Last fall, Bibliobeth started a new book tag, Shelfie by Shelfie. You can see her original post here (and her most recent Shelfie here) – and I’ve nabbed her image as well. :-D The concept is that you take a picture of a bookshelf, and then answer ten questions about the books on it. I have about a billion bookshelves, so I thought that I would give it a go!
You guys aren’t going to believe this, but we are actually at the bottom of Shelf 1!
The second thing you won’t believe is that we actually reorganized the lower room, so when I do my next Shelfie, and you finally get to see Shelf 2, there will not be piles of junk surrounding it! I am very excited about this.
Also, if you are interested in my past Shelfies, you can find the link to all of them here.
Anyway, for today, onto Shelf 1E, which you cannot even see in the picture of Shelf 1 because it is buried in random things that needed a place to live while we built our new storage loft.
And now, onto the questions!
1 – Is there any reason for this shelf being organized the way it is, or is it purely random?
As I have mentioned in the past, I tend to organize fiction in alphabetical order by the last name of the author when possible. Sometimes I also will put a series of books together if they fit on a shelf particularly well. So here we have my beautiful hardcover copies of the Chronicles of Narnia in a little spot just the right size, and then books whose authors’ names start with Burnett-Corbett.
2 – Tell us a story about one of the books on this shelf that is special to you; i.e. how you got it, a memory associated with it, etc.
There are actually several good ones on here, but I think that I will have to go with The Secret Garden and The Little Princess which my mother gave to me together. They are both illustrated beautifully by Tasha Tudor, and when I was a girl we would all read these two books together every year, The Secret Garden in the early spring and The Little Princess in the winter. I am much fonder of The Secret Garden because The Little Princess always seemed sadder.
3 – Which book from this shelf would you ditch if you were forced to and why?
Probably The Riddle of the Stone Elephant, which is a Bruce Campbell mystery. I honestly have no idea why I purchased that book or even who Bruce Campbell is, and have never read it and probably never will if I’m quite honest.
4 – Which book from this shelf would you save in an emergency and why?
I feel like it’s a bit of a cheat to say The Secret Garden again, so this time I am going to go with Mr. Piper’s Bus. This book is absolutely adorable about a bus driver who goes on a long holiday and collects an entire menagerie of pets on the way. The illustrations are perfect and it’s one of those books that I believe is out of print as I never see it anywhere.
5 – Which book has been on this shelf for the longest time?
This is always a tricky question for me, as I have been collecting books for a very long time!!! But, as so often happens, my earliest book is a gift from my mom, who definitely helped shape me into the book-hoarder I am today. She gave me A Little Princess for Christmas in 1994, so I’ve had that book for 24 years!!
6 – Which book is the newest addition to this shelf?
Honestly, these are basically all oldies. I think the newest one is The Case of the Fugitive Firebug by Scott Corbett. I read his Inspector Tearle series a while ago (don’t be fooled, the “Inspector” is actually a teenager), and purchased this one secondhand at the time.
7 – Which book on this shelf are you most excited to read (or reread if this is a favorite shelf)?
There honestly aren’t any books that I am yearning to read on this shelf, although I do love them all! Probably The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. I do love Narnia a great deal!
8 – If there is an object on this shelf apart from books, tell us the story behind it.
This is the bottom shelf, so I don’t have any knickknacks on this one.
9 – What does this shelf tell us about you as a reader?
That I have a great fondness for children’s books.
– Choose other bloggers to tag or choose a free question you make up yourself.
I highly encourage everyone to give this lil Q&A a whirl, as it is great fun!
For a free question,
10 – In what order should the Chronicles of Narnia be read?
As you can see, my hardcover editions were published after it was mysteriously dictated that people should read Narnia in chronological order. I think that that’s a bunch of hogwash. These books flow together the best when read in published order, which is how I keep them shelved, because I’m passive-aggressive that way. In general, I like to read series in published order first, and then later reread them in chronological order if it seems like it would be interesting. There’s something very engaging about reading the ideas in the order that they were released from the author’s brain!
As always, thanks to Bibliobeth for coming up with this fun book tag. And tune in next time to see Shelf 2!
The Aroma of Books 