My bookshelf. That’s a joke, right? I don’t have a bookshelf, I have many throughout the house, all of which are overstuffed with books I have been collecting since I was a kid. A lot of people claim to hate e-books, but I couldn’t be more thankful someone came up with a way of allowing me to carry tons of books without actually needing the physical space to store them. Otherwise, I probably would have to buy another house just to shelter my books.
I’m a very eclectic reader even though I do not like every genre out there. I do not enjoy nonfiction (even though I am currently writing one. Don’t ask) and I just cannot stomach erotica. My shelves are covered in children’s picture books, middle grade chapter books, fantasies, romances, humor, dystopic novels, classics, mysteries and historical fiction.
My bookshelf is a map of my voyage as a reader since I was a child. You can follow it just as surely as you would a real map from my tender years when I was reading the adventures of Anita, to my teens when I fell in love with the Gaelic cartoon characters of Asterix and Obelix, shortly followed by Quino’s Mafalda and many others of the genre.
My fascination with the intricacies of crime solving is well represented from Agatha Christie’s books to Father Cadfael Mysteries. Then, I went for a few years only reading fantasy. David Eddings’s books still grace my shelves alongside Sheri Tepper, and Guy Gavriel Kay. When I became a teacher I found that I absolutely adored picture books with all their amazing art and to the point fiction. I also came to find out that some of the best authors were hiding in middle grade fiction; Sharon Creech, Nancy Farmer, the great J.K. Rowling. More recently I discovered the love for young adult fiction and you will find a myriad of authors from John Green to Suzanne Collins, Veronica Roth, and indie author Megan Whitmer.
At the moment I am reading The Princess Bride, Lady Midnight, and Heart of Betrayal. Yes, all at the same time. Loving all three so far.
Do you wonder now why I get so upset when someone asks me to pick a favorite book? What does your book shelf look like?