The Future of Bookshelves

Today I'm wondering what the digital age means to future of bookshelves. As more and more readers compress and tote their books in their Kindles and Nooks, what becomes of our bookshelves? 

I confess, one of the first things I do when I enter someone's house is check out their bookshelves, which (I know) can be a bit like snooping through their drawers, but I can't help myself. You learn so much about a person from the books they read. I remember once being at a party hosted by a woman whose shelves were lined with self-help titles like WOMEN WHO LOVE MEN WHO HATE WOMEN. I'd venture to say that every male at her party took note of this and not one of them ever took her out. I know another case where a man met a woman and when she took him back to her apartment, he saw shelves upon shelves of Nora Roberts books. Nothing against Nora Roberts, but for an extremely literary man this was the equivalent of a cold shower. He never saw her again.

As for my own bookshelves--they're packed two rows deep and take up an entire wall of my loft. I love them and the spines themselves tell a story, taking you through my different reading phases; the catch-up on classics phase, the thriller phase. You can spot my favorite authors, can narrow down my tastes. My books are an expression of who I am. If I go completely digital, what happens to that part of me? Of you? So the question of the day is, what happens to the future of bookshelves when we go digital?