What would be your ideal personal library or bookstore?

For my ideal library would be huge shelves low, high, and hidden. There would be a fireplace with leather furniture, there would be desks for those who want to do research. there would also be secret passges that would go to a restricted section, and people would use a quill to sign the checkout book. :)

I LOVE THIS!!!
i would love to have a place like this, too. It is so nice to have a table to work at, but also relaxing chairs, with lamps instead of the eye-frying overhead things. Secret passages are ESSENTIAL, and i want shelves ceiling to floor too. I always picture a round room, and one with high ceilings, also there can be a balcony up there halfway or three-quarters of the way up. sliding ladders to get to the books.
but this is my own library, but quills to check out are pretty fun too.

I also love this. I would bet most of us picture a perfect library about the same. What do you think? Not too complicated, I think, high shelves of lots of books and comfy places to read. I guess I would want a coffee table to prop my feet more than a research table.

But, really, I would take the little library I already have if it was accompanied with a few quiet hours every day to read what I want!

I was scrolling through the topic discussions and when I came upon this one I knew I had to join this group!I love this.There is a lottery
where I live that is giving houses away as prizes.In one of the houses there is the most beautiful library with two stories of bookshelves
and two comfy chairs facing a stone fireplace.
Well I didn't realize how strongly one can actually lust for a house but I tell you it was the most profound and immediate lust.I wanted that library in the worst way and I'm still obsessed!.No one gets my lust.For some reason they think i'm strange!lol.But I can picture all my beautiful books in that beautiful library,that and chocolate is my idea of nirvana.

My ideal library would also be a round room, but the shelves would have enough room at the top for lots of plants. The ceiling would be a dome with windows to let in lots of light for the plants. A couple comfy leather chairs and a huge antique rolltop desk. some shelves for my older books with glass doors. The bottom shelves would be cabinets (for my games!), and the floor would be wood with great woven rugs. There would also be a hidden stereo system.NO TV.
There would be a door to a separate little room that would be my hidden library, my work space. Three walls of windows with shelves underneath and a work table. A papasan chair with an ottoman. Plants in here, too, and all of my favorite photos in frames on the shelves and one wall. A comfy dog bed and a basket of toys, and we're all set.

My ideal library would have lower shelves, since I am short, I don't want to kill myself getting the book I want. It would have a comfortable chair that I could curl up in, a light bright enough to see but not too harsh to break the mood. A side table to put my beverage and snack, need nourishment to keep me going, and a stereo to enjoy when I just want to sit quietly and reflect. A fireplace would be wonderful for winter.

What a great discussion! When I saw the title I thought that it was a discussion about ideal collections of books. Dostoyevsky's books, large hardcover versions of everything. Introductory books in all subjects. An entire section devoted to languages. A medical reference section. A whole section for beautifully illustrated children's books.

THe actual room would be "Beauty and the Beast-ish". Round room, two floors but all open. Ladders! Moving ladders are a definite requirement. Tall windows looking out at trees and meadow. A fireplace for reading in the winter (it gets bitterly cold). A little coffee stand/bar hidden in the shelves. Domed ceiling.

Woops, I started drooling on the keys.

My dad has a tiny library with an attached sliding ladder to reach the high books. I would like something like that on a grander scale. There would have to be a lot of sunlight in the room and a mini-fridge for my diet coke!

My public library is great (Rancho Penasquitos branch of the San Diego Library), and my favorite bookstore is Borders. My idea of a home library is a huge room with bookshelves to the ceiling, a fireplace with two large windows on each side, an Ott-Lite and a huge comfy chair.

My home library has finally run out of room. Does anyone have suggestions of how to purge used books?
It seems a shame to put them in the dumpster!

Donate to library for their book sale fundraisers.
Sell to Half Priced Books.
Send to Military Hospitals for troups to read while recovering from injury.

cherrywood shelves, reallllllllly comfy chairs with lots of pillows, soft quilts...and a beautiful tea set :)

It is my obsession to keep all the books that i have loved or might love in the future. and if there is a book that i have in paperback and loved it so much then i have to buy a "real" one in hardback. of course, by then, the paper one is all crazy and messy (i write in margins so that i can find things when i return). ANYWAY, if there is a book i just didn't care for or something i take them to our local used book store and trade them in there for store credit or money. and then, buy more books!!

i am out of shelves, too, however. especially my textbooks. they keep arriving for free, and i hate to give up a great free textbook. and sometimes they are really useful, or it is a book that we may just use in a course!! the book publishers love that.

but never dumpster them!! i am sure many folks would love them (books!). great ideas from RJ. Also hospitals and women's shelters, or homeless shelters, or whatever.

New girl here...

My ideal library would be 3 to 4 times the size of my house! Really!! With shelving floor to ceiling and one or more of those old fashioned rolling staircases... Oh, and would have to be in wood, the shelves, the floor the staircase. A very old fashioned looking library! With a windowed ceiling so natural light could come in. Oh, and climate control so that the books are safe and sound!

My ideal library would be a nice room with two wondows: a big door-window with in front a white and green striped sofa and a corner-window with a confortable armchair facing the sofa and a nice small table next to it. Tall bookshelves all around, where books are all ordered by publishing house and editions (and if possible according to the colour of the cover).......and plants and flowers all aroung! What a nice reading time I would have!

I cannot complain though....I have the sofa, the bookshelves, the plants and two windows in my dining room (no door- or corner- one but they will do!).........and pleany of book in my to-read list!

My ideal library would have two different sections: one for fiction and one for non-fiction.
The one for fiction would have comfortable chairs to read and a fire place. The non-fiction section would have huge desks so one can sit down to do research. And it would never run out of space for more books :-)
The rooms would be at least 3m high with shelves from floor to ceiling, rolling staircases to reach the top books. Or a gallery you reach over a cast-iron spiral staircase.