Everyone has their refuge where they can relax and perhaps also are able to let creativity run free. In my case it is my desk with my computer and several books all around on some shelves. Granted it is not the most impressive place and by far not the most tidiest in the world but it is the place can relax and write also my blog posts.
Over the years I have lived in several apartments and each time my safe haven was where my computer was located with my favorite books around. Back in Finland it was a really tiny desk with barely any space for my stuff but I loved it. Since winter of 2014 this here in Germany became my safe haven. Ever since I decided where to place my desk I have been working on it to make it more unique and fitting to my liking. Now it more or less reached a stage where I think I am finished. I can’t think of anything more I could do here or change as I just feel comfortable enough. My wife can’t stand all my computer equipment and books there at all (“It’s Trash!”) but in the end she is not complaining as I spend some hours every day there and thus it gives her free time without me annoying her.
As you can see there is a stark contrast between the two bookshelves on either side of my desk. On the left side I have a mix of educational books, some fantasy novels, few classic adventure novels by Karl May and a small collection of comics. The right side is full of my old Manga collection. As I have so limited space here I had to place two rows of books on each shelve which is the only thing I don’t like so far here as I don’t want to have some of my treasures hidden away. By now you might have noticed that the top of both bookshelves do not house any books but rather strange things. On the left side my beloved Lego X-Wing I got from my wife on Christmas of 2014 and on the right side the statue of Molag Bal. Mixed with those are some random items such music CD’s, PC Games, computer parts and a drinking horn which comes to use at the renaissance fair. The two books shelves over my desk are full of fantasy novels with the little Tolkien collection being my most precious possession.
All in all it is nothing special but it is where I can relax each evening. However I know already what will be different in my next safe haven somewhen in the future: It needs to be bigger! I really need much more space for my books as I still have tons of them at my parents apartment and in their cellar. Perhaps also a bigger table would be nice as it is rather small but still a giant compared to my mini sized table in Finland back in the day.
Where do you can relax? Is it a refuge as it is for me?
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Your mancave looks so neat. You are a cool man ! Thank you for sharing.
Haha thank you. Didn’t want to call it man cave yet as it is one part of our bedroom. However I hope that I will be able to create a real man cave once we build/ buy our own house within the next years !
This is what we call innovation. A bedroom cum man cave. That’s cool.
Ranma 1/2!!!! I love it.
We all need a little place to call our own and decompress. I love yours. It’s quite neat and tidy, I say! And LotR…. classic.
I also loved Ranma and watched all episodes and OAV’s back then. Got into manga through Dragonball 🙂
I never considered this place tidy as everything is pretty much stuffed with everything but the ln again I try my best to keep everything in a way that I can keep easily a good overview
That is a very neat space you have, Crazy. Everything is so organised and you have full collection of books 😀 When I come home from work, I spend most of my time in my room – at my desk blogging or writing, or watching videos on my computer when it is midnight and feel tired but don’t want to go to bed. I’m not the kind to lie on my bed with my laptop because of my bad back.
I also don’t like using a laptop on the bed. Until few years ago I had a laptop but only used it on my desk as every other place felt just too uncomfortable.
What is with your back, an injury?
My laptop heats up faster when I put it on a non-flat surface like bed
I have scoliosis, or curvature of the spine. It is hard for me to sleep on my side for long – feels uncomfortable. Sleeping on the back is fine. When it comes to sitting, I have to sit ramrod straight like a ruler.
My wife even bought some kind of mini cooling table so you can use the laptop on the lap but in the end she never really used it.
Scoliosis? Oh thats not good, had one guy in my swimming team and he had his share of pains when being slightly in the wrong position during exercises. Hope it is not that bad for you
I also had one of those cooling tables, but they were very noisy and although they blew cool air to the bottom of the laptop, they became hot. How ironic.
My scoliosis gave me a lot of pain in my teenage years. Now it’s only feeling uncomfortable when I stand or lie on one side too long. But as I’m getting older, have to make sure my bones don’t whittle away and start bending again.
In my case I just get more and more pain the older I get even without scoliosis!
Do your best to keep fit in order to have minimum issues/ pain
I like seeing other people’s work spaces / desks. And yours is no exception. You are so neat and orderly. What a dream! Your wife doesn’t really think your books are trash, does she?
As far as relaxing, I relax on my bed with a book. I don’t consider my computer desk a relaxing space. Right now it’s super tiny. I’ve downgraded since moving to Cambo. But that’s okay. For now 😉
Thank you, I try my best to keep it as tidy as possible but more often than not documents keep on piling up as I am too lazy to sort then out properly.
I prefer reading books on the sofa. In bed I tend to never find a comfortable position and always end up with neck or shoulder pain
If I had a nice sofa to sink into I’d probably enjoy the sofa, too, but alas, the bed is the most comfortable for me. I’ve been reading in bed since I was a teenager!
I have tried reading in the bed since I am a teenager but always failed. In case I dont get any back or neck pain I lose sually feelings in my arms 😀
Ha!
Very nice! Love the Star Wars and Lord of the Rings and so much. You really like having a proper computer more than a laptop though?
