ShayKay's January Book of the Month Read: One Day in December by Josie Silver

I know I really should've read this book last month since that was actually December but I didn't have this epiphany until after I ordered my December books and I really want to read this before Silver's next book comes out in February. I think it will be one of Book of the Month's books for February and as of right now I see at least 3 predicted books that I know I want to get next month.

My goal is to read at least one of Book of the Month books within the same month of getting it and the other one I got was actually a book of the month pick so if you want to see the other book I picked for January check out my Instagram! It was definitely a rough month for me and it took me a few days to figure out which one I wanted to get this month. I knew I didn't want to skip this month since I want One Day in December but I wasn't that interested in any of the options or member picks this month. After a few days of research all of the picks this month, I decided on the book I got and I'm pretty confident in my decision that I will love it. 

Synopsis from Book

Two people. Ten chances. One unforgettable love story.

Laurie is pretty sure love, at first, sight, doesn't exist anywhere outside of the movies. But then, through the mist on a bus window one snowy December day, she sees a man that she knows, instantly, is the one. Their eyes meet, there's a moment of pure magic.... and then her bus drives away.

Certain they're fated to dine each other again, Laurie spends a year scanning every bus stop and cafe in London, hoping for another glimpse of what she trusts is true love. But she doesn't find him. Not when it matters, anyway. Instead they "reunite" at a Christmas party, where her best friend, Sarah, giddily introduces her new boyfriend - Jack, the man from the bus - to Laurie.

What follows for Laurie, Sarah, and Jack is ten years of friendship, heartbreak, roads not taken, and destinies reconsidered. One day in December is a joyous, heartwarming, and immensely moving love story, and a reminder that fate inexplicable turns along the route to happiness.

Thoughts Before Reading

This book reminds me a lot of the TV show that I watched over the summer on Hulu, called Four Weddings and a Funeral. It's not exactly the same but the set up is pretty similar to each other and I do not know why I haven't picked this book up before now. I really wanted to read it last month but I didn't really want to splurge on myself at Christmas time and I didn't have a reason to get this book until I started looking at 2020 book releases. I'm really curious about what happens in this triangle over the ten years and in the synopsis, it explains how Laurie feels for all I know right now it is one-sided and that Jack might not feel the same way as Laurie, especially since he has a girlfriend! I need to unravel this drama!

Halfway Through Check-In

Guys! I'm almost a hundred pages in and I'm loving it! Are they going to end up together? Am I supposed to root for that or root for her being a good friend?! I really don't know I really love them all so far and I want to know who ends up with who. I feel like he is going to marry Sarah because of the way they act. I'm at the point where Laurie has pretty much come to terms about being just friends but I feel like she is lying to herself. I don't know what to do!

I'm just a little bit over halfway through the book now and OMG! I need to know if Laurie and Jack will end up together! When the synopsis says that they have a million chances over 10 years and these are all moments that they could've changed their future but they never take those steps it was not lying! I stayed up all night reading the book and I cannot put it down now! I'm really not sure if I want them to be together or not but then one of their moments happen and I'm like WHY ARE THEY STILL NOT TOGETHER! Other than the story I really like how Silver writes and I now know that I'm for sure getting her book if her new one is an option for next month! I'm not even all the way done with this book but I just love her writing so much already. For this much of the book, she is an insta-buy author. Now, will I feel this way once I'm done reading? I'm not sure yet. It depends on what happens between Jack and Laurie. They are really like Jack and Rose off of the Titanic!

After Thoughts

So I stayed up late finishing this book last night and I'm so glad that I did! I needed to finish this book and I was in love with it from the time I picked it up to the time I finished it! If it wasn't for school and work I would've devoured this thing in one sitting. I was so hooked from the time I read the first page. I loved Silver's writing and I'm so looking forward to her next book coming out even more now. The book was really long overall but it didn't feel long. The only thing I would change about the book is to add more of the relationship at the end. I loved the ending and it worked out amazing I just wish there was a little more of their relationship. 

