The Bookshelf Tour

For every book lover one of the most important things you own will be your bookshelf. I have moved a lot in the past few years as I have mentioned before in previous posts, but not matter what I always make sure I have a book shelf. 

For me book shelves aren't just somewhere for books, they are a place where I also keep little trinkets, post cards photos note people have given, anything that I feel is important tends to end up on their either tucked into a book that reminds me of the person who gave it to me, or set next to some books that I feel reflect the item. When I moved I had to take all my books off take away all the trinkets and ferry them over to my new place, but I took some photos before I took it down and I wanted to take you on a little bookshelf tour.

Please forgive the terrible photos but I panicked last minute remembering that I wanted to take some photos before it all came down, so they aren't the best. but here it is my old book case. 

As you can  see it is totally jammed packed. Like many people my collection had outgrown the case and although there was some order there at some point it has very much disintegrated into a mess! But a very much loved mess. 

Now I wanted to take you few a through of my favourite bits starting at the very top

This is my collection of vintage books, I do have a couple more on the other shelves as well, but the main bulk is kept at the top. All of their books are either gifts from my Dad or I inherited from my Great Grandparents. my favourite one is Homers Iliad, third from the top as well as being a wonderful book in itself steeped in historical importance this old copy has a beautiful cover,  and it is in wonderful condition. 

My other favourite is a copy of Little Women, pictured just below The Iliad, that was passed down to my when my Great Grandparents passed away, the reason I love this book so much is because on the title page in a child's hand the name Nita is written, which was the name of my Great Grandmother, now I don't know if this was written by her, or later on by a child or grandchild but I love that it is there none the less. it give the book such meaning to me that makes me cherish it so much more. 

Another great book is Mrs Beeton All About Everything,below Little Women in the photo, which was a gift from my Dad on my 22nd Birthday, he gave it to me after we had spent the day at the Harry Potter Studio Tour. This book is fantastic as it is literally a book about how to do things like, make jam, polish shoes and also has how to treat medical ailment, and basically not matter what this issue is, part of the treatment will always involve giving the patient Gin. 

Now my bookcase was covered in little trinkets such as these, these were just little gifts given to me over the years which I liked and wanted to display, the Harry Potter Lego was a gift from someone at work, and though I love it constantly fell off my shelf, the trunk use to be filled with gold coins but every time it fell they would scatter across the floor and now only one remains. 

The little jars of spices again came from my Great Grandparents, they were something that were uncovered during the clearing of their house, and given to me, they remind me of something you might find in a potions class, or maybe a Victorians doctors cabinet. Although I never saw them in the house, I liked that they had been hidden away for all those years and felt it about time they were put on a shelf for all to see.

Now these a little puppies that I make  in my spare time. I was bought a kit by my boyfriend last Christmas, and once I masted the first one, the Pug, I was off. It is great fun and I love hand making things but don't always have the space or even the confidence to give it a go, now that I have moved space won't be an issue. But I was proud of these little creations and wanted them on display so up they went on the shelf, though towards the end I did end up with a few too many up there. 

Now you may have noticed that one of my all time favourite book series Harry Potter is missing from this self. That is because when I first moved out to uni I did't want to take all my books with me, as my room was only small and I needed space to keep my books I would need for my course, to the Potter books along with The Lord of the Rings and His Dark Materials all got packed away and lived in my Dads shed for the next five years, a decision I started to hate myself for because I often found myself wanting to go back and read them, but just simply didn't have access to them, but I now have them all back up on my shelves where they belong. 

