For as long as I can remember, I’ve been an avid reader. It’s a common site to see me with my nose buried in a book and a ridiculous amount of books laying in wait on my nightstand. In fact, here’s what it looks like right now:
Not pictured are the 5 books on my iPad (for those who are interested, they are Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Won’t Stop Talking, What the Dog Saw, Sharp Objects, Little Women, and Les Miserables) and the Laura Ingalls Wilder biography I have on hold at the library. Which makes a total of 13 books. It’s pretty insane. (Also, as a side note, I think my library is conspiring against me because whenever I put books on hold, they all come in within days of each other. I can read fast but I am not a machine and I have a sort of life. I don’t know what they want me to do). But it’s a free hobby and it keeps me busy and out of trouble for the most part (although maybe books contribute a little bit to my insomnia). In fact, one of my reader’s Pinterest challenges to me this year is a type of book bingo and it’s the one I’m most excited for so far. Not only will it expose me to all kinds of books but it’s bingo. Who doesn’t love bingo?
I digress.
As a huge book nerd, one of the books I had on my list this year was “My Ideal Bookshelf”, which is essentially a collection of book lists from celebrity writers, chefs, photographers, and others. They each wrote a short essay describing why the books meant so much to them and then, next to each essay, was a painting of the titles. It was a pretty cool book but, overall, it made me feel like an illiterate fool. I had never heard of 95% of the books mentioned and, of the ones that I had heard of, I think I counted 6 that I had actually read (oddly enough, Judd Apatow and Chuck Klosterman, two people I highly respect, had books on their shelves that I had actually read. So that was fun for me). But it did make me start to think about what I would put on my ideal bookshelf.
I admit it’s kind of a weird thought because how do you pick your favorite books? Every book I read has made me smarter, improved my vocabulary, made me a better storyteller, and fostered a love of good grammar (including the books that suck. I’ve learned a lot from those, too). So how do I narrow it down? If you’re me, you think like this:
You need to move into a very tiny apartment. You have room for your necessities and only one shelf to devote to your books. While you can utilize the library or your e-reader for most of your reading, there’s just something comforting about having a bookshelf. So you think long and hard about it and you determine which ones you can read over and over again without getting bored and are entertaining every time you read them and you make a list of those. And if you’re me, your shelf contains these books (I’m not listing personal finance books because I already did that once and I don’t want to seem boring):
- Quitter by Jon Acuff
- The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
- Our Town by Thornton Wilder (it’s play. I know. But it’s going on the shelf)
- I Know This Much is True by Wally Lamb
- The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein
- The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder
- The Pact or Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult (I can’t decide. Maybe both)
- Let’s Pretend This Never Happened by Jenny Lawson aka The Bloggess
- Downtown Owl and The Visible Man by Chuck Klosterman
- Rest Rabbit Rest from the Sweet Pickles collection
- Have a Little Faith by Mitch Albom
- Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein
Maybe also The Hunger Games trilogy and The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls.
That’s what I would put on it for now. I’m having a year of the classics, which is why you don’t see many of those on this list. I read some in high school and college but reading for an assignment is different than reading for fun. So maybe next year, I’ll revisit this post and update the list after I’ve read those.
Books have played such an integral part in my development as a writer and in my debt payoff journey. They provide a free escape, a free education, and so much more. My life is better because of books.
Okay, fellow book nerds. What does your ideal bookshelf look like?
Comments
Trackbacks
-
[…] on to reading. Jana at Daily Money Shot gives a list of the books that would be on her shelf if she could only have one shelf of books. While I adore Jana, we only have one book in common- Where the Sidwalk Ends from Shel […]
-
[…] lastly Jana at Daily Money Shot describes the current version of Her Ideal Bookshelf. She imagines the prospect of moving to a very small apartment and having to choose which books to […]
For years I used to spend money at bookstores, go to libraries, send away for books from book clubs. I stopped all that when I got my Kindle (which can hold up to 3400 books and can easily be recharged every 4 weeks by connecting it to my desktop PC or to an electrical outlet). I know of many net sites where I can download free books so that saves me tons of $$$. Not to mention that many of these ebooks are most recent. Amazon also has many free ebooks as well as greatly reduced other popular books. Recently I donated 10 large boxes (containing several 100 hardcover books) to charity. I haven’t yet started on disposing of my tons of softcover books. I still enjoy reading physical (hold in your hand) books but, more and more, I’m enjoying my Kindle ereader. Much reduced book purchases, much reduced space required for book storage, ease of reading while travelling.
