In a world where technology is taking over, bookshelves are a sturdy thing from the past.
As a kid, my great-grandparents had this old bookshelf that sat in their office. I loved to climb on it because on the top of the bookshelf there was this fake toy gun, but it looked real. It was the only bookshelf in the house and it looked as if it held every book in the world, but I broke it one day while climbing up its shelves. My great-grandfather was livid. He had told me that he had made that with his father and it was irreplaceable, and I broke it. I watched as he picked up the splinters of wood off the ground and searched for the place where it once belonged. I helped him and together we cleaned it all up. Later that year we rebuilt that old bookshelf.
A good bookshelf makes me ponder about who built it. A bookshelf is only as good as the work someone has put into it. Where once I was excited about climbing its shelves, I now find myself, thinking about the process it went through to get to the home where it now lives. The way it was carefully made, how it was gingerly carried into a moving truck and again into the house, and how it stands tall holding all of the books as if they were its children. Like a worn bed or the car that carried you through college, a bookshelf allows for a sense of firmness and confidence, at the same time, a relaxation that eases you throughout a long day.
Part of my admiration for bookshelves is all of the moments that are now memories that the bookshelf holds. Some of my personality traits owe themselves to bookshelves. I came across a bookshelf in my bestfriends house. She said she had gotten it at an antique store. I grew curious and began to ponder about its story and authenticity. By living through such moments and being crafted with care, Bookshelves became logs for these moments. Often an old bookshelf is the only thing that is keeping memories alive. Bookshelves are amazing at holding onto books and items, but not just items, time as well. It might just be wood, stain, nails, and glue, but the blood, sweat, and tears that went into making the bookshelf bring it to life.
Part of my admiration for bookshelves is all of the moments that are now memories that the bookshelf holds.
A bookshelf’s greatest power is its ability to hold and keep things safe and secure, while being creatively made. A great bookshelf shows the artistry and creativity of woodworking, while holding the things that we hold dear. Our tension can be released off our shoulders and drifted away. On other bookshelves, there are kids climbing. Books stacked. Items hidden. Vases held.
Lately, though, I have found more and more bookshelves made by factories, the kind that aren’t made of real wood and break under the weight of books. Better yet, no bookshelves at all. That’s because good bookshelves are becoming scarce. If a bookshelf is not being made with care, then it is being made out of fake wood in factories owned by Ashley Home Goods, or there are no more books to put on the shelves.
In 2020, The Oxford Student reported that the Kindle’s and audiobooks of the world are making books more obsolete and bookshelves are going along with them. “We can quite literally ‘read’ with our eyes closed.” (Culture). No one is protesting against this change because the kindle and ebooks are making story-telling easier. Why do you need a bookshelf when you have no books to put on its shelves?
Along with Kindles and ebooks that make life easier, come the bookshelves made out of foe wood, wood that is not wood but a mixture of materials. The factories that build these kinds of bookshelves imagine a human being who lives in a city, a couple stories up, or maybe someone who can no longer build things on their own, but needs an instruction manual to tell them what to do.
Sloane Crosley, a writer for The New York Times, has written about her time with bookshelves, and why they are disappearing. She attributed most of the reason to lack of space (Crosley). Bookshelves take up space, even if they free up the space that the books themselves are taking just by laying around. In larger cities where space is limited, like New York, bookshelves are not common and are becoming more scarce due to prioritization of space in small apartments. We don’t want to look at cramped spaces, they are unpleasant on the eyes. Our spaces are becoming more like caves because of the desire for “open concepts”, which is the trend in houses and apartments because it makes the room look bigger than it actually is. If you want a nice bookshelf, you have to be willing to buy a house big enough to hold it or compromise that open house plan.
Just this past week, I was thinking to myself about my new room. See I am moving into a new house and my bookshelf won’t fit, but I want another one because I find bookshelves not only to be helpful, but also to declutter my room. I thought about how my great-great-grandfather built his bookshelf by hand and carved in details. Then I thought back to how I broke that very same bookshelf and rebuilt it with my great-grandfather twelve years ago. I want to make something new, the right way and the first time. I want a bookshelf that is sturdy and provides all the comforts a bookshelf should give like confidence and relaxation that the shelf will hold strong, and pride because you have built something with your own hands. You have spilt blood from the splinters of wood in your finger, sweat from the hard work of lifting and leveling and screwing the bookshelf together, and tears because this work is hard and you are only human. The memories that you have made, just through building a bookshelf the right way concealed in its wood. Last week, I underwent this task with my own dad. We spent three hours measuring, leveling, carrying, and screwing together pieces of big, heavy duty wood. I cried and we laughed together at the tears that were shed, and everytime I see that bookshelf sitting in the corner of my new bedroom, staring at me, reminding me of the time we spent making memories while building this piece of furniture.
None of the bookshelves care. They are not alive, but they are like a journal, filled with quiet, personal moments just waiting to be read — but unlike journals, they could hold many items, and a lifetime worth of memories.
Works Cited
Crosley, S. "The virtues of shelf-lessness." The New York Times. 14 August 2018. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/14/books/review/home-library-organization-dewey-decimal-system.html#
Culture, O. "Ebooks: How the Digital age transformed the way we read." The Oxford Student. 19 April 2020, https://oxfordstudent.com/2020/04/17/ebooks-how-the-digital-age-transformed-the-way-we-read/
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