And of course, you have great taste in prose books as well as manga 😉
Oh yeah, I just love having a proper computer. Tried a laptop for several years but it was just not my thing, in the end I set it up in a similar way as my current PC 🙂
I really do hope to get back into finishing several of those Manga lines such as Kenshin, Naruto (that will be damn much to catch up to!) and a few others. I am a person who just needs to have a complete series and now I am on my way with Hellblazer (ok, just getting started with it but still)
Read Naruto to the end, it’s worth it.
Hellblazer will be a long one. Speaking of Vertigo, Fables is my current favorite (also ended)
Fables looks interesting. I read naruto online until few years ago but in the end it is not the same as having the proper physical edition
Haha, I see Ray’s book in a very prominent place. And that computer tower is kinda huge, no?
Yeah, rays book just arrived some time ago and I didn’t get around reading it yet so I placed it there next to my computer to remind me each time I’m there.
The computer tower is just the right size in order to house everything and keep the temperature low 🙂
wow! NANA! and is that the whole inuyasha? my friend got just some of the volumes XD i really liked that story.
It’s only issue one of NANA. Bought this for my wife six years ago 🙂
Sadly INu Yasha isn’t complete, still missing multiple books but I hope to get it all within the next year
English men generally have a man-cave; it is usually a garden shed at the bottom of the garden. Failing that, they make a bee line for the local watering hole or head to a lake/canal/river with their fishing gear.
My open kitchen and sitting room are draughty, not the place to do my work. It’s ok for now. I do my work on my bed or on the floor next to the radiator in my bedroom.
I always think it is amazing how people can work from their bed or other places. I have never been able to do so.
In Finland men also usually go fishing to find their peace.
Very neat and impressive!
Thank you, my wife and my dear mother say always otherwise about my desk 🙂
It almost looks like my desk, even though your space is so much tidier. My desk is the only place I don’t allow the cleaning lady to go, because even if it looks incredibly messy, my mess is rather systematic:) I also want to read Lord of the Rings again. I was a kid the first time I read it, so I read it in Danish, but I really should read it again in English someday. I don’t think that I’ve ever been sucked into a book the way I did, when I read Lord of the Rings.
My wife is also not allowed to do anything to my little Kingdom. Lord of the rings I read during my very early teens, of course in German back then. Over the last years I bought collectable editions of the hobbit and Lord of the rings, unbelievable how hard it is to get them
This is the first place we have lived where I don’t have a desk and I hate it! I hate working at the dining table. Well, we’ve kind of turned the dining area into an office space now, but then we don’t have a dining table! I always like to have a little desk or some space I can just go and sit and be quiet at haha! Next time we move, we are definitely getting a two bedroom place so we can have an office/study!
I know what you mean. In Finland our apartment was so small that I could only fit a tiny desk next to our bed for my workspace and we did not even have a dining room/ dining table!
I’m sure your neat work corner is an oasis of calm reflection for you, in the midst of a young son running around making a happy mess elsewhere! Do you ensure he never ventures into that oasis corner?
Oh he can go wherever he wants. I am usually never in that corner when he is home/ awake. Only once he made a mess there as he walked over naked after his bath and peed on the floor 🙂
Fab mancave! And looks decidedly tidy!
While I also have a my beloved ‘blue room’ which is my office come music room come TV den, lately I’ve actually had great working energy on the kitchen table since we moved it to the middle of the room.
Zoe comes and either curls up on my lap or the seat across and the work ‘zone’ just comes! At times the stereo goes on for musical accompaniment, at times it stays silent with the buzz of the city noise swirling around.
I need my little corner each evening to relax a bit after a long day. Usually I only spend there one hour or so but that’s enough 🙂
An hour of ‘me’ time is such a fabulous thing to have! And we enjoy the results with your blog posts!! 🙂
I’m renting, so I try not to make myself too comfortable in the house because I might move anytime and don’t want to feel too attached. As it is now, my safe haven is actually my car. My favorite activity is driving around aimlessly. I know, not environmentally friendly, but…
When I rented apartments back in Finland I also didn’t do anything really with the place. I always had a very spartan interior.
Driving around ain’t that bad. For many years that was also my refuge after studies and during weekends to discover new places
That’s great you have a little escape haven. We have a room where we call our “games” room. We play board games (or otherwise known as tabletop games) – not your Monopoly and Chess or anything but more European/German style games. We also have a book shelf in there with books that we have left to read (almost like a library in there lol). Most of the books we read, we donate once we finish because our apartment was running out of room at one point.
I really hope have a real room on my own once we have a house in some years. That room should be really like a library but with my computer space somewhere toward a big window and then also space for some tabletop games. For this I have In mind for example warhammer, magic and so on 🙂
Nice!!!! Fingers crossed you get that house soon and that room for tabletop gaming. We’ve overtaken the spare room for that 😉
Thank you for following me and I love how creative you are and the wonderful posts. I’ll be back to read more of it!!
Oh thank you, for me it is always exciting to find new blogs about topics I am interested in. I can’t really say that I am a very creative person but I do try my best 🙂