I have the Kindle app for my iPad, as well as the app for my library (the app is called Overdrive). I do love having it and it makes things much less cluttered however, my library only lets me have 4 ebooks out at a time. I use some of the free sites but for me, the library is still the easiest (it’s also one of my favorite places so I like to support it).
I agree on the library conspiracy! When I put a book on hold it’ll always say “56 of 2 copies” then somehow three books all come in at the same time!
Here is my list:
LOTR + The Hobbit – J. R. R. Tolkien
On Being Certain – Robert Burton
The Design of Everyday Things – Donald Norman
A Michael Crichton book for lazy days
Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day – Judith Viorst
A Calvin & Hobbes collection book
A Guy Delisle Book
Berlin 1 & 2 – Jason Lutes
Names on the Land – George Stewart
Leslie recently posted…Friday Flicks Animation: Tintin, Secret of Nimh, The Rescuers
Love the Alexander book! I also love how people can have such different taste in books. I guess that’s why there are so many!
And it makes me feel good that my library isn’t the only one that does that!
Jana – I grew up loving to read. And was very lucky that both of my parents not only liked to read but would do so in front of us often. So I sublimely learned that books were good, reading was fun and I must say it not only strengthened my vocabulary but made things a lot easier in school and college when lots of reading was required.
At the moment I am re-reading a lot of the Classics on my iPOD Kindle download as well as a Kobo download as many of these were FREE. However if I had to pick some of my favorites to keep as real books on a shelf they would be:
Holy Bible – King James and New Standard Revised Versions
Oxford English Dictionary
Roget’s Thesaurus
Chronicles of Narnia (seven novel series) by CS Lewis
Little women, Little Men and Jo’s Boys by Louisa May Alcott
Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell
Collected Works (plays and sonnets) of William Shakespeare
Walden & Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau
Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
Sonnets of the Portuguese by Elizabeth Barret Browning
The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran
The Hobbit & The Lord of the Rings series by JRR Tolkein
Dune series by Frank Hubert
Anne of Green Gables series by Lucy M Montegomery
The Book on the Bookshelf by Henry Petroski
Medicine of the Cherokee: The Way of Right Relationship – JT Garrett
Women’s Bodies, Women’s Wisdom – Christiane Northrup
The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
White Fang & The Call of the Wild- Jack London
Persuasion & Emma by Jane Austen
Dark Continent and Other Stories – Laura Kalpakian
The Bible, a dictionary and a thesaurus. What great ideas, Melissa! That never even occurred to me since I use the web for most of that stuff (seriously, I have the Bible on an app on my iPad). Walden and Gone with the Wind are on my to read list this year, along with Little Women. I can see I made a good choice by your list!
HA HA HA …. Jana, I am sure I have shared this with you at some point but your other readers won’t know this .. but I got really sick in my teens and missed several months of school. That is why I discovered that I liked reading the dictionary, and a thesaurus … and I went through our entire encyclopedias that school year.
My goal this year is to read more books. I am still trying to pick out my library for the year. I want to at least read one book every 2 weeks. For me that is a lot. But I think I can do it if I find time.
Tanya recently posted…The Best WordPress Anti-Spam Plugins for 2012-2013
I agree! You can do it! I have one rule of thumb with books–if it sucks, I don’t force myself to finish it. There are too many choices to waste time on books that don’t make you happy. If you need some suggestions, I’m happy to help!
So many of these things apply to me that I could have written a good deal of this post! I generally always have a stack of library books, I have a bunch right now, and my library does the same thing. I went from having one item on hold to having six overnight, just this week!
Money Beagle recently posted…Was The Payroll Tax Holiday A Good Idea?
That happens to me! Do the heads of libraries get together and plan this? I’d love to infiltrate that meeting and put a stop to it.
