Meet BILLY the bookcase(s)

After a fleeting trip over to Windsor last weekend, it was back home to hard labour.

Time to build seven Ikea BILLY bookcases (and the one-shelf extensions that are screwed on top). The easy part! Followed by lugging boxes and boxes of books into the tiny back corridor that’s now been turned into a literary jungle and putting them onto the shelves.

I’d certainly recommend the BILLY range of bookcases. Very fast to put together, even in the enclosed space I had to work in: 80cm wide bookshelves in a 110cm corridor. Nothing needed other than a Philips screwdriver, a hammer and a pencil.

The finish is reasonably good and you get enough bits in the bag to screw it all together – unlike some previous experiences with MFI and a wardrobe missing a vital bolt that meant it had to stay half built on the landing floor for a week while they dispatched a lorry with a screw in it.

Only problem is that I can now see the full extent of the “book problem” we face, with lots of old friends waiting to be re-read, and far too many undiscovered treasures queuing up to be enjoyed and pondered. Might need to take a few years off work to make a dent on my reading list. But it did bring out the librarian in me.

I spent a really enjoyable week one summer doing work experience in Lisburn Library (before they moved out of Railway Street to plush new premises) ordering the fiction hardbacks alphabetically every morning – it’s amazing how quickly they get messed up by browsers and borrowers.

Must be great to work in a cathedral of books. Now to take advantage of what’s gathering dust on our shelves.