Writers Reading - Booksmugglers

Hi folks, well it's friday and that means I have bookshelves for you to nosy around. This week is a little different on two counts though, one, we are not featuring a writer this week but the awesome book bloggers The Booksmugglers, who you all know I am sure. Second, due to technical difficulties (and complete lack of competence on my part) the images are not showing at the moment. So please do click through to image shack to enjoy the bookish insanity that the years of smuggling have lead to. If I can fix the image issues I will but in the meantime the captions should be enough to lure you through. Thanks again to Ana and Thea for joining us.

ANA:

So, one day about one year ago, I woke up and my partner was standing in the middle of an avenue of books, surrounded by different piles that I had smuggled home over the course of 2 years. The thing with smuggling books is that it is an effective way to avoid detection up until a certain point: if you don’t have a room or a bookcase in which to hide the books, soon enough someone is going to notice them.

Cue to my partner : “we need to do something about these,” he says. “What about turning the guest room into a library for you”. I swear to God, that was the moment I realised that me and this man? Are going to be together forever, because not only did he say that, he also drove by himself, all the way to IKEA to buy 5 Billy bookcases and a desk for me.

This is the result:

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(panoramic view of bedroom)


I am not the most organised person in the planet but I do try to have a system. For example “Read” books are kept here – and I have , as you can see loads of Romance novels……


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(read books shelf)

….and “To Be Read” books here.

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(tbr bookcases)

In the middle of the TBR bookshelves tough I have the ONE SPECIAL shelf for the books I love the most and plan to take with me anywhere I might go in the future:


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(Special Shelf)


As you can see, in my Special Shelf, Neil Gaiman is King of the World – but I also have my most special, signed copy of Patrick Rothfuss’s The Name of the Wind , my preciouuuuuuuuuus collection of Megan Whalen Turner’s books. The most recent addition to that shelf is the best book I read this year: Bleeding Violet by Dia Reeves.


What was once a guest bedroom (who needs one right? Books are so much more important) is now The Cambridge Headquarters of the Book Smugglers (seriously, I have a sign and everything) . This is where I spend most of my free time: reading, organising and writing.

I am sitting here right now.


THEA:

Well, it’s official.

Books have OFFICIALLY TAKEN OVER MY APARTMENT.

It’s hard enough getting a large space in Los Angeles (and not spend a fortune on rent each month). But my books? They’ve stopped listening to me screech about remaining contained and limited to my bookshelves – I swear, they are reproducing behind my back.

I have three sets of bookshelves in three separate rooms of my apartment, and that is still not enough to staunch the spread of blobby (my affectionate nickname for my ever-growing book pile).

It wasn’t always like this though…allow me to explain.

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EXHIBIT 1: THE GUEST ROOM BOOKSHELF

This is the neatest, least cluttered set of bookshelves in the joint. I’m really behind in organizing this thing, but you can see my top three shelves are saved for all time favorites (shelf 1: Jacqueline Carey and Kim Harrison; shelf 2: Neil Gaiman and Dan Simmons; shelf 3: Stephen King).

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(EXHIBIT 1a: Stephen King)

If you look waaaaaay down in the right bottom shelf, you’ll see my ages old, rundown copies of Christopher Pike books. Hee. (You’ll also see my old, whammy-busted Guitar Hero II controller trying to make its way in the picture on the left hand side.)

I like to call this “Phase One” – this is what all of my bookshelves used to look like. Nice. Neat. Organized. Unfortunately, this organization doesn’t extend very far. I present you with…

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EXHIBIT 2: THE HALLWAY BOOKSHELF

This is what I like to call “Phase Two” – still somewhat organized, but rapidly descending into randomness and chaos. If you look at the top shelf, you’ll see books that I’ve read fairly recently and have decided to shelve as “keepers” (note Stephen Baxter’s ARK, Juliet Marillier’s HEART’S BLOOD, and assorted Brandon Sanderson titles).

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(EXHIBIT 2a)

You’ll notice that these are not shelved by author, and even same series books are not set together. Disorganization is gradually taking hold.

At least I can say that my keeper graphic novels and comics are together in one place….and generally in order. Generally.

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(EXHIBIT 2b)

Then….CHAOS. The cluttered shelf can no longer hold back the angry horde. Books have begun to take over the hallway.

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(EXHIBIT 2c)

Apparently the books have led by bad example, and my figurines have commandeered a shelf all for themselves.

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(Boba Fett, Apollo Creed, and Kung Fu Panda)

Finally, there’s the last bookshelf in the house – and it’s the killer. This bookshelf has decided it is too important to be in any other back room or hallway, and has placed itself in my living room. This is the shelf exclusively devoted to books I have not read yet. By that, I mean it is in fact…

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THE DREADED TBR

It doesn’t look so scary at first glance, right? The top shelf is devoted to books that are due for an immediate review, or for books I just really want to read. Second shelf is for books that release a little later or have already been released but are less of a priority. The third shelf is the lowest in terms of priority of order read (and a lot of the books I buy online or in stores are usually on this lower echelon). So…what’s the problem, you may be asking. This doesn’t look so terrible! Well…look AGAIN.

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THE DREADED TBR PART 2

Oho! Hark! What is that to the right? Well, it’s the books that DON’T fit on the TBR. These are mostly unsolicited review copies that are most likely going to go unread, and will be used in future giveaways.

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THE DREADED TBR PART 3

Multiple copies of the same book, books in series’ neither Ana nor myself have even started to read…you name it. It is HERE. And if you zoom out a little further, you’ll see even more chaos:

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THE DREADED TBR PART 4


My living room has become mail central.

And that, dear friends, is what I call the third and final phase in book-smuggling domination. My living room has been claimed…by books.