Here at Electric Lit, we’re suckers for a good bookshelf. Any kind of bookshelf! Alphabetized shelves, color-coded shelves, shelves that were once organized but have since devolved into a chaotic pile with no rhyme or reason to where anything is placed. Even book stacks can be shelves if you’re determined enough. There’s no wrong way to organize your books (except bookshelves with the spine facing in. That one’s objectively wrong). If there’s anything the entries into our #ShowYourShelf contest showed us, it’s that all shelves—organized or random, tidy or haphazard—are perfect in our eyes. We loved seeing your shelves, and wish you all so many books that these beauties turn into an unmanageable mess that ultimately grows into a second bookshelf (and a third, and a fourth, and a fifth, and…)
Below are some of our favorite entries into the competition.
We kicked off the contest with this photo from books editor Jo Lou, who is clearly team color-coded shelves. Look at this rainbow bookcase! This one deserves to be lingering on bookstagram for years to come as aspirational shelf inspo.
And she wasn’t the only vote for color-coded shelves. @Jennyshoe submitted color-coded shelves with colorful decorations to match.
Commuter editor Kelly Luce’s woodland aesthetic featuring a historic stone mill and window view full of trees is the epitome of CottageCore.
We kick off our book stacks submissions with our editor-in-chief, Denne Michelle Norris whose TV space has the feel of an altar devoted to literature.
We love an organized chaos, like these books piled (very neatly, we should say!) on top of contributing writer Laura Schmitt’s shelf.
And we can’t help but include one more submission from Jo Lou, featuring our all-time favorite fluffy employee, Billy, all dressed up in a matching bookish bandana (Thanks, Riverhead, for the swag).
For Sam Hopkins, the best cat perch is a book stack!
Ten Speed publicist Felix Cruz’s vibrant shelves are painted in cobalt blue with a red trim as an homage to Frida Kahlo’s Casa Azul.
We stan a giant bookcase, especially one bursting at the seams like this one from Debutiful’s Adam Vitcavage (which happens to be one of four)! We’re also into this combination of vertical AND horizontal shelving—like a hybrid bookstack-bookshelf!
Executive director Halimah Marcus has a similarly giant bookcase, though this one’s a little more organized (no offense, Adam—we love the mess!).
This shelf from publicist Kathy Daneman is proof that books and plants make the perfect pairing.
A spiky spiral moment from Dawn Poon.
Floor space = more room for books, as shown by @mikelindgren51
Writer Rebecca Turkewitz’s spooky bookshelf, full of horror novels, gothic fiction, and ghost stories, matches the haunting energy of her short story collection Here in the Night. And we’re obsessed with the miniature bookshop, tucked in the corner, casting a warm glow.
We love the personalization on Jenn Baker’s bookshelf, including the face-out of her book, Forgive Me Not! Also, do we glimpse a photo booth pic from last year’s Masquerade of the Red Death peeking out too? 👀
Sofia Åmark is giving us cosy hygge vibes. And we spy a very cool Lord of the Ring poster.
Novelist Anara Guard’s shelfie has the charm of an old library.