I am fascinated by people’s book collections. I like to know what people read, what their favourite books are, how they sort and manage their books and if they keep them all or give them away. My own collection is sparse and on a meagre bookshelf in my bedroom. I am a purger and only hold onto my favourites and books I have yet to read. These home libraries have me rethinking my purging ways.

Home One

One Stratford book loving family houses an impressive library located on the second floor of their home. The books on its shelves are used and loved and diverse.

Thinking of their book collection, they say…

If you can read, you can do anything you like in the world.
You can learn anything. You can discover anything. You can go around the world in your head.
You can become a mathematician. A nuclear physicist. A philosopher. You can teach yourself Anglo-Saxon or Latin.
You can read Fairy books. Harry Potter. Or, Thucydides. 

When I’m old and wise, at least I can re-read all my books and discover just how much more there is to learn in life. 

Home Two

Jeremy and Carrie Wreford are local business owners (yay, Bradshaws) and they too, have an impressive home library. Though Carrie says that Jeremy is the book worm. Jeremy has BAA in Interior Design from Ryerson and also worked as a set designer in Toronto for 12 years before moving to Stratford. 

Jeremy says of his books…

From a very young age I’ve always loved books which is not surprising because I’m an introvert.

As a kid, I liked mysteries and read all the Agatha Christie and Ian Fleming I could get my hands on. As a teen, I liked the subversive stuff- Bukowski, Henry Miller, and the Beat writers that gave me a glimpse into life beyond my world in Stratford. English class was always my favourite and I liked reading the classics and took literature classes right through university. I read musician and artist biographies and comedy writers – I still love Groucho Marx and Woody Allen’s stuff.  Around this time, I also got into comics and graphic novels which I continue to enjoy. I’ve read Art Spiegelman’s Maus many times and it still affects me.

In design school I started building a library of reference material – art and design books which continued to build in my time as an art director in the film industry. When Carrie and I moved in together we combined our libraries so we have a bunch of duplicates like Bruce Mau’s Life Style which had many different cover options.

When we moved to Stratford the moving guys had a mutiny and decided that between the boxes of books and records they’d had enough and wouldn’t move any more. One pulled me aside and said, “You know, there’s a thing called the fucking internet.” He was a bit menacing so I didn’t argue.

I read a lot of fiction but started doing so on my iPad to save space and avoid the punch in the arm that comes from turning on a reading light in the middle of the night. I still buy physical books though and they’re  all over the house. The upside of spending lots of time at home lately is taking the time to look through books I haven’t opened in many years.

I always keep books unless they’re ugly or something by Dan Brown that I don’t want laying around as evidence that I’ve read it.  I can’t bear to get rid of anything and sometimes panic a bit when I think of what will happen when we downsize someday. I once read of an old lady who made her friends and family take a book from her library after each visit. I’m going to need more friends.

Thank you so much for letting us into your homes!

What does your bookshelf look like? How do you feel about it and your book collection?

A bit more…What the way you arrange your bookshelf says about you and 12 essential English novels.