And finally this is my over spill from my bookcase. I didn't have room to buy a new bookcase so as my collection grew it became too big for the selves and leaked out onto the floor, so they were caught up with the internet routed and always covered in dust. When I moved I did donate two bags of books, which although it is great that others will get to enjoy those books I always find it hard letting go of books. Especially as I do dream of one day having a room dedicated to the books I have collected over my lifetime, and even if I hate a book I want to keep hold of  it, so when peple see it on my shelf I can tell them what I really think of it, but I did finally let some of them go and I now have a much neater book case, though there is still an over flow issue that may still give me an excuse for a second bookcase soon much to my Boyfriends dismay

In a few months I will do a post about my new arrangements but right now I am still not happy with the lay out of it and it fill be reshuffled a few times before I am happy with in. But I hope you enjoyed this little tour of my old book case. there are so many more interesting little bits and pieces on these shelves that I just didn't have time to photograph in the mad rush to get packed away, but I am so glad I took some to look back on my collection in a few years and hopefully it would of grown some more. 

Rella Xx

Social Media Book Tag

So this is the Social Media book that which is basically a questionnaire based on books with the question inspire by different type of social media websites. it's been floating around for a while and I recently saw Kristina Horner do it on her YouTube channel and I decided I would fill it out on here !

▌Twitter ▌

► Your favourite short book (under 200 pages)

I Want My Hat Back by  Jon Klassen

This is in fact a children's book, and I picked it up one day in Waterstones while I was browsing with my boyfriend because I thought the cover was funny, and me and him laughed out loud in the middle of the shop while reading it. It is very funny. I find that children's story books are getting funnier these days which I think is great because it encourages adult to read more to children and enjoy the experience together

▌Facebook ▌

► A book that everyone pressured you to read.

 Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K Rowling

I was about this book as a gift when I was 10 in the year of it's release in 2000. I was given it by a family friend because everyone knew I enjoyed reading, I loved Jacqueline Wilson and always have one of her books on the go. However the issue here was that I didn't own any of the other books. My brother had the first few but I had never picked them up.

I took this book to school as my free reading book, because it was massive and it made me feel smart and I liked the dragon on the front. However I didn't know the Harry Potter books were a series and you had to read them in order. So when my teacher came to sit with me so I could do my reading session with her I had no idea what was going on, and it didn't make sense and there were no dragons in the start, and after about two weeks I swapped books to another Jacqueline Wilson book, much to my teachers disappointment as she was a Potter fan !

About a year later my Aunt bought my all the current Potter books, including a new Goblet of Fire which was good as mine had been destroyed by me carrying around all the time because it made me feel important and smart !And devoured them and I fell in love with the books, and still love them to this day.

▌Tumblr ▌

► A book you read before it was cool.

Divergent Trilogy by Veronica Roth 

I must say though, this is one of my least favourite book covers ever!

I read these books back when the trilogy was unfinished and as I got further and further through the second book I tried to slow down as there was still no news of the Third book getting a release date. My local Waterstone didn't carry these books in stock at the time, I would often look for them as I had heard so many positive reviews about them, but they were never there and in the end I had to place and order for them so I could buy them, as I always like to support my local book store if I can afford to buy the book new ( If i can only afford second hand unfortunately I still go through Amazon) 

I loved this series for the most part, I loved Tris's character especially in the first book, because unlike many dystopian female leads, she wasn't very strong or skilled to start with, she had to work hard and she was often bullied, but she fought hard to do well and I loved that. I also loved the strong friendship bond she made and the importance they played in keeping her motivated. It made such a nice changed from the normal hard shelled loner protagonist we often see. 

I felt the series did let me down a bit in the third book, and the writing was as strong as in the second, and I felt the love story did become a little bit too central to the story but over all I love the books, and I am glad they are getting the recognition they deserve. Also Roth was only 22 when her books were published and that is awesome.

▌MySpace ▌

► A book that you liked when you were younger, but you probably would not like now.

 The boy in the Burning House by Tim Wynne-Jones

For so long I loved this book mainly for the cover, it was dark and dangerous and everything about it seemed so grown up to me. I read this when I was about 14 and I myself was getting into heavy music and dressing darkly and basically finding my own personality and this book fitted right in with it. Before this I was always reading Harry Potter or Jacqueline Wilson or something similar and widely popular. This however was unknown and when I told people about it  they were unfamiliar with it and it made me feel cool.

