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It’s taken awhile, but the Library is finally open for business!
This is the first glimpse of Cair Paravel as you come up the stairs and look through the Gothic window.
Just inside the window is this bookcase that I found in an out-of-the-way used furniture store that I popped into on a whim. With the corner trim and arched top, it adds an elegant touch to Cair Paravel. (I took this shot from across the room, inside the Wardrobe.)
Here’s the Reading Nook with its new Billy bookshelves (Ikea was out of extension shelves so we still need one for that low shelf in the middle). There’s a cushion on the floor for grandkids who want to read to themselves and a comfy, throne-like arm chair, well-lighted and ready for Mimi or Didi to hold a grandchild on their lap for story time.
Here’s another view showing most of the Wardrobe. The little step stool is a handy Ikea find to help the little ones climb through the Wardrobe. There’s a blue one inside for climbing into Narnia.
The OCD side of me loves alphabetizing books! And making lists! I have an almost complete list of all the kids’ books from when we lived in our Victorian house and I had my computer in the Library. I need to update it since I got rid of a few and have added a few. If you’re reading the titles, don’t worry, that empty space next to Little Men is for Little Women, temporarily taken down.
In case you were wondering how many books we have up here, I can tell you: There are 807! And that’s not counting my special favorites on the living room bookshelves right by my reading chair. If you count those, we have 870.
Of course, the question that arises is this: What is a “kid” book and what is an “grown-up” book? That line gets pretty blurry. There are a lot of books up here in Cair Paravel that dads and moms will want to read (like Lorna Doone, Ramona, Man-Eaters of Kumaon, The Three Musketeers, and the Bounty Trilogy. And I’m sure they’ll find plenty of their old childhood favorites to re-read and to read aloud to their children when they visit.
Let’s just say that no one will ever say in this house, “I’m bored! I can’t find anything good to read!”
Through the Wardrobe 
Love, love, love how the room came out!! I’d have been over the moon for a place like that when I was a kid! (Comment from another blogger)
Love your library! What a wonderful and fun place to read.
Thank you, Janell! Our kids & grandkids are coming this weekend so we’ll be able to read to them up there for the first time. I can’t wait!
And thank you for taking the trouble to comment! So few people do.
This is so beautiful. I have just discovered your blog and I have been poring through your posts with the excitement of a child who has just discovered a treasure buried in the garden. Thank you for sharing the progress of your Cair Paravel. As a mother to three who are just 7, 3 and 1 I must admit I have not often thought of becoming a grandparent since that is so far off. After reading your post “Stardust From Narnia” I was in tears and the first spark of, “I can’t wait to be a grandmother” was born. 🙂
Thank you so much, Mary! What a sweet and encouraging comment! You just made my day! And I’m so glad that you are already looking ahead to being a grandmother now, although I have a feeling that you’re probably a stardust kind of mother! 🙂