Create some book spine poetry!
I know I say this every single time, but this just gets harder and harder. My book collection doesn’t change THAT much, so it’s tough not to use the same ones every time! For some reason my poems always come out very dark and militant. I’m not entirely sure what this one means, so interpret what you will.
The empty family
The cage
Four blind mice
Insurgent
Catching fire
Empire of sin
The demon haunted world
When asked what their dream library looks like, any female book nerd from my generation has only one answer.
I don’t even need to tell you what this is. Everyone recognizes it immediately. And oh how we want it. This is the moment where we all fell in love with the Beast. Any man with that big of a library OBVIOUSLY has something going for him, right?
I have always wanted a big library. I knooooooow I’ll never have a huge manor with a library as big as Beast’s. And besides…I would do mine in wood, not whitewashed walls with gold trimming. It’s way too bright in there. But, I need walls covered in books. I find extreme joy in spending time with my books, organizing, reading, touching, smelling. Yes, smelling! Mmmm old musty book smell.
I am finally getting to the point where I can say I am PROUD of my book collection. It’s taken me awhile to get here. I sold off a huge percentage of my collection a few years ago, and I’m finally building it back up. After a book sale this weekend, my shelves are FULL. Well kind of. I actually have two more shelves that are broken right now, hopefully when we move we’ll be able to get that fixed.
A great number of the books I have collected lately are classics, but I didn’t realize just how many I had until last night when I was taking the picture for today.
They nearly filled my whole desk! I have a LOT of reading to do. Some of these aren’t even on my To Read list, and they should be! And HOW PRETTY are the leatherbounds in the middle? I am addicted to the new BN collection that they’ve come out with in the last year or so.
I am desperate to get a good copy of The Great Gatsby. I was really hoping to find one at the sale this weekend, to no avail. Hopefully soon. What else is my classics collection missing? Sooo many, I’m sure.
I’m quickly coming to the conclusion with this challenge that I just need to buy more books. Yesterday I needed The Great Gatsby, today I need Flowers for Algernon. And I don’t have the book I want for tomorrow either! I don’t think I’ll ever be satisfied with the size of my library.
Books about flowers…books with flowers…I scanned my shelves last night and OH! A book with flowers on the spine! Perfect! And then…I pulled the book off the shelf and laughed.
I give you, “The Book with Flowers on the Spine”:
I reeeeeeeeeeeally want to read this now, just to find out what in the WORLD it is about. It’s very Hannibalistic, is it not? Looks like a scene out of NBC’s finale.
UGH. We are NOT talking about that finale.
Even though I love my Kindle, it will never be a replacement for real books. I love going in and pulling books off my shelves, and there is nothing better than reorganizing those shelves. I’m quite anal about books–everything MUST be in alphabetical order. However, now that I’ve seen how other bloggers sort their shelves, I have been thinking about reconfiguring some of mine. That may be a project after we move in August…OH YEAH…you don’t know yet. WE ARE MOVING TO DALLAS!!!!!!!! Which means I get to unpack all my books, which I’ll be honest, is my favorite thing about moving. Expect lots of blogging that day.
I did create a To Be Read shelf the other day. I had so many I couldn’t fit them all! Guess I better get to readin’. Here’s everything that’s on that shelf, plus a few.
This pile doesn’t include all the “husband” books that I haven’t read. That list includes basically all of John Grisham’s collection, a good portion of Stephen King’s, and most of Tom Clancy’s too. He has a bunch of sports and political books, but I don’t care so much about those.
I also took a Book Haul picture for May. I was surprised at how big this stack was. Don’t get used to this…or maybe you should! I would like this trend to continue, but we’ll see. I would like to keep increasing my collection, but I’m also not the type of person to spend money on myself either.
I can’t wait to read all of these! That Raymond Chandler book is gorgeous. The cover is sort of a squishy leather, and the pages are lined in silver. The ribbon is a little frayed, but other wise it’s in fantastic condition.
Yay books! What did you pick up this month that you are looking forward to reading?
It was really good to spend some time with my book collection on Saturday. And yes, I really did go through every single one to find my favorite First Line, Dedication, and Last Line. I even reorganized my shelves to make room for the new ones I’ve recently acquired. I pulled out the books I haven’t read yet and gave those a shelf of their own. I did leave the multitudes of John Grisham, Tom Clancy, and Stephen King, along with several sports and political books, that belong to my husband. Those may get read eventually, but they are not high on my To Read list for now. OK…I do want to read the Stephen Kings. But those pretty much have a shelf of their own as it is!
I had a few contenders to this category at first. And then I got to Thomas Harris. And he just wins everything. When it comes to shock factor, creep factor, and just down right leaving an impression, you really just can’t beat Thomas Harris.
And that’s really the whole point of a last line, right? Especially when there’s going to be another book. Look at this. *shudder*
After I read that, all the other pictures I had taken of last lines got deleted. If watching Hannibal hadn’t made me want to go back and reread the trilogy…that last line did. Man, oh, Man, Mr. Harris. You give me nightmares, in the absolute best way possible. (Is that weird? That might be a bit weird…)
As I Lay Reading 