The book is about a young boy Jim trying to find out if his father was killed or had simply vanished, after a year of no news of him, a young girl called Ruth Rose the pastors daughter help Jim to discover a shocking truth. I did re-read this book when I was about 18 as I was still telling people it was one of my favourite books. But really it wasn't as great or dark as I remembered it. It was definitely a good book to transition me from Children's Literature into Young Adults / Teen fiction but it certainly not as great as 13 year old me made out.

▌Instagram ▌

► A book that has the most beautiful cover in existence.

Alice's Adventure in Wonderland and other Stories by Lewis Carroll Barnes and Noble Leather-bound Edition 

This photo does it no justice as to how beautiful it really is

This book is just beautiful ! and I love Alice in Wonderland, I have three copies of Wonderland books, and there is another edition I plan to get because again I love the cover. I view my book shelf both as my personal library, but also a collection, if there is a book a love and they bring out a new cover or an anniversary edition then I will buy it because books are beautiful. 

The Barnes and Noble Leather-bound books are just glorious I also have the Sherlock Holmes Complete Stories, The Secret Garden and Greek Mythology books from this collection and there are about five more book there I desperately want, and will be first thing on my Christmas list. 

There is just so much detail on the cover, the art work is wonderful, they feel beautiful as well. If you get a chance go into your local book store and pick one up and see for yourself.

▌YouTube ▌

► A book that you wish was made into a movie. 

Unwind by Neil Shusterman

I picked this up as a part of the old 2 for 3 offer Waterstone use to always run, which has now been placed with the buy one get one half price offer. I took it with me to the Summer Camp I use to work at and my friend read it before me, and then told me I had to read it as she enjoyed it so much. It is about a procedure called Unwinding, which can be performed on teenagers under 16 who are either troublesome, unwanted or as part of a religious ceremony. Their body part are basically donated to others and nothing is wasted there for they aren't dead they are just spread out among many bodies. The book focusses one three teenagers who are being Unwound for different reasons and their journey to save themselves.

I loved it and I was classed as my favourite book for years, and in about 2007 Tasty Film bought the rights to the film.  However after some money issues production came to a stand still and nothing more has been said about the film. The Unwind IMbD page say the release date would be in 2016 but there is no further information. With films such as Divergent and Hunger Games doing so well at the moment and The Fault in Our Stars showing how great young adult literature can be for inspiration for films I think now would be a great time to make this film, but only time will tell.

▌Goodreads ▌

► A book that you would recommend to anyone and everyone.

The Help by Kathryn Stockett 

This is such an emotional and inspiring store, I owned this book for about a year and a half before I read it because I was worried I wouldn't like. It is a fairly long book, 451 pages, and has a very small print and I didn't want to have to drag myself through that and not enjoy it.

But one month, I was low on money and couldn't afford to buy any books, so I went to my shelf picked it up and start and I could not put it down. I stayed up late reading it, and picked up first thing in the morning. I was recommending it to people before I had even finished reading. 

The book is about young Miss Skeeter who has returned home from Ole Mis having got herself a degree in journalism, and she is trying to fit back into life where her friends host Dinner Parties, and Bridge club while maids raise their children. Set in the 1960's where slavery has been abolished, but blacks were not seen as equal. Skeeter sets herself the challenge or writing down the stories of The Help, but women are too scared to come forward and talk and her friends don't want her to distract their maids from their work. 

It is a brilliantly written book, written from both Skeeter, her best friends maid Aibileen and Aibileen's friend Minny's point of view it give and insight into people attitudes to race and women during this time. It is brilliant, one of the best books I have ever read. It will make you cry and laugh and you will learn something from it. Seriously if you haven't already go out and get yourself this book.

I would love it if you guys filled this out on your own blogs, Facebook page or Tumblr I would love to read your answers

Rella Xx