Jackson Free Press logo

This story originally appeared in the Jackson Free Press. It was added to the Mississippi Free Press website in 2025.
Note that any opinions expressed in legacy Jackson Free Press stories do not reflect a position of the Mississippi Free Press or necessarily of its staff and board members.

I’m a nerd, so when we moved back to Jackson, our books received the utmost care—they were meticulously packed, sealed and transported. The only problem was our new house has no built-in storage, so our books had to stay boxed up while visions of a beautiful bookcase danced through my head at night.

Finally, we acquired a bookcase that fit our needs perfectly, and we could get our old friends out of storage and onto a shelf.

It was important to me that the bookcase be interesting and attractive as well as useful. A lot of interior decorators prefer to have very open, sparse shelves, but we have a ton of books, so that aesthetic doesn’t work for us on a functional level. However, we also didn’t want just a dense block of books. We managed to get about half of our total collection on the shelves, along with some favorite home items and knickknacks. There are tons of great ways to style bookcases, but here are some tips on what worked for me.

Video

Fall Food Issue