A New Home for My Books (and me)

In the beginning of March, I moved myself, my books, and my life from Hoboken to Brooklyn. If you noticed that I haven’t posted in over a month, this is why. :) It turns out that it takes a great deal of time and effort to prepare for a move, move, and settle in after a move.

I had lived in my old apartment for 5 years, so it was quite a task to go through all the stuff and figure out which stuff to donate, which stuff to throw away, and which stuff to keep and pack up. Especially when there’s well over 1000 books to factor in.

I edited my book collection quite a bit before the move. I donated a lot of books that I’m less interested in now, or don’t think I’ll ever read. I didn’t count, but I’d guess that I gave away about 200 to 300 books. Most of them went to Symposia Books in Hoboken, a non-profit, community used bookstore. The others went to the book exchange at my work.

I now live in an adorable 1 bedroom apartment in Brookyn. I’m still getting settled, but I’m loving it so far. I have two new Billy bookcases from IKEA in my bedroom, and my living room has built in bookcases along one wall. I now have more than enough room for all my books! Yesterday I unpacked all my books, and before I put each book on a shelf, I scanned it with with Delicious Library so that I have a completely accurate catalog of all my books. This makes the librarian in my soul incredibly giddy.

Here’s a photo of some of the books in my Billy bookcases:

A new home for my books

Once I’m more settled I’ll take photos of the entire apartment and post them here. I’m finally buying grown up furniture (as opposed to the cheapest available stuff at IKEA, which is how I had to furnish my first apartment out of college), and I’m really excited about how it’s coming together. My new Crate & Barrel couch arrived yesterday, and it is also a queen size pull out bed – so visitors are welcome! My brass bed arrives on Wednesday, and I’m super excited because it reminds me of Samantha’s bed from the American Girl doll books. :)

Additionally – I’ll be catching up on all book related posts soon too – so keep an eye out for Polysyllabic Spree posts. I need to decide where in my new apartment my stacks of books bought and read each month will be photographed!

By Emily

Book-hoarding INFJ who likes to leave the Shire and go on adventures.

6 comments

  1. Congrats on the move! I have a hard time imagining purging more than just a few of my books at a time. Looking forward to more pics! :)

  2. One of my favorite things to do is look at people’s bookshelves… weird fact, but true! Congrats on the move and lugging of all those fabulous books to your new digs! (I know from experience, it’s a pain in the butt!)

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