Bookshelves (three views) + self portrait. 

Right now, I have our book shelves sorted into fiction and non fiction. The poetry, language, religion and (a few pop) psychology books all live with the cookbooks in the dining room/office/art room. The novels all live in the sun room, along with the overflow of Remy's books (which mostly live in his room, except what he brings down to read). 

Yes, three not-completely-filled bookshelves (including the one in Remy's room). For a completely book obsessed family. 

(M's office at work is filled with books, but I don't count those as part of our house because they aren't.)

How do we do it? We are avid library users. 

Our checked-out library books live in a basket in the living room, because those are the books that we're usually actually reading. My kindle also lives there, because I am mostly (let's say 99%) reading library books electronically, via overdrive. Remy has read a few electronic library books, as well (and bought his first kindle book a few weeks ago) but physical books still dominate his reading. M hates electronic reading, so his books are all paper.

Despite our mostly using the library (electronic and physical), we still own a lot of books. I declutter them fairly regularly, but we keep adding more. And that's mostly ok. I'll keep decluttering. But books will always be a part of our lives, in one form or another. 

I'm highly unlikely to ever get rid of my poetry collection (especially the chapbooks). Or my religious studies books. I own a lot of awesome non-fiction. 

And there's a lot of fun in our fiction shelves. Since we do a lot of rereading (both M and I), we keep the books that we like, so we can reread them. (Especially great for travel.) At this point, M's books outweigh mine, on the fiction front, because most of my fiction books exist in overdrive and I can check them out there anytime. Some I can't, so I keep them. For now, at least. 

Everything changes. 

I'll keep decluttering. Reducing our load. Because as much as I love books, I also love feeling unfettered, free. Minimalist. But my own version, which may not look minimalist to anyone else. And that's definitely ok, because I am the one living my life. 

(I don't mess with other people's books.) 

The only meaning is the meaning we attach. Right now, I'm happy with the bookshelves we have. I'm sure that will change, one way or another, because everything changes. And when it does, I'll change again, in response. 

Because that's what I do.