Thanks to The Guardian, I have just spent a happy half hour nosing through other people's bookshelves. 

Share Your Shelf invites people to send in pictures of their bookshelves, and for someone as nosy curious as me, its a brilliant site.

There are small shelves, tall shelves, wall-to-wall shelves and shelves that are actually just piles of books.  Its the filing systems people use that really interest me - why would romantic fiction be right next to a modern art book?  how do you even begin to find anyhthing if it's not in alphabetical order?

My own shelves have recently been brutally reduced (leading me to discover that some charity shops just won't accept donations of books anymore), and relocated from living room to hallway.  My good intentions and alphabetisation have come under attack from random stray books placed here and there, wherever I can find a space, and often just lying horizontal at the front of the shelf.

Ideally, I'd like an actual library, but in a 2-bed flat in central london, that's never really likely to happen, so I shall content myself with other people's books, and keep dreaming of wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling, pages and pages of lovely lovely books.