When Moving Finally Results in Your Own Personal Reading Nook

So, some of you may know that I recently bought a house. It was the kind of ordeal that I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy, but at the same time, it was sooo totally worth all the pain and aggravation. We love our new place. We lived in a rural suburb before but now we really live in a rural area.

Luckily, we made a lateral move that ended with Katie still attending the school she's already made so many friends at. We're not in the same city, but it's the town next door and it's so small -- population under 1,500 -- that it shares the same school district as where we were before.

And Katie loves it. She loved our old house, too, but we now have almost three acres for her to wander and fish and ride around on. It's kind of a dream come true for all of us.

Here's a picture of the pond from when we first moved in and then one of it after all of the recent rain we've had:

You might not be able to tell, but it's nearly doubled in size. And let me tell you, the fishing is good. The previous owners stocked it with bass. What an upgrade from the perch and bluegill in the pond at our old house, though there are some of those here, too. (And not that we aren't catch-and-release people, but the catching is fun.) Katie's already been out there several times, and she's caught plenty. As you can see. =)

But my favorite, favorite thing about our new house is obviously my new reading nook. I had a book room in the old house, but I always felt separated from my family when I spent any time in there. And my new reading spot is just off the side of the living room, so it's perfect. Jerrod can be gaming, Katie can be building Lego civilizations at the dining room table and I can sit on my new reading sofa in the book nook, and we can all still converse at the same time. I just love the open floor plan; it's actually kind of perfect.

Plus, I can see my books ALL THE TIME! And who doesn't love just staring at all of their lovely books from time to time? I know I do!

It was honestly the hardest it's ever been for me to organize my shelves in the new place. I used to have a shelf that was Katie's next to my shelves, where I stored my ARCs to be read and the classics that didn't really fit in with the rest of my books but that I definitely wanted Katie to read at some point. That shelf is in the spare/guest room now, and Katie's collection of books fills it up, so I really had to cull some books from my own collection in order to not invade Katie's territory. :)

And now that my books are out in the open and visible for all to see, I didn't want them all cluttered up. They may look like that to the casual observer anyway, but there's a method to my madness. My collections (Stiefvater, Maas, Schwab, Bardugo, Bracken, Spooner/Kaufman/Kristoff, and Meyer) make up the whole top row of shelves. Never mind. I'll just show you below. :P My collections kind of spilled over to the second row, too, with a whole cubby for Bray's work, as well. And then I tried to separate by subject matter and/or genre as best I could. Not an easy feat when some fit into more than one, or when you want to keep an author's body of work together, even though they write fantasy and contemporary. Such is the life of a bookworm, though. Maybe I should let my inner librarian out and just go back to alphabetical order by author. Nah, too boring. :P

But the thing I'm most excited about -- besides having an adorable little love seat in my reading nook -- is my collectibles display at the top of my shelves. No one ever got to see this stuff in the other house, but now it's out for all to see:

the Harry Potter collection: complete with wands, gilly water, broom and my "If you don't get my Harry Potter references then there is something Siriusly Ron with you" mug

The Princess Bride collection: The Princess Bride-opoly, talking Miracle Max bobble-head, and wine (empty now, obvs) from the feast/quote-along at the Alamo Drafthouse (given to me as a present by my sis...I couldn't make it *sads*)

Already, my shelves have changed a bit from when I first took these photos a couple of weeks ago. I'll probably be rearranging them for the rest of my life. Such is the nature of the beast, I suppose. Collections grow. What was thought to be a stand-alone becomes a full-blown series. Books are taken to Half Price Books to make room for others. ;0)

I kind of want to do a full shelfie tour, but I'm not great at the video thing. Also, my voice makes me sound like a 12yo. Maybe someday, though.

I haven't been able to spend as much time as I'd like in my new reading nook because of all the other stuff related to moving, work, and preparing for the holidays. It's been kind of chaotic, to be honest. Things are finally settling down, though, and I have all next week off, so I'm really hoping to get some serious reading in. Especially since the perfect weather for hammock reading was during the move. :( Lucky for me, I have an amazing new reading nook to christen! :D


Where's your favorite place to read? Have you always dreamed of having your own reading nook, or are you one of those lucky few that already have their own dream libraries? ;^)

Labels: new house, reading goals, reading spots