My Reading Cave Fantasies

Ah, to have the kind of beautiful reading space that would make BuzzFeed or Pinterest all a flutter. That's the book nerd dream, right there.

Of course, I'm not a neat enough person for that. And I don't mean "neat" in the sense of boring versus interesting; I mean, I'm too much of a damn slob to have a pristine, picturesque "reading cave". I stack things and drop things and throw things all over the place, and that's the way I like my space. I don't want it to be too messy, of course, but my space inevitably ends up looking very, very lived in. And what's "lived in" to me is most likely "too messy" for a lot of other people.

So what is my "reading cave fantasy" if it's not a pretty little reading nook? Well, if you happened to read my #ShowMeYourShelves post from the other day, you should probably have a clue as to what I'm going to say next: I want shelves, shelves, and more shelves.

I don't want a place to read so much as I want a place to cram full of books. I was my own little library. My reading cave fantasy would be to literally jam whatever crappy armchair I can afford into a great big room filled up with shelves upon shelves upon shelves of books, and whenever I picture this hypothetical room, it's modeled in my head after a real room: the YA/MG section of the children's wing of the (original) library in the town where I grew up.

This room no longer exists as I remember it, or else I would try to get a picture (though, I suppose, posting a picture of one's local library might not be the wisest idea when trying to keep one's IRL location vague...). Sometime in my teenage years, between 2005 and 2010 (I can no longer recall the exact date...), the original library building was closed down (it currently serves as government administrative offices, I think?) and a new, much larger building was built in the brand new shopping center a mile or two away.

I don't dislike this new library, but it's never going to appeal to me the way the original did. The original was my library. Outside of school, it was the only public building that had any real effect on my developing psyche; I honestly still dream about being in that room (well, an exaggeration of it, most likely) once or twice a year.

As such, it remains the room I think of when I think of what my ideal "reading cave" would be like. A large, hardwood floored room with a fireplace (that I don't think was ever used, for obvious reasons), some desks and a few armchairs, bookshelves lining the walls, and rows upon rows of books in the center of the room. And while the real room was filled with YA and MG, mine would obviously be a mix of everything from picture books and children's chapter books to classics and nonfiction.)

So, does my idea of the perfect reading space sound anything like yours? Do you even think about having the perfect reading space, or are you content with what you've got? Let me know what you think in the comments below!