Bookshelf Crash

So on Monday I was trying to pull a book off a shelf in my bedroom when the whole shelf started to tip! Ack!!!!! Then since it was a backless shelf, some of the books on the top shelf started to slip down behind, making it impossible to right the shelf.

Now I think I need to explain the shelf: it is made from 4 2x4s that have holes drilled up the wide side, pegs are put in the holes and 2x2s with holes are put onto the pegs, the shelves are set onto the 2x2s, there are screw in attachments on the tops of the uprights that make it so you can adjust them against the ceiling, there are no nails holding it together. I guess I didn't have the screws tightened against the ceiling and when it started to come down, it did. So there I am trying to keep from being smashed by all those books on the top and trying to let down the uprights slowly so they don't crash into the window. Tuesday I had to get up at 4am to go to work a double and didn't get home till after 8:30pm so there all the books stayed, blocking the closet door. Wednesday was my day off so I spent the whole day putting the shelf back up and getting the books back on it. I decided that while I was doing that I would catalog them, so I took my laptop up to the bedroom and created a new shelf on my Goodreads list called "bedroom shelf". Basically, all the books on that bookshelf are ones I have acquired that I haven't read yet, so they are really TBR but I wanted to have them separate. I was amazed that there are 244 books there. I think I really can't justify buying any new ones! lol
Now I can maybe relax and read a few chapters from one of my "currently reading"!!

How do you decide what to read?

I have always been a "book-a-holic". I used to get books every month from the Mystery Book club but I have stopped buying them recently. I have a book shelf in my bedroom with many of those books on it that haven't been read yet. [see my Goodreads ID photo:] I walk down the book shelf when ever I go to Sam's or Safeway to see if there are any new books I can afford and want. There are several authors and series that I just buy the next book in line (although I hope I can find it at a discount). I love browsing at a library book sale. I worked one year for a school book fair company and I got a lot of YA books with my employee discount that year. I borrow books from my quilt club library. I trade and borrow books from my friends. (We had an informal book club called "The Bingo Ladies and Jay" when a club I belonged to was doing bingo every week.) I now work at an airport and all of the gate agents, ramp agents and airline crews usually have books to read on breaks or during slow times during the schedule. They leave books in the break room and sometime passengers even give us books. I subscribe to Ellery Queen and Alfred Hitchcock short story mystery magazines and always have one in my bag for those minutes I may have to wait in a line. When my Mom died, I brought home most of her library including a set, "The World's Popular Classics". My husband is also an avid reader, but often he reads non-fiction that I am not interested in. Once in a while we do read the same books. My younger daughter got me onto Goodreads and we often share books [although this year she is in the Peace Corps in Albania so that is harder right now - I have sent her some books:] And now I am also sharing books with my almost 12-year old granddaughter. I like my Goodreads list because it is helping me keep track of what I am reading, what I have on my shelves and what I would like to read.
So with all that, I just pick a book that I have that tickles my fancy at the time and read it. Sometimes I will go for all the unread books by a particular author and get on a kick. I recently joined the Goodreads group "Pick a Shelf" and that is helping me focus on a theme each month. Basically, I don't usually know what I am going to be reading next and that's half the fun. My friends and family will tell you that I am always reading.