Rambling Reader: So many books, so little space

I have mentioned it once or twice before, but I am in desperate need of bookshelves. Desperate. It's never something we can justify the price for though. Ok, so if perhaps I didn't spend so much on BOOKS I might be able to save up enough for a new shelf, but we'll just leave that crazy talk alone for now.Today I felt miserable. The mystery medical issues I am suffering from were in full swing with hip and lower back pain. I tried to nap, but couldn't get comfortable and kept having to get up to pee (which made me cranky). So what do I do? I decided to reorganize my 2.5 bookshelves in the basement. On a day with little to no air and 150% humidity. With one tiny window that doesn't let in much air on a cool, windy day. While in excruciating pain.I know how to have a good time, yo.I also decided to chronicle my efforts in photographs. So here, for your viewing pleasure is my lack of space for my books - although they are nicely organized! (Clicking the photos will enlarge them!)First, I decided I wanted a shelf entirely devoted to my YA books. So I tackled the largest one:

I thought I was almost done, save the piles I had upstairs that are waiting to be read... but I wasn't quite done.

These two piles o' books still needed to fit on that shelf. Not to mention I am cheating and adding some of the books from my TBR stack onto the shelf knowing I will not read them for some time (like those Moriarty books!).

And with some random books as placeholders for books I know I have but are missing (like the books I have lent Sassymonkey! I have a pretty completed YA and MG bookshelf!

Of course, these poor books were ousted from their shelfy home. I still needed to do something with them!

And these! All these books were originally also on the now YA shelf! I might have a few books...

So, I started on a Fantasy/Urban Fantasy themed shelf!

As you can see, this particular shelf is a sort of disaster area. Since I had all of *my* fantasy and YA books on one shelf, I sort of tossed my husband's books and left over random books of mine on this one. Some things were in order, but mostly it was just chaos. So I cleaned it out and went one shelf at a time.

This would be the first layer on the first shelf. I got creative with the stacking of books to make sure I could fit what I wanted on this bookcase as it was smaller than the other one. I have most of the Kelley Armstrong books, but they are in boxes in a closet in a spare room.

And now shelf 1, layer 2. Look! I even added some of my husband's books to the mix! I have never read that last pile of books on the right.

Shelf 2, layer 1. Gaps for books I know I have that will fit in there when I get them back from being borrowed (my father) or when I have finished reading them.

Shelf 2, layer 2. Again, gaps for more missing books! I am proactive!

Shelf 3, layer 1. A mish-mash of authors and series and two more of my husband's books tossed in!

Shelf 3, layer 2. Gaps for missing books and I know that we have the first Tolkien book somewhere (likely in a box!) as well as The Hobbit and the rest of that series at the end of the row.

And here's my "final" product! My father currently has White Witch, Black Curse and I realized as I was organizing these shelves I never lent him The Outlaw Demon Wails. Oops! So I phoned my parents in the middle of cleaning this up to let him know to not start reading WWBC! I am a very good daughter!That still left me with a scary pile of books and one semi-shelf to consider.

This one is a doozy. It's not very large and pretty much we just use it to store random books and odd crap and our phone. ;)

But I took the series-type books from the shelf that is now Fantasy and I put them in order...

And this shelf really started turning into a Mystery/Suspense shelf with some fiction thrown in for good measure.

AND I still have some room to work with by the end! How exciting is that? Ok, when you see the piles of books I still have left over you might not share in my triumph, but goshdarnit...

I think this one looks pretty swell, don't you? I mean, it's all tidy and alphabetical! And so colourful! (And again, I am missing some of the books I KNOW I have - in boxes. You'll understand in a sec, just keep reading!)

And after all that work... I still have this left over -

And this...

So, as you can see from the above photo - I have 8 more LARGE Rubbermaid storage boxes that are FULL and so heavy I can't even move them in a closet! According to LibraryThing, I have about 600 books (number to drop as I am giving some away via Bookmooch) and I didn't get to at least 2 of the boxes in that closet when I did all my entering. What I need are shelves. Sigh. But for now, I can at least rest easier knowing that my more precious books are neatly organized.

Oh, and I also have this tiny shelf for my TBR pile:

And I realized as I was writing this post that I am missing books from this pile as they are piled next to the dining room table and I had totally forgotten they were there! TBR +5 I think.

If you're still around at the end of this post - bless you! ;) And psssst! Got any spare bookcases you could send me?