I love books. This is probably not a surprising statement coming from a librarian, but it was true long before I started working in any library. Some of my first memories are of my parents reading to me, and their dedication to doing so is probably why I’ve been a life-long lover of the written word.
My bookshelves--and spending habits--reflect this. “When I get a little money, I buy books,” Dutch Renaissance scholar Desiderius Erasmus is recognized for having said, “and if I have any left, I buy food and clothes.” I’m not quite that far gone, but as you can see, I’m definitely a bibliophile with a problem that I don’t really consider a problem.
Let’s start with the Shame Shelves first:
These books are my unread, to-read books. I’ve acquired them over the years from various places--library book sales, Amazon, friends downsizing their own personal libraries, holiday gifts, and (my kryptonite) used book stores. I’ve been working through this shelf some this year--you can see a few spaces, though most of them were immediately filled up again with more incoming books. My reasoning for keeping them like this instead of neatly filed away is: I’m not sure yet if I love them, if they deserve a place alongside books that I’ve read and re-read and adore. Unless I know what’s inside them, until I’ve poured their stories into my mind and run my eyes over every word they contain, I won’t know if I’m going to keep them, or pass them on to someone else. This is, for all intents and purposes, my own textual purgatory. That said, I honestly do REALLY want to read all of these books, or I wouldn’t keep them around. Finding the time to get to them is the only issue, but I’ll do it eventually, little by little.
Next are my fantasy/sci-fi shelves:
It’s got a bit of manga overflow and general interest things on there--some Shakespeare, some Sherlock Holmes, some other classics and old favorites--but it’s mostly writers like Terry Pratchett, Robin McKinley, and Tad Williams, or series like Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, or the Dresden files. Naomi Novik’s Uprooted and Spinning Silver live here, as does Rick Yancy’s lyrically beautiful and yet viciously brutal Monstrumologist quartet. The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells are the newest addition to this shelf, and I highly recommend that series to anyone who gives me half a chance to talk at them about it for any length of time. Lots of the books from my Shame Shelf will probably end up here--most of those to-read books are sci-fi/fantasy. My favorite manga of all time, Fullmetal Alchemist, is here too, and deserves its place among other sci-fi fantasy greats.
Next are my manga and graphic novels shelves:
Manga can be expensive, especially when you’re buying 20+ volumes of a series, so I have to feel really strongly about a story before I commit to owning the whole thing--because what’s worse than an incomplete series? Kimi Ni Todoke is one that I deeply love, and it was worth every penny despite its length, as is xXxHolic. Still, these collections are expensive, so there’s several here that aren’t yet complete. I hope to get more of The Heroic Legend of Arslan and Yona of the Dawn for Christmas--I really love both of those series, and Yona especially has a lot of re-read quality for me.
The bottom two shelves are more focused on Western graphic novels--there’s some Batman (Hush is my all-time favorite Batman story--both the art and the storyline are fantastic), as well as the amazing, super-meta, and utterly heartbreaking Journey Into Mystery run by Kieron Gillen starring young Loki, which is easily my favorite story of the entirety of Marvel comics’ vast repository of stories and series. Calvin & Hobbes lives here, as does what I’ve managed to buy of the madcap steampunk Girl Genius series so far (all of which can be read here for free, and in glorious color!) There’s also the Courtney Crumrin books by Ted Naifeh, which are delightfully spooky and have a really great, distinctive art style. (These are also all signed by the creator, who is very nice and extremely handsome and therefore was nearly impossible for me to talk to, much to my shame and embarrassment--but like I said, he is very nice, thankfully.) Bizenghast by Alice M. LeGrow is also spooky and gothic and wonderful, and I love everything that Svetlana Chmakova has ever created and thus support her work as best I can.
(As a side note, we also have most of these books I mentioned available at the library. :)
Last of all, this is the shelf of my heart. It has five things that I love beyond words: Star Wars (Legends), Diana Wynne Jones, the Old Kingdom Series, tabletop reference books, and Tolkien.
I fell in love with Star Wars when I was in 6th grade. I knew it existed before that, and had vague memories from a few years before of seeing my dad watching Empire (the Bespin scenes with Han, Leia, and Lando) while it was on TV when we were at my grandma’s one summer; but I was a wild child and was more interested in playing with my cousins than sitting still and watching a movie. When I was about 12, though, my dad thought I was “old enough” or “ready” for it somehow, so he rented A New Hope and sat me down for us to watch it together.
I’ve never been the same since. I was enraptured. I was in love. I had never seen anything like it. I remember sitting there as the credits rolled and John Williams' iconic music blared from the television speakers, feeling as if something in me had changed, subtly but noticeably. The movie was due back the next day, but I got up early that next morning and watched it again, unable to resist the draw of it any more than the Falcon could escape the Death Star’s tractor beam. Soon I’d seen all three movies, which was all that existed at the time, and a fire had been lit. I loved the trilogy, but I was still hungry for more.
