Today, Diego takes you on a tour of his personal domain.
(Just don’t touch anything.)
Warning: Picture heavy post ahead. Most of the following images have been downgraded into unclickable low-quality shots to reduce space/loading requirements. The images featuring my anime/manga shelves can be clicked on to access larger versions.
Unless otherwise indicated, each caption/commentary refers to the photograph directly above it.
It’s been over a year since I completed the first detailed visual documentation of my private space, so I think an update is in order. These pictures are a few weeks old, but apart from the addition of more books nothing much has changed since when I snapped them.
A view of the library looking towards the staircase, with the obligatory oversized globe at the heart of the room. As I wrote in the previous edition of this post, one cannot call a room a proper “library” unless it has one of these.
The door leading to my bedroom. No way am I letting you in there.
The main reading area. The chairs often double as coat hangers, especially when I can’t be bothered to walk a few steps to my room and dump my clothes there.
A view of the other reading area, which is pretty much unusable on account of the books piled up everywhere. With storage space at a premium, anything – be it a footstool, a bench, or a coffee table – morphs into just another bookshelf when I look at it.
I don’t have the requisite training to use a standard alphanumeric classification method, but I’m always careful to sort and shelve my books according to subject matter. For example, this shelf is reserved for books dealing with the 1912 Titanic disaster.
More Titanic-related books.
The Tolkien section.
Part of the ancient history section.
Now we come to my favourite part of the library: the anime/manga section.
The manga bookcase. It’s actually glass-fronted, but I’ve taken down the sliding panels to keep reflections from marring the pictures.
Manga, reference works and artbooks.
Japanese anime magazines (mostly Newtype, with a few issues of Megami, Animage, and other titles).
More manga, with some Japanese originals on the lower shelf.
Finally, the anime shelves (also originally glass-fronted). It’s not much to look at right now since I’ve only recently started collecting DVDs and figures (I used to limit my acquisitions to manga). Below these shelves are sections reserved for books on the Japanese language and Japanese art, history, and culture.
Okay, our tour ends here. There is no gift shop, but please help yourselves to my brother’s brownie stash in the fridge on your way out.
ディエゴの日々 
Awesome Room!
With mine was that big T.T
Also awesome collection.
I wanna see the bedroom D:
And asides from the anime/manga section, it doesn’t seem like the rest of the room’s changed; could just be my bad memory though.
Oh right, if you’re interested, there’s a MariMite box set for sale at Comic Quest, Megamall for about 2,500. Y’know, if you’re into that kinda stuff.
@Awex: Thanks. I should point out, though, that big room = big maintenance. If we didn’t have a housekeeper everything you see in these pictures would be buried under three inches of dust.
@Zeroblade: The basic layout is pretty much the same. Even though I acquire a couple of hundred or so books a year, the collection as a whole is big enough to absorb new acquisitions without a noticeable overall change. The anime/manga section grew by the fastest rate – roughly double last year’s size.
And thanks for the tip on the boxset. Normally I’d snap it up in a heartbeat, but I’ve heard that MariMite has yuri undertones so I’m holding back for now. I’m a little interested, though – I was actually doing research on the series right before I typed out this comment.
Wow, I’m soo jealous! It’s my dream to have a mini-library inside my own house, if possible, and I just wonder when that will ever come true T__T Right now, my collections are all kept in my cabinets/closets, a whole pile of semi-organized mess lol.
@usagijen: Just be careful not to put in too much shelf space. I can attest from my own experience that the more room you have, the more tempted you are to fill it up with books and stuff. The end result, of course, is financial ruin. (T_T)
Very nice room, Diego! But it’s not filled with Anime merchandise… What kind of Otaku are you!? (J/K)
Quite the reader I see!
@Xcomp: The kind of otaku who refuses to put posters on his wall until they’ve been sealed behind airtight frames, with acid-free archival stock for backing. (I blame OCD – the disorder, not the dictionary.)
Yeah, I’ve been a bookworm since birth. That part of Byousoku 5cm in which Takaki reminisces about days spent in the library rather than outdoors is a pretty good reflection of my own experience. Too bad my school never had an Akari-type to match. 😉
wow.. what a nice room. if only i was more organized!!!!hmph.. got tons of anime although ripped off from a certain anime store in Greenhills… (Side Note: Wanted to buy original ones but doesn’t have the financial capacity to do so) Anyways, really wished to have that kind of organized room with lots of manga and anime too…. YUP, bet you really love reading.. XD