Pros

Cons

·    Laurie’s evolvement throughout the book was amazing! You watched all three of them really grow up throughout the book and it was amazing. ·  In a weird way, I loved the insta-love between Laurie and Jack. They fell in love with a stare through a window! They didn’t say a word to each that whole time, and it was different than reading about a couple who talked for a few seconds then they are instantly in love. ·    The way Laurie and Jack ended up together! I loved how it happened in the book and I just wish there was maybe an epilogue or something about their relationship as a couple. ·    I love how the book was written and not just how the story went but the layout of the book in general. The chapters were short, and I never had to question the timeline because of how it was laid out with the date for each chapter. The book also swapped points of views and they were always labeled who we were reading from. This was perfect for me! ·       The support system. I love how these three friends were between each other. They were amazing and I loved how they acted between each other and the support they all had for one another. The only thing I would’ve changed was being told about how things were happening in the background versus reading about it happening.

·  The timeline. I loved the struggle that happened between Laurie, Jack, and Sarah and I even appreciated the 10-year span over the book. But I was really let down on how little we saw of the actual relationship between Laurie and Jack. ·   Sarah’s reaction. There is an event that happens that leads Sarah and Laurie not talking for almost a year! I understand why she is mad, but I think her reaction was a little bit overboard considering how long ago it happened at this point and where all their relationships were. ·      Laurie’s perception of herself was horrible for a lot of the book. It was like she talked herself down a lot, especially when comparing herself to Sarah. ·  Jack’s meltdown thing. I hated how he treated Laurie during that time in the book. But I understand why it happened because of this is all of their lives over a ten-year span so there needed to be some tragedy. I don’t think this one counts as a true con to the book. I was just devastated when he treated her like that. ·     I really just wanted more of their happily ever after since it took so long to get there.

ShayKay's First Book vs. Movie: The Kissing Booth by Beth Reekles

This is an idea that I've loved from the beginning but I've never really put much effort into making it happen. So when I lost my job and I had the spare time I decided its time to try it out and what better book to do it with than the Kissing Booth! I really did this backward because the first introduction to this book for me was the movie! I used to be one of those people who always had to read the book first or I refused to watch the movie. As I've gotten older this isn't always possible and there are times that I don't even look to see if the movie has a book it's based on nowadays. That's really what happened with this movie, I saw it on Netflix one day and decided to watch it! Now let me tell you I've been so obsessed with this movie since it came out! I really watch it all the time it's definitely one of my go-to movies when I can't find something to watch. I've been wanting to pick the book up for some time but I just haven't done it yet. I think I found it on sale during Christmas time and I've finally bought it last week. But I was really in the mood that I was going to buy this book regardless of the price and I'm so glad that I did. I jumped right into the book and I've devoured it! But it wasn't necessarily because it was a fantastic book and I just loved it!

Book vs Movie Thoughts

I should've done a review of just the book, but this thought didn't occur to me until I was almost done with the book! So let's pretend I've never seen the movie and this is the very first thing I have ever known about this book. I took notes all throughout this book which is something that I definitely need to integrate into my everyday reading. This is why I love using my Kindle because I can just note the book up and bookmark it and it doesn't mess the book up. So let's get back to the topic at hand!

