Does anyone else constantly reorganize their bookshelves? I feel like a lot of book collectors do this. I say book collectors and not readers because not all readers collect books, some prefer audio, some choose to read primarily through the library. All forms of getting reading material into the hands of readers is perfectly valid. If anyone tells you otherwise, send them to me, I'll fight them.
I have been adamantly against the trend of rainbow organizing my bookshelf. I am a constant re-reader, I love going back and reading a book I've read before, revisiting the world and the characters in it. Thus my collection serves as more than the joy of seeing my treasures on the shelf, it's also storage for the books I'm constantly opening back up and reading.
However as I sat on the floor surrounded by piles of books frustrated at trying to once again organize them by genre and finding that 3/4 of the bookshelf was taken up with fantasy shelves and then the rest with my contemporary fiction, there was no space for the other books....technically their was space, but my brain refused to wrap around the idea of different genres sharing a shelf in this organization scheme. Please don't ask why, I really don't know, and it's very frustrating.
I thought about mixing all genre's and alphabetizing by author last name, but it seemed to clinical for me. I've recently been going through, trying to allow myself to be myself and discover exactly what that means more as I emerge from several years of depression where even when I felt better I was still searching for me. Me likes bright colors and beautiful things, so I went out on a limb. I started sorting into piles of color.
The things I noticed 1) I have too many books that are blue and red. I need more yellow spines. Why? Yellow is a happy color and there's far too little of it on my shelf at the moment. Does this mean I'll be buying more yellow books on purpose? Absolutely not, I buy books I want to read because there isn't enough time in one lifetime to even read all of those and I don't collect books I'm not interested in reading. 2) I got overly happy when both of Adeyemi's books had black spines so they still got to sit together.
And finally 3) that I actually wasn't bothered when I was done, I could probably actually tell you which shelf most of my books are on still because I am a visual learner. So I remember the cover of the book, I see it in my mind when I think of the book.
Essentially I was worried for nothing, because my bookshelf looks beautiful. My sister has now gotten me obsessed with an organizing instagram (heaven help the rest of my apartment as I go completely nuts on it). And I feel like a complete jerk for refusing to try the trend simply because I was worried I wouldn't be able to find anything when in reality I still know where my books are, and if that wasn't enough have a tbr shelf that is more than full, which will keep my reading time occupied for a few months at least.
I think I was also more open to trying something new because I finally read the book. Ya'll know the one, the book that you've seen and thought about reading but weren't ready to read yet. Ya'll have that one? No? Just me? Okay, well anyway. I have been intrigued with "Miss Peregrin's Home for Peculiar Children" by Ransom Riggs since I first saw it. But I never read it, I think I saw a preview for the movie, is there a movie? And decided that it was a scary story.
If you've read any of my previous blogs, I'm sure you've gotten the memo that I don't like scary. I like happy, I like adventure, unless my brain is having a spell and then it's too stressful for me. I like mystery but not murder mysteries because even tame ones give me nightmares. It's a problem.
However, when my fabulous Aunt left a bag of books for me, Miss Peregrin happened to be in them. It felt like fate. I'm sure if you've been here awhile you've also noticed that I don't read anything I don't want to read. I will DNF I will never start to begin with. I have too many books I want to read and more coming out all the time that I could never read every amazing book I've added to my list in one lifetime. I'm not going to waste my precious reading time (aka all of my free time) on something I don't enjoy. I am however going to have to adjust my parameters a bit as I almost missed out on an amazing story.
The story follows Jake, your average 20th century teenage boy, who grew up very close to his grandfather Abe. Abe was constantly telling Jake fantastical stories about the children's home he grew up in after narrowly escaping the Nazis. Jake loved the stories as a child, but as he grew older decided the photographs and stories were fake. Now Abe is getting on in years and continually talking about the monsters that are after him. His sudden and mysterious death has Jake taking a whirlwind adventure to find the mysterious children's home in the hopes of finding answers about Abe's life and his cryptic last words.
This story pulls you in so completely that you are hooked. I read half the book in one night. I would have read the entire book but I've been trying to be kinder to myself and practice more self care, and that side of my brain kicked in and demanded that we go to bed so we didn't hate the world at 5 am when we had to get up for work. I'm definitely grateful for that side of my brain as I managed to have a fantastic next day leading up to finishing the book the following night.
In my personal opinion (and I think I'm a pretty good judge for those of us that scare easily) this book was not scary at all. It had parts that were a little intense and suspenseful but actual scary, not so much. It was fantastical and made even more intriguing by the very real vintage photographs scattered throughout the book and described through the stories Abe tells.
While these pictures may be real, or may be clever manipulations in the times before photoshop, they add a level of reality and depth to the story. There is also a catalogue of the photos at the end of the book crediting the collectors who have discovered these photos in junkyards and rummage sales. Which side note, it is incredibly sad that these old photos were no longer wanted and I had no idea collecting vintage photos was a thing but I think it could be really interesting.
Back to the point, try new things, cross things off your "I've always wanted to" list; and be the you that makes you love life.
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