Sarah's Books - Used & Rare

Thanks so much for the comments, everyone... One more picture, I took this from the hall landing at the top of the staircase - here's what you would see if you walked in my door at the shop. The large table is the check-out desk (and lounging area for visitors, there's an old oak chair at the far end of the table where some of my favorite people sit and chat with me from time to time), some essential reference books are in the bookcase behind my chair (also a travel Scrabble set), my laptop computer, cashbox, bags for books, credit card swiper, and various other electronics hide behind the plant on another desk, and I sit in the old wooden office chair one of my sisters found for me at her recycling center one fine day. Out of the frame is a maple typecase, a glass-front bookcase for rare books, more plants, and the open doorways to the front and back rooms. Also, my easel and paints are in one corner, and an old print of Robert Burns is on the wall in the other, he's one of my muses:

I've always got a few stacks of books on my desk, and sometimes cartons and cartons piled up behind it. It's pretty clean right now because I haven't bought many books this month. To the left and right, large glass windows look into the front and back rooms of the shop. Above, there's an unfortunate drop-ceiling which I long to destroy, because the tin ceiling still exists up underneath it, but it would require some heavy construction and rewiring of lights and such, and my otherwise wonderful landlady is balking at letting me take it on. At one time this space was cut up into several offices, though originally it was one huge room. I love it here - BUT - I'd love to replace the fluorescent lights with something else more reading-friendly. The only other thing I'd do if I had the time and money would be to knock a big window in the wall behind me (or, more accurately, have some burly construction workers do it for me, since the wall is five feet of brick). The lot next door is empty and the city put in a nice little garden I could look at if I had a window here. It would be south-facing, too, so I'd get some sun in the winter. That's it - except of course I'll always be building more bookshelves. Never enough of those around. That's it for now, I had to get started on the next hundred blog posts... back to the books.