Last week I used a picture of some shelves. A commenter asked if they were my shelves. Alas, it was a stockphoto.
But it made me realize… maybe I should share my shelves!
So here I am. Sharing my shelves.
These shelves form our primary adult library.
Pay no attention to that Shel Silverstein.
Anyway, the bulk of these are “adult” novels. You’ll find Lord Dunsany and Robert Jordan and Star Trek and Doctor Who and Oz and Horatio Hornblower… Lots of things, generally organized by author. (A few are organized by topic, like Star Trek.)
Along the top you can see my “phone books,” collections that hold about twenty-five issues of comics in each. I miss when comic companies made those and made them cheap. To get collections that size these days you’re paying at least $40, and probably more. Back in the day I picked those up for less than $20 each.
When I look at it on a picture, it doesn’t seem like much. But when I think about reading it all, how many worlds those shelves hold… well, yeah. I think they’re nice.
Our shelves are populated by more than books! This ceramic fellow is our Keeper of the Books. He keeps them safe.
The superheroes are merely window dressing.
I also have a few shelves dedicated to just graphic novels. This is my DC and the first part of my independent comics shelf. The books are double stacked, and our toddler decided to rip all the Superman off the shelf, so some of the comics are leaning…
Here’s the Marvel and the other half of the independents. Also piles of unshelved books.
We may have a problem.
You may have noticed that I said those shelves were our adult novels… well, here’s our kids’ library, filled with picture books up through our YA books. Also that may be a half-collapsed play tent in the foreground. Pay no attention to that.
The kids’ library also houses our furrier Keeper of the Books.
Anyway, that’s a brief tour of our shelves. Each of the kids have their own bookshelves in their rooms, my wife and I each have our own bookshelves in our bedroom, and there are a few other shelves floating around the house like literary ghosts.
…we might have a problem.
And it’ll only get worse. After all, Dawnsbrook is coming… soon.
Jonathon Mast: Author 