The book had a lot of ups but also a lot of downs at least in my opinion. I really did fly through this book but I think that was mostly because of my little project that I had going with it. My biggest complaint with the book was that it was missing the comedy part of this story that the movie really added. The timeline of the book seemed so rushed because, in the beginning, we learn that the whole book was supposed to take place in just the spring semester of school! The book takes forever to explain what happened to Elle's mother and we don't have any moments with Lee's parents until Noah disappeared. The movie has them all involved more and we learn about Elle's mom so fast which is tragic but we aren't questioning what happened to her like we did in the book. The Kissing Booth was the dance club's (Elle and Lee) booth for the spring carnival. So if we take this little piece of information and throw it to the movie everything had to happen in just the ending of school, and the might've been what the movie was saying too but I just felt like it happened over a longer time because at the beginning of the movie Elle's pants issue happened on the first day of school! That's another example of a huge comedy moment in the movie! But in the book, we are left with her getting mad at Thomas for smacking her there and Noah getting ticked off and fighting with him. This scene was crazy in the movie. But the one thing that I wished the movie did during this scene that the book did was the fact that Elle was fighting back on her own and got mad at Noah for interfering with her for protecting her self.  All of this info comes flying at you in the first couple of pages so I don't really see this much as a spoiler-y. 

Another big thing that the book does that the movie doesn't expand on Elle, Lee, and Noah's relationship. We know from the movie that they all grew up together but other than the moments where Elle is finding Noah extremely attractive you don't see much interaction between the three of them. Which left me feeling like Lee was fine with how Elle felt towards Noah! Lee would make jokes about her crush on him all the time and the first two-thirds of the book Lee would do just that and really not care how Elle felt towards Noah. It wasn't until the final part of the book that Lee was mad at Elle and to me, it seemed like he was only mad at her because she didn't tell him that they were dating. If she would've been upfront and honest about her feelings about Noah along with their dating I think Lee would've been okay with it. But over in the book Elle and Lee had a bunch of rules that they made up while they were only kids. One of the rules was that you can't date the other's siblings. So right out the door, you can already see that Lee is not okay with Elle having any feelings towards Noah. You as the viewer cannot question how he would feel about Elle and Noah being together like I definitely did in the book.

As for characters the OMG girls didn't exist in the book. I don't think there was anyone that was flat out mean to Lee and Elle. There were girls who would always grab Elle and ask her what was going on every school scene and it got annoying so fast to the point that I wish there were just three girls who were the 'popular' girls who would've been jealous of Elle because of her connection to Noah. I wish Elle and Lee's little group was in the movie. In the movie it felt like the only two people they had were each other and it was so annoying to see that there was more to their group in the book. On one hand, I think it would've been nice to see them in a group but at the same time, I liked seeing how close the two were in the movie. I do wish Elle and Rachael had more of a friendship in the movie. Towards the end of the book, you saw the four really hang out and be friends. This would've been cool to see them come to the level of being able to hang out together. I want that in the second movie and somehow fit in the chocolate shop scene because I loved that!

So who one in my opinion? I have to admit that the movie was better than the movie! This is insane and something that never happens for me. I'm not sure if this result happened because I love the movie so much and I read the book after I watched the movie or what. This is something that never happens! I usually always love the book more because of the detail that gets left out in the movie is crazy. But I really think the comedy is where it went downhill for me because the comedy in the movie is what pulled me in and gets me rewatching it so much. I made a few little graphs to narrow down my thoughts a little bit because there was just so much going on in this project that I feel like I'm rambling just a little bit too much. 

Book
Pros	Cons
1.    You really got to see more of Noah/Flynn’s feelings towards Elle in the book 2.  There was more parent involvement, at least on Elle’s dad perspective 3. You saw more of Elle and Noah’s relationship throughout the book. It wasn’t like they just kissed and bam they were a couple. He was very protective over Elle throughout the book and in the movie, he wasn’t as protective. 4.     Elle’s costume at their birthday party was explained. It might have been robin in the movie but it didn’t look anything like robin and I love the idea of her and Lee matching costumes on their birthday! 5.     The book was overall really fast-paced and an easy read	1.      Elle was so self-centered and she couldn’t decide on how she felt about Noah the whole entire time! 2.      Lee was completely fine with the fact that Elle had feelings for Noah and only started acting like that was an issue the last third of the book! 3.   The book only happened during the last half of school because it was the spring festival that they had the Kissing Booth 4.      Lee and Noah’s parents were nowhere to be found in the majority of the book. They were having a party because they were gone, you never saw them except after Noah disappears! (Elle’s mom) 5.      There were no dancing, no rules, and you really didn’t get to see Lee and Elle’s friendship

