Using Bookcases: gameplay ideas, challenges, mods, CC

I mostly use them in my playthroughs where I play as a poor family that cannot afford electronics. It makes for a difficult challenge, but it's fun! I made my teenage sim bring a book to school to read at lunch because he couldn't afford cafeteria food. Bookstores could be a fun idea as well, though.

I always have a bookshelf in my sim's home office. Bookstore is on my to do list.

I always have a books in my sims homes. But more than half of the time I use the small objects : the books between two bookstands. The patch that made those functional was a game changer for me. There is also a pile of books on the floor (requires cats en dogs) that is functional as a bookcase and I love that as well.

https://i.imgur.com/jjFwCgg.png

When it comes to bookcases I like the ones that can be put next to each other without a gap between them. I try to avoid using move objects to place them. My recent favourite are the ones from growing together because they fit nicely together and each wood color is given twice, with different colored books to make them look less repetitive.

I don't use cc bookcases, or any other cc furniture. I feel I have enough choices and use the small book items if nothing fits.

The only bookstore I ever created was a magical store that sells magic tomes so I can select which spells my spellcasters learn. I also added regular books with magical themes (novels that came with RoM). Next to books, spellcaster can also buy wands, brooms, potion ingredients and outfits fitting for spellcasters on this lot.
https://i.imgur.com/N0Na9Nu.png
The shop was only owned for a short while to set items for sale. After that I sold it again. Sims can still buy things there and they are restocked next time I visit the lot but I don't play the shop owners.

This is an older thread but it has some good information.

https://forums.thesims.com/en_us/discussion/831300/making-a-bookstore-advice-please

ETA: Just did a Google search for Sims 4 Bookstore and a ton of stuff popped up. Bookstore CC, retail lots, etc.

"Atreya33;c-18270828" wrote:
... There is also a pile of books on the floor (requires cats en dogs) that is functional as a bookcase and I love that as well.

...I don't use cc bookcases, or any other cc furniture. I feel I have enough choices and use the small book items if nothing fits.

... Sims can still buy things there and they are restocked next time I visit the lot but I don't play the shop owners.

Thanks for these tips. I somehow missed the pile of books!

Good to know that I can create a bookstore and not have to maintain it!

I just reinstalled my game from scratch and I am trying to use as few mods and CC as possible. I did add the whole folder of Gutenberg books and the Bible, though. I miss bookstores. I cannot believe there are so few of them left. I have enjoyed using the bookstore and reading the newspaper in Sims 3. I want to include more reading into my Sims 4 game.

None of my book reading sims have fancy home libraries like in Beauty and the Beast. :lol: With some sims I prefer to give them one of the small stacks of books, with some I just let them have a book they borrowed from somewhere, and for some I give them small bookcases. When I give them bookcases, I like to clean out the inventory and leave only book genres that I think they would read. Some read romance, others fiction, others mystery books and so on. I don't like it when it's cluttered with random stuff like children's books and skill books and on one occasion I found 90 copies or so of the same book. Don't know what caused that but it was crazy.

"crocobaura;c-18270949" wrote:
... I like to clean out the inventory and leave only book genres that I think they would read. ... I don't like it when it's cluttered with random stuff like children's books and skill books and on one occasion I found 90 copies...

I hate a cluttered home bookcase! Birds usually like books as gifts, so I get rid of a lot of them that way. Scouts get points for donating books to charity. Books can be contributed to pack resources in Moonwood Mills. Does anyone have any other methods to get rid of books besides deleting or selling them from the inventory? I think some can be sold to the grocery stall?

I like to add books to the community libraries. In Build mode, I use cheats to find them in the catalog and then I just place them on the floor. The librarian puts them away, later. Sometimes I send my sim to help. And I also can drag the books into the bookcases in live mode.

I think it would be nice if sims could borrow books from the library or from their friends, keep them for however long they need to read them and then return them. It would solve the issue of bookcases and half read books lying everywhere. Sometimes I avoid giving them bookcases because of this and prefer to store their books in a trunk.
If you want to get rid of books, I think you can also put them in the recycling machine. I think it might also be possible to sell them on the sales table too and pretend you are a second hand books dealer. Would be nice if sims could burn books. Kind of like how they burn money, but books instead.

"crocobaura;c-18270966" wrote:
I think it would be nice if sims could borrow books from the library or from their friends, keep them for however long they need to read them and then return them. It would solve the issue of bookcases and half read books lying everywhere. Sometimes I avoid giving them bookcases because of this and prefer to store their books in a trunk.
If you want to get rid of books, I think you can also put them in the recycling machine. I think it might also be possible to sell them on the sales table too and pretend you are a second hand books dealer. Would be nice if sims could burn books. Kind of like how they burn money, but books instead.

Book burning! we need a mod for that along with a dystopian challenge!

There is a mod to borrow books from the library. I have not tried it.

What a great idea to sell books on a table! The jungle adventure table includes a cooler, but I sometimes cannot justify the price just to cool food. And I really did not want to learn all that would be needed to run a bookstore. A book table is a great idea!!!

Ravasheen has some great storage items. I have been storing books in the backpack and placing it too high to be accessible to a certain child sim, so she would finish a book before I gave her the next one.

I have not used the recycle machine for anything yet. I am curious to try it in general and especially for books.

@crocobaura that's an awesome idea, borrowing books from the library. We could even have a late return fee if they don't take them back in time :D

I always have a bookcase of some sort in my homes, but mostly it is the small book piles you can fit on surfaces.

If I have the room and it's appropriate for the sim I like to make a home office or separate study room and will then use a tall bookcase or two. And kids rooms usually get the house shaped bookcase lol.

I really really wish they were empty of books when purchased though. How annoying is it after all these years to have to keep manually deleting those same few books we always get for free... grrrr....

Also, I wish there was a way to buy books that have been written in-game by sims.