by the book

I have WAY too many books to read right now. I recently had to take all the books out of my massive bookshelf in order to move it over to make room for the new couch, so I took the opportunity to reorganize my books. I tried to put all the "to read" books in the smaller shelf in my room, but there are too many, so I had to leave the "to read in the more-distant future" books in the livingroom. Plus, I have a few books out of the library which need my immediate attention. And I have some books I have to read for work. Oh, and magazines - lots of those to catch up on, too. I'm not complaining; I love having lots of good reading to look foward to. I'm just glad I'm not moving anytime soon - my books weigh a ton.

In honour of all this reading, here are some crafty amusements for you that have to do with books...

• British artist Su Blackwell uses the pages themselves to tell a story. Her paper cut sculptures have the beautiful and magical feel of fairy tales.
  
• Moonstitches has posted a nice tutorial on how to cover books.
  
• A book that's really a shelf! This one's for sale, but I bet you could make your own by making a floating shelf and placing a book cover over it.
  
• Literature in Transit from Montreal and Rebound Designs from Washington, DC are a couple of designers who are transforming old books into beautiful handbags.

Also - not necessarily crafty (though it could be if you so chose!) - the Guardian is asking readers how they arrange their bookshelves. Do you arrange by author? By subject matter? By genre? Or - and here's where you could get crafty - by size or by colour?