Movie
Pros	Cons
1.   It was a hilarious movie that was fast-paced and really kept you engaged 2.      Elle cared about Lee just as much as Noah if not more and you really saw her feelings evolve over time. 3.      Elle’s back story is explained right at the beginning of the movie, especially what happened to her mom 4.     I loved the timeline of the movie it seemed like it was spanned over the entire school year! You had people throwing fits over the Kissing Booth, the parties and school, and how can I not mention that prom! That was the best prom ever and I loved it so much! 5.  At the end of the movie during Elle’s monologue you come out thinking that Elle has come out a better person and learned a huge life lesson	1.  You saw interactions between Elle and Noah but you didn’t see a lot compared to what was in the book 2.    I hated how mean the OMG girls were to Lee just because he wasn’t Noah during the Kissing Booth 3.      Once Elle and Noah’s relationship actually started it felt rushed and it was all just a bunch of scenes cut together. I wanted more of this forbidden love, like the chocolate shop 4.      I wish Noah had more scenes to show that he wasn’t just a Violence Junkie 5.     In the movie it looked like Lee was Elle’s only friend and they were just tagging along with Noah’s popularity but in the book, they were the people who were just friends with everyone and it would’ve been nice to have that friend group expanded a little bit

Top 5 Differences Between Book and Movie
	Book	Movie
Lee	He acted like he really didn’t care what happened between Elle and Noah. He was definitely best friends with Elle but he was really off just doing his own thing the whole entire time Lee disappears for most of the book because he gets his girlfriend really early and then Elle is just off on her own with Noah.	I never had to question how Lee fit into the story or how he felt about Noah and Elle. Even after he got his girlfriend and he did disappear a little but I never had to wonder how he would feel about Elle and Noah
Noah	Book Noah was just as aggressive as the movie Noah but he showed his feelings towards Elle so much more. In a way, we saw his feelings towards her grow it wasn’t just something that just happened one day like it did in the movie. We also got to see how smart he was and he did have consequences of running away like he did. Another thing was Harvard he was questioning whether or not he should go but Elle said no you are going.	I don’t think movie Noah was as complex as book Noah. Movie Noah was the popular football guy that everyone found hot. The way he came out and told Elle, she was the only one that was falling at his feet he found so attractive and annoying. I just miss the way she would call him cute all the time! But overall I wish we could’ve merged the two because I love movie Noah but I would’ve loved to see this sensitive side too.
Elle	The most aggravating character in the book was Elle herself! One she couldn’t decide on how she felt. One moment she loved Noah but only as long as no one knew that she loved him. Two the fact that she lied and she didn’t even need too! Lee was mad at her for lying to him, everything could’ve been avoided if she would’ve just sat Lee down and told him what was going on. Elle was really just so freaking selfish in the book that I was screaming at the book because I was so mad at her! HER NAME ISN’T ELLE?!?! Elle was a nickname she goes by but Lee and Noah call her Shelly. It was a huge pet peeve while reading because Lee threw out Shelly all the time!	I loved the movie, Elle. She was one of my favorite characters! She was independent, she was funny, and she went through so much but came out stronger. The book didn’t do Elle justice and I’m so glad that movie Elle was so much better! I love at the end she says that she hopes her and Noah works out but if not that’s okay and it was crazy that everything happened because of the kissing booth! I loved it!
The Parents	We see a lot of Elle’s dad in the book. He comes off more strict in the book but at the same time as long as Elle does what he says she can pretty much do whatever she wants as long as she does what her father tells her too such as driving her brother's places. It takes forever for the book to explain what happens to Elle’s mom. Another thing that drove me nuts in the book when it came to the parents was the fact that Noah’s parents were always gone we don’t really see them until he runs away. One of the things that I love more in the book was how they sent Noah off to school they were all there not just Elle which makes so much more sense but I love how the movie ends.	We get glimpses of the parents here and there throughout the movie. One of my favorite scenes is Elle hiding under the bed in Noah’s room and June (his mother) comes in the room to get his dirty clothes! Elle finds his stash and June spills about her crush to Noah! This scene was so funny for so many different reasons! The book didn’t have comedy but it also didn’t have much of Noah’s parents.
Kissing Booth	Everyone thinks the Kissing Booth is a cool idea and they have no issue getting people to participate in the booth. So it was hard to believe when Elle gets thrown out there since everyone was fine with doing the booth.	Elle couldn’t get anyone to do the Kissing Booth until she lies about Noah being in it, which causes all kinds of issues because the OMG girls were so mean to Lee!
How Lee Finds Out	As much as the way Lee finds out in the movie annoys me to let me tell you the book version is way worse! Elle and Noah are at school and for some reason, they are in the parking lot and pretty much start making out because they were already late for school. The bell just rang! Lee sees them and starts freaking out!	In the movie Lee finds out by coming home one day and Noah is helping Elle after she fell down in the garage. He pretty much walks in on her kissing Noah which is a scene that drives me little nuts because it makes no sense to me. Lee walks in and asks if Noah hit Elle. Elle gets Lee to walk away and convinces him that nothing like that happened. Once he is gone Elle calms Noah down and kisses him. Boom Lee walks in on them and gets mad and runs away! This was crazy why you would kiss him, Elle, if you knew Lee was there and how he felt.

