Last fall, Bibliobeth started a new book tag, Shelfie by Shelfie. You can see her original post 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!
Luckily, my husband is pretty awesome at building shelves, and about three houses ago we had a really long, wide hallway that seemed perfect for bookshelves – and it was. Except we were renters, which meant we were moving pretty much annually at the time. The shelves have come with me for every move since then (and since we own this house, here’s to hoping they stay where they are for many years to come!), but haven’t always fit together in the same order as they did in that original hallway. Still, they are pretty awesome, designed for both books and knickknacks. So I’ll post a picture of the overall bookshelf, and then focus on just one of those shelves – hence the 1A. ;-)
You’ll have to excuse the clutter – we’re still doing renovating (neverending) and this room is the current catch-all. I’m sure taking these pictures will also inspire me to organize the clutter a bit, right?? (ha!)
Okay, here is today’s shelf – on to the questions!
1 – Is there any reason for this shelf being organized the way it is, or is it purely random?
The majority of my fiction books are shelves in alphabetical order by author’s last name, with some exceptions here and there. I look at amazing pictures of people shelving books by size or color or other aesthetically-pleasing methods and I’m jealous, both of their creativity and the fact that if I did that I would never be able to find a book again because there are just TOO MANY. :-D So yes, alphabetical – and this shelf takes us from Adjordan to Alexander.
However, there are some exceptions to my alphabetical rule, and the three books under the moose are an example – those are three of the four Bayern books by Shannon Hale (the first one seems to have wandered off to introduce someone else to the magic of this series). Sometimes books just fit in certain spots in the shelves!
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.
I think I’m going with The Wolves of Willoughby Chase (by Joan Aiken) for this one. I have so many memories of reading this with my Mom! We used to read it together every winter, and even when I was too young to really ‘get’ the story, I still loved the feelings it invoked. This is the first book I can remember reading that really had an ‘atmosphere’ – just reading it made me feel cold and made the room seem a little darker!
It’s a tough question, though, because I also have a deep attachment to all of the Louisa May Alcott books, especially Eight Cousins and its sequel, Rose in Bloom.
3 – Which book from this shelf would you ditch if you were forced to and why?
Well, it seems like the logical answer would be “one of my many copies of Little Women,” especially since the two copies on that shelf are not actually the only copies of that book that I own. But that’s not the answer at all, because every copy of Little Women that I own has its own story and its own special place in my heart! :-D I suppose I would ditch one of the two Ginny Aiken books, mainly because I haven’t actually read them yet – picked them up at booksales somewhere along the line – so I don’t have an emotional attachment to them (yet).
4 – Which book from this shelf would you save in an emergency and why?
Probably Rose in Bloom, which teaches me something new every time I read it. That particular copy, as you can see from its rather battered condition, has been with me many a year.
5 – Which book has been on this shelf for the longest time?
I’m going to interpret that as “Which book have I owned the longest?” since they’ve all been there since I moved here. I’ve had most of these books a long time, but the red copy of Little Women (illustrated by Jesse Wilcox Smith – gorgeous) – I received from my mom for my 13th birthday, so it’s been with me for over 20 years!
6 – Which book is the newest addition to this shelf?
It’s actually the skinny blue book to the left of Jane Fairfax. The blue book is a sequel to The Cat-Sitter Mystery (which I’ve owned forever, maybe even longer than Little Women), The Copy-Cat Mystery, which I just recently purchased when I was rereading The Cat-Sitter Mystery – I didn’t even know there was a sequel until this year!
7 – Which book on this shelf are you most excited to read (or reread if this is a favorite shelf)?
Wow, this shelf actually has a lot of favorites, as I really love Louisa May Alcott’s works, and the Bayern books are fantastic – Dominion was also a gripping read, of course Wolves of Willoughby Chase is always perfect, and the last book on the shelf is actually the third book in Lloyd Alexander’s Chronicles of Prydain, which I also dearly love! But if I really, really had to choose, probably Little Women as it has actually been quite a while since I’ve read it, and it’s a book that means a great deal to me.
8 – If there is an object on this shelf apart from books, tell us the story behind it.
These actually do tend to be knickknacky shelves as well, so there are indeed non-book objects… the jar contains rose petals from various momentous events in my life; the stuffed bunny was a childhood favorite; the white dish has a cow on it because I collect cows; I also collect giraffes; the glass jars seem to have just appeared from nowhere as I honestly have no recollection as to where they came from or why I have them (apparently I just like dusting things); the framed motto was a gift from my mom; and the moose (which is incredibly soft!) was purchased on our trip to Colorado in 2015, when Tom and I saw our first wild moose!
9 – What does this shelf tell us about you as a reader?
Umm… well, probably that I like things to be somewhat orderly, I have a love for Louisa May Alcott, and I don’t mind owning more than one copy of the same book. :-D
10 – Choose other bloggers to tag or choose a free question you make up yourself.
Hopefully many of you will choose to participate in this fun book tag – and make sure you tag Bibliobeth (and me!) when you do!
For a free question – Which of these books do you think everyone should read?
I think I am going to go with An Old-Fashioned Girl for this one. Polly’s adventures have gotten me through a lot of my life, and especially gave me encouragement and challenged me when I was single. I love how she is independent and industrious, but still so kind and womanly. And of course Polly ends up with a Tom as well. :-D
The Aroma of Books 