Oooh, I hope you like Quiet! I loved it. http://www.plantingourpennies.com/2012/09/24/and-open-letter-to-susan-cain-author-of-quet/
I am a library junkie myself… but current bookshelf books that I’ll reread many times over the next 5-10 years and then pass on are: Born To Run, anything by Dan Ariely, and I have a strange fascination currently with the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich (no judging!!)
Mrs. Pop @ Planting Our Pennies recently posted…Apparently I’m Unemployed… Who Knew?
No judging at all. I read Emily Giffin and Nelson DeMille with much regularity!
Thanks for the link. I’m going to read your post now.
That book bingo thing looks awesome!! I always want to read much more than I do, *sigh*. I could probably go two years reading just what was in my house that I haven’t yet got to. Ahem, not much stops me from acquiring more books.
Anne @ Unique Gifter recently posted…Tis the Season…To Save
I’ve tried to tell myself no books from the library until I read what’s in the house. It never really works that well.
I used to read 100-150 books a year. Now I’m lucky to read two. But I read lots of blogs, lol. Anyway, here is my ideal bookshelf:
– Harry Potter series
– Hunger Games series
– In Death series by JD Robb (aka Nora Roberts)
– Discworld series by Terry Pratchett
If my magical bookshelf could hold those 4 series and all of the news ones of those series when they come out (In Death and Discworld), then I would be good to go.
Crystal @ Prairie Ecothrifter recently posted…Friday Links – Snow Tubing and SuperBowl
ONE shelf!?! Oh, the agony. I think I whittled mine down to two shelves when I did a post of my favorites. Even that was hard.
Stay gold, Pony Boy.
SMD @ Life According to Steph recently posted…Pits & Peaks
Can I just say I’m impressed? I wish I set more time aside more time for reading. I just don’t very often, but when I do I mostly choose non-fiction b/c for some reason learning stuff really just excites me! You’ve now motivated me to make my own bookshelf list, and choose to set time aside to go through it. Thank you, Jana!
Laurie recently posted…Why Good Personal Finance Management and Prepping Go Hand in Hand
I am a huge fan of nonfiction as well. I do balance it with fiction, just to give my brain a rest. I actually prefer reading to most other activities, including watching TV. In fact, I usually read while my husband and I watch TV at night.
Oh, and I am excited to see what you pick for your shelf!
I’m the chick who sent you the Book Bingo Pinterest Challenge!
One bookshelf, eh? TOUGH!
* Watchers by Dean Koontz. Easily my favorite book of all time!
* Earth’s Children series by Jean Auel (Clan of the Cave Bear, et al)
* Harry Potter books by J.K. Rowling
* The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis
* Anne of Green Gables series by L.M. Montgomery
* A Wrinkle in Time series by Madeleine L’Engle
I’d fill up any empty space with more Dean Koontz
This challenge is so fun. Thanks for sending it!
Long time no talk… how was Quitter? Have been wanting to read it, but not sure where to rank it on my “to read” list.
Nick? Is it really you? You’re still alive? Welcome back!
Quitter is really good if you’re looking to leave your job. If you’re not too interested in that, then I’d rank it pretty low.
Haha – yep, really me. Thanks! I’ve been laying low for a while – work kicking my a$$ and working through some fun offline projects. Ready to start back up March 1 with regular posting and prepping a few posts for the interim.
For some reason I have an obsession with reading good job-hunting / career transition books, but have no desire to job hunt or transition… or at least I don’t think so… I’ll put it down on the list a few notches. 🙂
Oh man, I’m a total book nerd, too! And I LOVED The Outsiders and The Glass Castle. Here’s what else I’d add:
-Fahrenheit 451
-The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
-A Million Little Pieces
-White Oleander
-A Boy Called It
-An Unquiet Mind
-Flowers in the Attic
-Any of the Narnia series
I have to stop….so.many.more 😀
The Happy Homeowner recently posted…Creative Valentine’s Day Gifts on a Budget….and a Giveaway!
I Know This Much Is True – man, that book reached into my chest, pulled out my heart, and beat it with a hammer. So many emotions…and so good.
I had to cull my books A LOT when I moved half way around the world. And, I’ve utilized second hand bookstores and the library since. So, this is an interesting topic. I might use it as inspiration to say what I kept for my bookshelf.
Erin recently posted…Never Have I Ever…