Final Results

Overall I prefer the movie over the book. I loved the movie so much I really rewatch it all the time! It is one of my go-to movies! I'm kind of disappointed that the first book vs movie ended up being the movie winning but if it had to end this way I'm so glad that it was the Kissing Booth. I think the book cover might have been a prequel to the movie winning because I loved the movie book cover more than the actual book cover! Another fact that totally blows my mind because the movie covers always suck compared to book covers. I can't wait to watch the next movie but I don't think I'll read the next book. It was a rough read even though I devoured it. I definitely want to get a better format for this and any suggestions would definitely be appreciated. I know my rambling is getting annoying and that is definitely what happened here. I have a lot of these planned so I think should figure out a better format as I go. One format that I think will be better is to do the book review in one post and then the book vs movie in its own post. I think that format will make it a smaller post and maybe make these top differences, and pros and cons for both the movie and book. Anyway here is my aesthetic for this book that I've been working on. This is another thing that I want to get better at doing is making book aesthetics which is something that I was introduced to from Kayla over at Books and Lala! I love her and these things are so cool! She makes them for all of her books and I've been dying to make one I think it's fitting that this movie was the first to do this type of thing with and then the first book aesthetic I've ever made.

Book Case Building

I've been wanting to show off my bookcase since I've finished building it but first I didn't have books on it, then it wasn't completed, and then I needed to rearrange the books since I added two more shelves to it. Finally, it's done and instead of showing it off completely I kept saying that I needed to clean the living room and straighten up the bookcase before I had a picture good enough to show off to the world. Well, that was back in September and now it is January! So it's time to show off all of the hard work I put into this behemoth of a bookshelf it is.

Since we moved into this house I've been dying to build a bookcase. We had a couple of crates just sitting around the house and I wanted to try building a bookcase out of them, like the ones I saw on Pinterest. My first bookcase only took me a month or two because all I had to do was stain the wood and then screw the crates together. For the first time building anything completely on my own, this was the perfect project! Staining the wood is what took the longest but the end result was amazing! I love the bookcase that I built. This was the summer of 2018.

