Hi! I’m Amy, and I work in the Children’s Department at the main library in Monroe. I’ve been here for just over two years now.
This is one of my newest bookshelves. We *almost* have enough bookshelves for all of our books - but there are still stray books scattered around, and we acquire more all the time…
I have some of my favorite books on this one, since I can see it from where I sleep, and it’s next to my favorite reading chair with a good lamp. I also like to display stuff, so I have to leave a bit of room for things I just like, as well. I have a bookworm, a birthday present from my husband, that I’m planning to paint...one day. And I also have a vintage globe that I painted and decoupaged, a glass jar of shells that I’ve collected over the years since I was little, a picture of my three children when they were young, and some other items.
I love pop-up books, and I collect them. A couple of my favorites are on the top shelf: Leonardo da Vinci and Star Wars. I also love old books, and I often use old, trashed books for art projects. I bought The Microcosm of London volumes, published in 1904, to use in art projects, but I like the books too much as they are, so now they’re on my bookshelf.
In addition to pop-up books and old books, this bookcase has all of my main reading interests represented: things I loved from childhood (like Calvin and Hobbes and The Black Stallion and other horse books), science fiction/fantasy, historical fiction, graphic novels, and history and art history books.
I have more graphic novels on other bookshelves, but I want to mention the graphic novels New Kid by Jerry Craft and The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage by Sydney Padua because they’re so great. New Kid is the first graphic novel to win the Newbery Medal, by the way. And the footnotes in Lovelace and Babbage are a highlight.
I taught World History to college students and seventh graders, so I have some world history titles here, including textbooks. I wrote my Master’s Thesis (also on the bookshelf) on travel and identity in Victorian Britain, so I have quite a few books on British history plus some other books on different historical interests, like the Roman army and Medieval British history.
I, of course, have my run of Harry Potter books here. My oldest child and I would go together to get our books at midnight on the release dates and then race to see who would finish first, so those are fun memories. Plus I love the books. I actually found the first Harry Potter book in the main library in Monroe when I was there with my two oldest children one day, browsing in the Children’s section. I checked it out, read it over three days (I was slowed down because one of the children was still a baby at the time) and was instantly looking for the next volume - which took a while back then.
I’m also a big fan of Diana Wynne Jones, an excellent British author, now sadly deceased. I love all of her books. She was just so inventive, and her books are extremely smart and well written, and she does characters, especially children and teens, so well. I love reading her works - and re-reading them. I also enjoy Neil Gaiman, so I have my favorite book by him here, too: Neverwhere.
The bottom shelf has an assortment of items, ranging from my Marvel Encyclopedia (another birthday gift from my husband) to the compilation of graphic novels that I edited for the “Create and Publish Your Own Graphic Novel” program that I did for the library, to some favorites from when my children were young (Paddington and Curious George), to beautifully illustrated books of some great artists like Robert Rauschenberg.
So that’s an introduction to me and one of my bookshelves. Maybe I’ll get to do another one later!
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