Have you ever thought about what your bookshelves say about you?
My mother in-law recently passed away. As I was helping go through her things, I thought about what our bookshelves say about us.
My mother-in-law was a reader, but she wasn’t just a reader; she was an avid learner. She loved to read because she enjoyed studying and learning.
She had three college degrees. She worked with some amazing people in her field of specialty, and her love of learning continued long after she stopped working.
She had a large book collection that she moved from Oklahoma to Oregon, to California, and back again to Oklahoma. Every time my in-laws packed up and moved, the books went with them.
When she moved into assisted living a couple of years ago, she pared down her books significantly. Many of them ended up at my house or the house of other relatives. Some of them were given away to friends.
The books she kept when she downsized were her favorites.
The three bookshelves we cleaned out of her assisted living apartment were the ones she had read and studied from. They were the ones that she had highlighted and marked up.
Many of them she had read and reread over the years. Each time she read them, she wrote the date inside the book.
On her bookshelves, we found only a couple of fiction books. The rest of the books were nonfiction.
The fiction books we found belonged to her two kids when they were young. Besides that, none of her favorites were fiction.
I never remember my mother-in-law reading a fiction book. She didn’t have a problem with fiction in general; she simply didn’t enjoy reading fiction herself.
She read with a purpose, and that purpose was to study and learn. Her bookshelves proved her love of learning.
Her bookshelves also reflected her love for God and her desire to know Him better, as well as to love and serve others more effectively.
As we packed up her books, it made me think about what my bookshelves reveal about me. What do they say about me now, and what will they say when I die?
A few years ago, my bookshelves said that I was a homeschooling mom.
Now, I think my bookshelves reflect my love of history, people, and biblical things.
But what will my bookshelves say when I die?
My bookshelves will look different than my mother-in-law’s, but I hope they say something similar to my mother-in-law’s bookshelves.
I hope my bookshelves reflect my love of learning, my love of history, my devotion to God, and my desire to serve God and others more effectively.
What do your bookshelves say about you? What do you want them to say?
What a great blog post!
I’m in my 60’s and thanks to your post I realize my children and grandchildren may learn something about me solely from the books on my shelf.
This makes me want to take inventory now and see what is important to me based on what’s on my bookshelf.
I want to leave a rich Christian heritage to my family, and the books I’ve read may play a big part in that.
Thank you so much for this eye opener!
PS. I would love to know the books of faith that were favorites of your mother in law.
Thank you! I am so glad you enjoyed it and it helped you think about your bookshelves. I have also thought about marking my books more. I often use book darts or post it notes, but looking through my mother in-laws book and seeing her handwriting and highlights is the best!
Here books contained a lot of Baptist theology, commentaries, Bible dictionaries, maps of Biblical times, and Christian biographies. She had all kinds of different Bibles. She also had quite a few books about other religions. So like books on what different religions believed. She was great about talking to and connecting with all kinds of people, even those she disagreed with and I think her research about what others believed was why.
So sorry for your loss. Thanks for sharing this post about your MIL. She sounds like she was a great woman.
Thank you!
I love this post also!!!
What I think my bookshelves/TBR piles say about me – I’m very quirky and just love reading so I will read anything and everything that I can get my hands on from fantasy/sci fi to biographies, history and literature. but it will also so much show not only that I’m quirky but that i’m VERY disorganized. There’s no rhyme or reason as to how my books are organized at all. What I want to leave my family is a love of and quest for knowledge. You can’t ever stop learning and shouldn’t limit yourself!
I love this! And I agree a love and quest for knowledge is a great legacy to leave!
I’m sorry for the loss of your mother-in-law. She sounds like a woman of deep faith and wisdom, and your love and respect for her shine clearly in your writing.
Nearly two years ago, I did a serious purge of my book collection, selling or donating 2/3 of my books. A few things prompted this, but ultimately it boiled down to a conviction that I was holding too much of my identity and pride in my books, wanting them to validate me in the eyes of others. This is not a judgement on anyone else – please please don’t read it that way. It just was a problem for me personally that I needed to make right.
My bookshelves now are a truer reflection of who I am and what’s important to me: Bible study resources, history, classics, and some childhood favorites. I have a couple of shelves dedicated just to TBRs and those shelves are changing often as I read books and move them out, replacing them with new ones to be read.
Thank you for staring your mother-in-law’s story. I imagine the books you inherited from her, especially those with her notes and annotations, must be treasures for you and your family to keep.
Thank you! Her notes and annotations make me want to write in my books more! And I totally understand what you mean about identity and pride in books. My mother in-law’s books actually made me think about purging some of mine, so that I could keep the most important ones to me, and pass on to others the ones just taking up space.
What a lovely post. Thank you for sharing your mother-in-law’s zest for learning.
A thoughtful question for sure.
I read a lot of fiction, non-fiction, history, and Biblical studies.
Thank much.
I recently found your blog and it was like Anne says, finding a “kindred spirit.” Thank you for this beautiful post. To see a woman honor her mother-in-law in such a special way is a welcome change. It must please both the Lord and your husband that you honored her so sweetly.
Thank you so much! I love to find kindred spirits in the book world!
Love this one, Lynn! We lost our entire home library to mold in November (it was so heartbreaking!) so we’ve been rebuilding from scratch. At the moment I’m fully focused on kid books, just getting mine from the library, and I’m suddenly thinking about how wildly different this library will look every month for the next year or two!
Oh Sara, that is awful. I am so sorry. That would be heartbreaking. Hopefully you can find some book treasures to add to your library as you rebuild it.
I too, really loved this post. I’m sorry for your loss. She sounds like a really neat lady.