Crate Bookshelf
(another two crates at the bottom not in the picture)

This last summer (summer of 2019) I wanted to be more ambitious than the previous summer. I wanted to build a bookcase that would span over a whole entire wall! I thought about it for a year and looked through different types of wall bookcases. I thought about buying multiple ones that would fit between the ceiling and the floor or maybe even have custom ones made. Both of these options are so expensive and I would've had to compromise the size I wanted it to be because of the price or not being able to find one that would fill the space. So I started thinking about the previous summer and how much fun I had building my bookcase. I loved building that bookcase and I wanted to be the one that built this one since it was for my library! Then I stumbled upon this picture on Pinterest (picture below), and then I was tagged by multiple people on Facebook of the same type of bookcase. I got to thinking about this bookcase constantly! It looks so simple yet beautiful! I could build my own custom bookcase!

Original Inspiration Picture

Money was tight so my need to build this bookcase went to the back burner. By April we were finally financially stable enough to start branching out on projects such as building a bookcase. I talked to my fiance and family about the different options I had to do this and we all decided that if I wanted to build the bookcase I needed to be 100% sure this was the type of bookcase I wanted and that it would be sturdy enough to hold the bookcase and not pull the wall down. So it was time to start investigating the plans for this bookcase. At this point, I had no clue what material I needed to build this thing, at the time all I knew was that I needed pipe and wood. How hard could it be to build this relatively simple bookcase? 

I started looking at Pinterest to see if anyone had posted the plans that they used and I found the picture above. I started learning the names of the materials I needed such as flange, elbow, and tee. I started getting an idea of how wide the wood needed to be. From here I started measuring walls in my living room to figure out which wall I wanted it to be on and how long it could potentially be. We ended up moving our entire living room around so I could build on the biggest wall available for me. I figured out I had about 17 feet of wall to play with! I was so excited! So with the inspiration from the picture above, I started drawing up plans of my own! I had a general idea of how big this thing was going to be but it wasn't until I made my first trip to Home Depot that I really started seeing how much it was going to cost to build this thing! 

My first trip to Home Depot was so funny because I couldn't find anything! I've been to stores like Home Depot before but I've never gone to just shop I've always gone with my parents or we went for a purpose so I never really just walked around to shop before. This first trip I found the lumber without any issue but do you know how many different variations there are!? I knew before walking into the store I didn't want 20" wide shelves. I just felt like that was way too wide because I wanted to build it around my TV set up I already had. If you think there are a lot of different options for wood then wait until you hear about the pipes and metal stuff! Once I finally found the pipes I was looking for (in the plumbing aisle!) I had to figure out what size pipe worked best for my project. I ended up going with 1/2" pipe which was the cheapest option. I really didn't need anything bigger because there are so many supports going into it. I decided it was time to go home but I bought a couple of metal pieces just to see what it would like and how many pieces it would take. I like visual aids and it helped me see the bigger picture. So here is what I had after the first day of actually putting stuff together.

This was two feet long and the arms are four inches

This piece above showed me that this bookcase is going to be not just wide but also very tall! Another thing that I learned while working with this piece was my bookshelves needed to be wider. The arms on this piece were only 4" long and the tall pieces were 12" long. With the arms here I was able to sit the books on them and I saw that some of them needed a bigger shelf to sit on and in some places I wanted to be able to have the option to sit some extra knick-knacks here and there. So I definitely needed to make those longer but the 12" long ones were perfect! I wanted to keep them this long because it helped make the math side of things easier for me to figure out how many pieces I needed. 

From here I went back to my designs and started chopping them into the imaginary pieces I would need so I would know how many flanges I would need to connect the pipe to the wall, how many 6" pipe I would need for the shelves, how tall the actual bookcase would be, and more importantly how long each piece of wood was going to have to be to fit onto these metal pieces to make the shelves. My final design on paper ended up being 7 feet tall and 17 feet wide. I had the bookcase broken down into 3 different sections, 4 if you count the TV that was already on the wall. The first section was the top part of the bookcase which was going to be the full 17 feet wide. This section was made to fit the whole entire wall and really connect the whole bookcase, TV, and the space in the living room altogether. The second and third sections were going to mirror each other and they were both going to hold 4 shelves each. All of the shelves were going to be 5 feet long. The remaining 6 feet hold the TV stand, TV, and all of my gaming consoles. So this was my final idea that I had back in May so why did it take me so long to finish the bookcase? Well, that's easy, the answer is money. Plus I like to take my time working on this thing because it was so massive and I really wanted it to be perfect. This meant breaking it down into sections and working on it over time. 

