I am a firm believer in the adage that looking at a person’s bookshelf reveals a lot about the person. I am the person who will immediately gravitate towards a bookshelf in a room even if there is an elephant sitting right there on the settee sipping tea. (I might spare the elephant a look or two but that’s it.) So I thought, since it’s December and funember (lame, sorry), why don’t I take you guys on a somewhat modified tour of my bookshelves. I have 4 bookcases and 20 bookshelves so I thought I’d choose five of those to show you so you, too, can decide what kind of a person I am.
The first shelf contains The Hunger Games trilogy, The Harry Potter series and their companions, including The Tales of Beedle the Bard and my Melina Marchetta collection. All I need are Quintana of Charyn and The Gorgon in the Gully to complete it. However, the North American cover of Quintana is beyond hideous so I am waiting for a good day when I have enough money to order the Australian version from fishpond. Yes, covers are very important to me.
This one contains some of my favourites. The last three The Inheritance Cycle series by Chistopher Paolini; I still have to read the final one. Then there’s the Abarat series by Clive Barker. I’ve heard that the last one is supposed to be released in 2014 but I am not putting any weight in those rumours because Barker is notoriously slow which is understandable because the product he puts out is superior and that’s what matters. Then there’s The Magic Thief series by Sarah Prineas which I absolutely adore. I found out that there’s a fourth volume to the series and while I’m hoping that is true, I’m still keeping my fingers crossed. In the little stack you will see The Agency: The Body at the Tower by Y. S. Lee which is a historical spy novel featuring a POC as the protagonist. Then is Among Others by Jo Walton which was a recent read and absolutely lovely. Then comes my friend’s ARC copy of The Dream Thieves which I got signed for her followed by a signed copy of The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson. Finally is Antigoddess by Kendare Blake which I loved. Then comes Unremembered by Jessica Brody and When the Sea is Rising Red by Cat Hellisen.
This shelf contains the Immortal Beloved series (Immortal Beloved, Darkness Falls, Eternally Yours) by Cate Tiernan, Graceling and Fire both by Kristin Cashore, The Seven Realms series (The Gray Wolf Throne, The Crimson Crown, The Demon King and The Exiled Queen) by Cinda Williams Chima, Eon/Eona duology by Alison Goodman and Out of Oz series by Gregory Maguire. Up on top is a signed copy of The Reluctant Journal of Henry K. Larsen by Susin Nielsen, Utopia by Thomas More and The Perfume Garden by Sheikh Nafzawi.
The penultimate shelf! Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis which I will confess here I didn’t like as much as people seem to. Sorry. A collection of Oscar Wilde’s that has cropped up between all my children’s lit, Casual Vacancy by J. K. Rowling. I enjoyed this one quite a bit. Daughter of Smoke and Bone and Days of Blood and Starlight both by Laini Taylor followed by Beta by Rachel Cohn. The Diviners by Libba Bray followed by her Gemma Doyle Trilogy (A Great and Terrible Beauty, Rebel Angels, A Sweet Far Thing). That is followed by Ironskin and Copperhead both by Tina Connolly. Nightspell by Leah Cypess, signed copies of The Dream Thieves and The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater followed by The Archived by Victoria Schwab. Then comes Etiquette and Espionage by Gail Carriger and The Summer Prince by Alaya Dawn Johnson.
The final shelf I share with you contains the Abhorsen series by Garth Nix (read it if you haven’t already! It’s fantastic.), The Folk Keeper and Chime by Franny Billingsley, My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece by Anne Pitcher, The Shadowed Sun and The Killing Moon by N. K. Jemisin, Seraphina by Rachel Hartman, The Spiritwalker trilogy (Cold Magic, Cold Fire and Cold Steel) by Kate Elliott, The History of Love by Nicole Krauss and three of The Songs of Pellinor quartet by Alison Croggon.
And that’s it. Some of my shelves at a glance. I’m exhausted. I hope you enjoyed peering into my psyche. Let me know if you’d like more information about any of these books or if you have read any of them and want to discuss them!
The Book Wars 
Love your bookshelves, and suffering from severe book envy right now :P
Haha, thank you!
What I notice most is that the books are not in order. Aah!
Which says enough about my psyche that a look at my bookshelves would be superfluous. :p
As in alphabetical order? I’m too entropical (I made up a word) to go that way but it is in order! It makes perfect sense to me!
I love people who are just as meticulous about setting up their bookshelves as I am. I tend to organize mine by subject/genre. Perhaps I’ll have to post a pic on my blog!
You should. I love peeking at people’s bookshelves!
Ahhh you have such excellent taste! I actually laughed out loud when I read about the Abarat 2014 part – that’s almost exactly what I said on one of my TTT posts about it. How many times did he delay this last book? I think it was something like 3 years! (Or that might be the second. One of them has like a freaking 8 year gap between books!) But seriously your bookshelf is like the bookshelf of my dreams. It has all my favourite books and all the books I WANT on my bookshelf but don’t have!
Why thank you! I think the huge gap was between the second and third books and it cost him quite a lot of readers. They must have grown up and moved on to other books by the time the third one rolled around. And thank you for the “good taste” comment. I confess I preened a bit. ;)