My husband called, “Hey, there’s a book shelf by the dumpster. Do you want it?”

Funny that he asked. I know he knew I’d say yes.

I put the tall black shelf by the door to my room, which was pretty much the only open spot. But most of my classroom library sat cozy on the opposite side of the room. I did not know what books to put on this new shelf.

It sat empty waiting for three months.

There’s nothing quite so unsettling as an empty shelf in a bibliophile’s classroom, but my husband made me promise not to buy any more books. This is hard.

Finally, I got smart and labeled the shelves “1st period Suggests You Read,” “2nd Period Suggests You Read,” etc.

Slowly, I started moving books that students talked about, the ones they told me they liked. Then I noticed that a few students started returning their books to these shelves, and after we did Speed Dating with a Book a few weeks ago — we put all of our to-read-next titles on these shelves.

Now, instead of having most of our book choices on the bright green wall across the room, students walk past this shelf as they come and go.

Pretty good deal for a dumpster find.

©Amy Rasmussen, 2011 – 2015

Tagged: books, Readers Writers Workshop, reading, shelfie