The small piece I had in the picture grew. That piece turned into four pieces. This was one of my first sections almost done! At this point, I haven't even bought the wood yet. I was just slowly building my metal pieces and collecting some of the metal pieces that I would need because some were cheaper than the others. For example, I was able to get a 10 pack of flanges on Home Depot's website and this was an amazing deal especially since I needed almost 30 flanges, so I bought two packs with my next check. In June I splurged on my bookcase! I bought my 8 pieces of 2x6 wood, wood stain, my straps, spray paint for my straps! I was so busy for the next couple of days spray painting the straps, staining the wood, and then adding a second coat of stain to the wood! It was a lot of fun and really felt like the bookcase was coming together! Here are some of the fun I had at Home Depot that day along with how much fun it was to finally have a full 7 feet long end piece for the bookcase! 

 

Yes, I stained the wood in the house! It was a very stupid idea but it was so hot outside and this way I was able to work on it before work, after work, before bed, and so on. During this time I worked constantly on this bookcase because I wanted it perfect and it was so relaxing just staining the wood. In the background of the wood staining, you can see that the pieces of connected pipe just hung out behind my other bookcase, patiently waiting to be connected to the wall. After the wood was dry they hung out behind my couch until I had enough metal to hang to the wall. Eventually, my metal bookcase pieces doubled.

Two of the little end pieces

At this time I had enough to put one of the sections up on the wall, and this is where my dad had to come to help me because the stud finder and I couldn't see eye to eye. Another thing that was going on during this time was that I had two end pieces that were going to be the full 7 feet long and then the two pieces by the TV were going to be only 5 feet long. I had an idea for the separate section holders at the top but they weren't connecting to the other 5 feet. I don't know why but I was adamant about this design to the point that this first section was built just like the plan.

As you can see in the image above I finally had some shelving up! I was so excited but I had a design fail. At this time I wasn't seeing it and it honestly wasn't an issue. The pictures hanging on the wall isn't the design fail I'm talking about. I left those up for as long as I could because even though I finally had this first section done it was going to take me a couple more weeks to get the second section up because I needed more metal piping. The design fail is the small leg and you will see where it becomes an issue later on in these pictures. My next step was to finally get my books out of the floor!

Ignore the metal bowl on the floor that's my dogs' water bowl
and I was obviously cleaning for once since
the broom is in this picture! 

The books on this bookcase obviously had no structure to them at all. I really just threw them on there to get them out of the floor of my bedroom and I knew I was going to have to reorganize them after I had the rest of the bookcase finished. Plus even though this picture shows how disorganized and dirty my living room stays all the time I had to include it because look at grumpy Lu peeking around the corner! She is such a grump! I love her!

Finally, the third section was up on the wall! I was so excited that this was finally done and up on the wall. I was so excited that I had to start putting my books up! Literally right after that last screw went into the wall I had all of my books on the floor and I was organizing them by the last name of the author and trying to figure out how I wanted to put them in the bookcase! I was so happy! At the beginning of this build, and even at this point, I was only going to use these 8 shelves to hold books. My top two shelves were going to be for my funkos. But my plan had two big flaws that I was starting to see a little bit here but I couldn't accept it yet.

Yes, that is Secrets of an American Teenager, I was obsessed with it over the summer.