Then I learned that there were books that continued the story. I couldn’t devour them quickly enough. Timothy Zahn’s Thrawn trilogy and Hand of Thrawn duology changed everything for me again, and Stackpole’s Rogue Squadron series which led into Alston’s Wraith Squadron series were right behind it in terms of my ranked favorites. For a long time, I had to settle for borrowing these books from the library--but then I found some at used book stores, or library book sales, and my Star Wars (Legends) collection began.
Diana Wynne Jones is my second-favorite author, right after Tolkien himself. Her writing is always so captivating, the way she handles magic is unique every time, and yet it’s always fantastic. Her characters have so much character, and they often develop in important, believable ways. All in all, everything she’s written is simply great fun, and she definitely isn’t as widely appreciated as she should be. The Chrestomanci series is my favorite from her, but I also deeply love Eight Days of Luke (which is all about found family), The Ogre Upstairs (which is about two families learning to become one family), and of course Howl’s Moving Castle (which is quite different from the film but every bit as wonderful).
Garth Nix is another under-appreciated writer, and thankfully he’s still around to keep writing! The Old Kingdom Series started (at least in terms of publication) with Sabriel, and once I’d read that, I was hooked. I couldn’t read the next two fast enough, and while I wanted more, I was content with another short story set in that world, published in a collection of other short stories that have nothing to do with the Old Kingdom. The Old Kingdom series has a well-told storyline, the magic system is fascinating, and the characters are interesting and believable. My favorite literary character of all time is from that series, though I won’t tell who it is...far better to read for yourself, and try to figure that one out. ;) And then, blessedly, a miracle occurred: Nix was apparently writing an Old Kingdom series sequel--a prequel, rather. For years I waited, and finally Clariel was published, and it was also wonderful (and has some nice asexual representation to boot). Not long after that, a real sequel appeared: Goldenhand, as well as another collection of short stories with one set in the Old Kingdom. I’m not certain what inspired Nix to finally revisit that world, but whatever it was, I’m glad of it, and honestly am still hoping for more. Also, I was very pleased to find some nice artwork of a scene from Sabriel, and it’s hanging right beside that shelf. (The glass over the picture refused to play nice when I tried to take a solo picture of it, so here’s a link to where I bought it.)
J.R.R. Tolkien is my favorite author. My dad read me The Hobbit when I was five years old, then read me Lord of the Rings when I was eight, and I’ve been a fan ever since. I’ve read The Hobbit so many times, I’ve lost count, and have read LOTR itself three times, though I’ve gone back to read a few sections more times than I can count, and I’m currently itching for a re-read. As a rather enthusiastic fan, it’s probably not surprising to see three different copies of The Hobbit on that shelf: a small, compact leather volume for easy transport, a tatty and well-loved paperback, and a large annotated edition. The beautiful red-covered edition Lord of the Rings is the jewel of my book collection, and was a gift from my paternal grandmother (who was also a librarian), given to me from her own personal collection.
I know that many people don’t love Tolkien, and are put off by his style, but I adore it. Tolkien was a linguist, and I think it really shows in his writing. He’s very purposeful about his prose, but at the same time it’s often playful, and throughout the whole thing, there’s a feeling of purpose of writing a legend and a mythology for our age, and doing it with an intense love of the world, of nature, and of the characters that were created. Characters fall in combat, but it’s never for shock value; it’s because Tolkien lived through the Great War (and only just, he was invalided home sick just weeks before almost his entire battalion was wiped out), and lost nearly all of his boyhood friends, and knew firsthand how terrible war could be. But he also knew how important it was to stand up against evil, and you can see that in so many of his characters. Many of them are small, and afraid, and physically weak, but they don’t let any of those things stop them from being brave, and loyal, and good. They determinedly do their utmost to protect the world they love and the people they care about. It’s inspiring and beautiful, and it’s not a feeling that I’ve found anywhere else, at least not with this same depth and epic scope. My heart can’t get enough of it; and so, I read and read again, and return to Middle-earth once more.
The bottom shelf is for my heaviest tomes, the ones containing instructions for the building of entire worlds: my tabletop RPG collection.
I started playing D&D 3.5 in college, fell in love with the game and the concept, and haven’t looked back since, though I have looked forwards at D&D’s newest edition, 5e (which is sleek and very simplified), and to the sides at things like the Blue Rose and Dragon Age RPG’s AGE system, and to the newest Star Wars tabletop system as well. There are also some artbooks from some video games that I particularly love--Final Fantasy XIV and Persona 4, in particular.
And there you have it: my carefully-curated private collection of intensely and unapologetically nerdy books. Hope you enjoyed the tour, and maybe even found something new and interesting to look into. :)
Bekah DeGreeff, Reference Associate
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