fill your bookshelves?

Books. My bookshelves are full of books.

I have fantasy books, science fiction books, cookbooks, notebooks, dictionaries, comics and manga, yearbooks, self-help books, and even old textbooks. If it’s paper with words on it and bound, it’s on my bookshelf. Heck, I even have folders with unbound written pages, coloring books, and even a Bible.

But of course, bookshelves are still shelves, after all. And they accumulate non-book things as much as books. Mine used to have way more crap piled on them before we moved. I threw out a lot of stuff and found new homes for a lot of the other stuff, but I still have a good amount of other miscellanea occupying space on my bookshelves.

I have a bunch of painted plaster animals on top of my tallest bookshelf. When I was a wee lass not quite old enough to get a permit to work but old enough to want to earn my own money, a friend of the family had a small business selling the pieces she cast and offering a space to paint them as well. She would let me stock the paints and run a few doors down to the pizza place she partnered with to pick up pizzas for the birthday parties she hosted. And if it was super quiet, she would let me pick out a small piece to paint myself. I painted a 5” loafing cat and a 6” howling wolf on a stony ledge. I had my own birthday there and she let me pick one of the larger pieces as a birthday gift. So naturally, it was the 10” wolf with her two cubs that I chose. (I’d admired that piece for months.) All three are on top of my shelf now.

My smaller bookshelf is currently home to my boxes of Magic: The Gathering cards and my laptop. It usually lives out in the living room either on the couch or on the floor next to the couch, but after unpacking it from my overnight to my mother’s this weekend I just put it in my office instead. It’ll migrate back out there eventually.

I also have a little electric wax warmer to make my office smell fresh and clean and not like a litter box. We used to have the box in the spare bedroom (which, incidentally, is my husband’s “office” space), but we moved it into my room when my mother came to visit back in April. It made more sense to have it in a room that won’t get closed off at night (not that they couldn’t just use the one in the basement if they really needed to, not that they don’t just sleep all night long) and also that way the spare room doesn’t smell like cat litter when we have guests. We have a decent litter—I never used to smell it as often—but they don’t use both boxes equally and the one in my room is more convenient and they like it better. So sometimes I want something that smells a little nicer and that’s why I got the wax warmer with some scented wax.

The only problem is I forget to turn it off when I go to bed. I’ll shut down my computer and turn off my lights and brush my teeth and go to bed in the other room, but the warmer is still keeping that wax warm. Of course, I don’t discover it until I come home from work the next day and go to turn it on, only to discover it’s still on from the night before. I have done this no less than 4 times.

So now I have a little love note at eye level next to my door that reminds me to turn it off if I’m done for the night. (“Did you remember to turn off the wax warmer, dumbass?”) My mother thinks it’s too mean and I should be nicer to myself, but Past Sara knows that Future Sara is a space cadet and she needs a little tough love. Besides, I know I mean it with love and I find it funny. Also, it wasn’t intentional, but I accidentally used ink the same color as the wall so it even fits the whole aesthetic of the room.

So what about you? What sorts of things adorn your shelves? Do you adhere to the philosophy of “bookshelves are for books and only books” or do you have random objects strewn across yours too? If you have bookworm characters, how do they fill out their own shelves? What knick-knacks might you find in their bookshelves?

I love a four day work week. Tomorrow is Wednesday already. The weekend will be here again before I know it. But for now, we’ll take it one day at a time. Another prompt tomorrow. See you then! Have a great night!

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