So here was my final result for my bookcase minus the first section. It stayed like this for at least a month if not longer. I didn't have all of my books out there but I had cleared up so much room with just these ones being on there! Even these books were very messy and looked like I just threw them in there. I didn't have much structure with my end caps and middle holders. I definitely didn't have my Roberts/Robb shelf yet, but I was in love with it regardless of the chaos, plus the top two shelves were just for my Funko collection that was hiding out in my bedroom closet. So even though I would've loved to have the bookcase completed I spent my extra money on my wedding that we were planning. At the time my wedding was still somewhat in the beginning stages and weddings cost money so that's where my extra money had to go. Finally, August was coming and school was about to start and I was determined to finish the bookcase! If I had to go back to school then I was tying up some loose ends and one of the biggest ones I had was this bookcase!

Another huge roadblock I was having in completing my bookcase was how in the world was I going to get two 17 feet boards home??? My dad has a truck but 17 feet is still too long for our truck to hold. Or so I thought. The pictures below show our fun journey on getting the boards home from Home Depot, which is only 10-15 minutes away from our house.

We ended up putting the boards through the window in the truck so we could hold them. They also had wraps on the end of the truck bed tying them down and one stabling it into the bed so they couldn't slide out. They are so long! I stained the wood outside like I should've done with the first 8 but by this time it was cooler outside and made it easier to work outside. By this time I had already realized one flaw in the design. Why were the two ends shorter on the inside of the bookcase and the outside ones going all 7 feet? These two shorter sides were up 5 feet tall so why not connect them to the other two feet? So I had to buy a few more metal pieces that were missing and we had to take off the top two pieces of both of the smaller sides and add the remaining two feet to them. Once those two ends were fixed we were able to add the two long shelves, which took 3 people to carry them in, navigate them into the metal racks, and then secure them. All of the racks have metal straps underneath them securing them to the metal pieces so the wood shelves won't move around. Here is the final result, which I just took this picture at Christmas time.

It took me until Christmas to get a picture that I really liked. With four dogs running around I have to dust every day and the sweeping and mopping get done weekly but the room is still never clean. I believe this was taken the day of our ugly sweater party so the whole house was extra clean which made it so easy to grab this picture. Still, the Funkos aren't perfect here because you can see the gap up there but it's the best I've been able to do so far. Obviously, this end result isn't completely the same as my original plans. Originally the top two shelves were supposed to be all Funkos. First I love how it ended up because I have more space for books, the only shelf I don't love is the very bottom shelf on the right because it isn't all that organized compared to the rest. Second, it ended up like this because the second shelf was about an inch too small to hold two rows of funkos but there was too much gap to fit just one row of Funkos. It didn't look right with that gap between the shelf and the Funko. So I have some of my Funkos in there on the very top shelf than more books, but instead of connecting all the way over with books I broke them up with family pictures! I love that even more than my original plan! My OCD kind of went berzerk with the pictures because I have two of just me, two of me and my fiance, two of my family, and two of my dogs! I always smile when I think about that. Since this picture was taken I've added a soundbar to the wall underneath the pictures and above the TV, which was something I didn't plan on doing. Just like the bookcase I originally wanted to mount the TV on the wall to help fill that space some. I was able to get a really good TV mount during Black Friday but while I was thinking about it I came to the conclusion the TV looks perfect in this picture and it hides all of my controllers and wires I have going behind the TV stand so I decided to mount the speaker instead and I mounted the TV in my bedroom. 

I honestly cannot express how thrilled I am to finally have my bookcase completed! I love it so much and every day while I'm in the living room I love being able to look up at my books and see them all 'staring' back at me! I still have my crate bookcase in the living room. It has moved over giving room for my fiance to have his computer desk in the living room as well. My next project is sadly not book related I think I'm going to be ripping up the flooring in my bedroom and laying down some wood floor along with building a big dog kennel for my two dogs that stay with me 24/7. We'll just have to see what happens with that because my original plan is to put the kennel under the TV in the bookcase to hold both dogs but I don't know if 6 ft is long enough for the plans I have. We'll see what happens, I already have a second location in mind. I've learned to just be okay with things that don't always go to plan because it is okay to rearrange plans!