What this also means, for me, is that you develop the Forever Shelf - those novels that will never ever leave your house, those books that you'd look to save above all others, those books that have very special meaning.
My Forever Shelf is not complete, by any means, as I do my sort out - but here is a picture of the nucleus of this shelf:
There is a range of genres represented, although fantasy does dominate. You can see my precious Sharon Penman novels - an historical novel without peer. Mr Sykes' first novel features, because it is a) a signed copy and b) presented such an inextricable link with my first couple of months of blogging. Same with the first Lex Trent novel by Alex Bell. Steven Erikson is well represented - after the indepth read of each book thanks to working on them for Tor, I could never relinquish them.
My question to you is: What would feature on your Forever Shelf? Do you have a picture of yours that you can show off?
I've toyed with the idea of a forever shelf, but it'd be impossible for me to choose! Instead I'm working on a 'hipster shelf' - the self published novels and books from independant publishers. Once I get enough of them I'll post up a pic, and then I'll be able to be the arse who says, "Oh, that's a fantasy written by xx.xx. You've probably never heard of them" :P
ReplyDeleteI don't have a Forever Shelf in particular, but if I did, it would probably be filled with the books from entire series. All of Mercedes Lackey's "Valdemar" books, probably all of the "Wheel of Time" series, Arthur Golden's "Memoirs of a Geisha"... I don't know what else, but off the top of my head, they'd all definitely have their place on my shelf.
ReplyDeleteGreat idea :D
ReplyDeleteI sort of have a forever shelf, in that I keep a bunch of books I know I'll read again downstairs, away from my main bookshelves. Currently these shelves contain, among other things, every single book written by Tamora Pierce, Tanith Lee's 'Wolf Tower' sequence, Maria V Snyder's 'Study' books and Megan Whelan Turners 'Theif of Eddis' books.
ReplyDeleteThis doesn't cover all the books but the ones I've kept in my headboard for years are: Paolini's Inheritance series, The Lord of The Rings, The Tao of Jeet Kune Do, When Darkness Falls by Mercedes Lackey, The Making of a Poem by Mark Strand and Eavan Boland. Recent additions include The Passage by Justin Cronin, What the Dog Saw by Malcolm Gladwell, and Don Quixote.
ReplyDeleteAll my books are slated for at least one more reread (I don't keep them around otherwise), so my always-and-forever books are just mingled in with the others. They include C.S. Lewis's Narnia books, Lloyd Alexander's Chronicles of Prydain, most of Anne Rice's Vampire Chronices, Sarah Monette's Doctrine of Labyrinths quartet, Gregory Maguire's WICKED, Guy Gavriel Kay's Sarantine Mosaic duet and TIGANA, and Neil Gaiman's Sandman series and STARDUST.
ReplyDeleteThey're the books that have meant so much to me for so long that I couldn't think of getting rid of them, even if I no longer intended to reread them on a regular basis (which is the case with Narnia; it seems to have become my once-every-ten-years series).
Oh I like this idea!
ReplyDeleteThere is always a few special books =)
Sadly I have no room at all for a shelf like this and will never reread them so I choose to use any space for unread ones.