Ben by Daniel Shelton for August 04, 2023

Stacked encyclopedias make excellent sturdy end tables that give a literary feel to a room.

I am surprised it didn’t fall to pieces. Without a back support, that bookcase won’t last.

Three of my bookshelves came from thrift stores, just had to haul them home

The 4th one came ready to assemble in a box, my wife put that together

I’m overflowing on top of them now, she might need to assemble another one soon if I can’t find another used one

One of my bookcases is all marred, like it was attacked by cats. I built it from scratch.

Hie thee to IKEA, Ben. You can have the pride of putting it together, and it won’t fall over.

Take the encyclopedias to the curb. Don’t make the kids chuck your stuff. They’ve amassed their own stuff.

Atta boy, Ben…….well maybe not!

“If it ain’t broke, you’re not tryin’…”

Carpentry is NOT Ben’s best aptitude. Even I could do better, and I am no carpenter either.

I used to have a one for one book exchange in my store. when I decided to give it up, I had 3 sets of encyclopedias, many Reader’s Digest condensed books, and countless romance novels. I got rid of the encyclopedias by demonstrating how to make an end table by stacking them, turning each one a quarter turn and then super gluing them together. But I had to have the garbage truck pick up all of the Reader’s Digest books and the romance novels. There was a stack of books by my back door waiting to be picked up that was four feet high by four feet wide by four feet deep… that a lot of books!

I can tell by the way it shakes how sturdy it is, and the dimensions are a bit off.

Not a Johnny Carson joke: We had Funk & Wagnall’s encyclopedia one letter volume at a time every week at our local Jewel grocery store. My mom also bought jars of mayonnaise there.

many years ago I had 2 Scandinavian style bed frames that were too small for locally made mattresses. It was very annoying trying to change them. One day I got inspired, took them apart and re-bolted them into a very nice and sturdy set of shelves. I wish I had pictures

I’m afraid the encyclopedias are quite out of date at this point…. but they’d make great material for various crafts and that poetry where you black out everything except the words you want.