Bookshelf Tour, Pt. 15 | Classics (begins)

We’re now on the second bookshelf! 😀

This one isn’t as deep as the first one. It’s only stacked 2-books deep, so there are only 2 rows of books on each shelf. My dad made me this bookcase, and I’ve had it for years. Many books have passed through it 🤣. And, unlike the first bookshelf I toured, I’m able to place the shelves so that they are equidistant apart; so I don’t have a random shelf that’s so short that it can’t even hold my mass market paperback if they are placed vertically.

Well then, why don’t we get a look at the bookcase:

We’re gonna start with the last shelf, the one that’s at the bottom. It holds the majority of my classics. Let’s take a look.

For some reason, I place whatever liquor I get on my bookshelves. (It’s so weird.) But that’s a bottle of almond-flavored tequila I bought a couple years ago in Mexico. On top it, I placed a miniature polar bear that I got at the American Library Association Conference I attended last year.

Next to the bottle is a Columbina mask I got in Rastafarian colors, and further on is a Funko of Raymond “Red” Reddington from the Black List TV show. It was my first Funko. 🙂

SITTING ON TOP:

Dracula by Bram Stoker, illus. by Becky Cloonan

An illustrated copy of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. I started reading this two years ago in October 2018 but have yet to complete it. I still have the page marked where I stopped, and I have every intention of picking up there and finishing the book, when I’m in the mood for it. The story should be interesting, but it bores me. I like the illustrations.

Paradise Lost by John Milton

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STACKED: LEFT TO RIGHT

The Illustrated Emerson: Essays & Poems by Ralph Waldo Emerson, ed. by David Mikics, illus. by Charles W. Smith

The Essential Tales of Chekhov by Richard Ford (ed.)

The Tempest by William Shakespeare

One of the few Shakespeare plays I’ve read AND actually understood what was going on.

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

The Man Who Would Be King by Rudyard Kipling

This and everything after it (up to Kipling’s 100 Poems) I had to read for college English classes. Some of the books are pretty thin, so the spines don’t show well in the photo above. I keep thinking to unhaul some of them, especially the poetry because I don’t really like poetry, but they are so small and take up such little space that I think I might as well keep them… I don’t know.

Metaphysical Poetry: An Anthology by Paul Negri (ed.)

Will unhaul

Selected Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer

Everyman and Other Miracle and Morality Plays by Anonymous

This and the Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (below) are a few of the classics I read for class that I actually liked.

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson ★★★★★

Translations by Brian Friel

I’ve forgotten much about Translations and A Tempest, but I remember really liking them. I’d love to revisit them to see if that’s still true.

A Tempest by Aimé Césaire

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë ★★☆☆☆

Hated this book. I don’t know why I still have it. I’ll unhaul it… Or maybe I’ll give it another chance and then unhaul it. Will see. I’m surprised I gave it 2 stars on Goodreads. That’s being very generous considering how I feel about it.

Dubliners by James Joyce

English Victorian Poetry: An Anthology by Paul Negri (ed.)

English Romantic Poetry: An Anthology by Stanley Appelbaum (ed.)

I actually like these two poetry collections, which is weird because AP Literature in high school made me hate poetry with a passion.

Arcadia by Tom Stoppard

World War One British Poets by Candace Ward (ed.)

Will unhaul and might get rid of Arcadia too. I remember nothing about that Stoppard play.

Selected Short Stories by D.H. Lawrence

Beowulf by Anonymous ★★☆☆☆

The movie starring Ray Winstone as Beowulf and Angelina Jolie as Grendel’s mom came out when I was studying this story for a British lit. class, which, I think, made me willing to read it because I was notorious for not doing the homework or the reading.

Monday or Tuesday by Virginia Woolf

Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys ★★★☆☆

I read this for a Caribbean lit. class and hated it because I couldn’t understand what was going on. I’d like to reread it to see if I’ll have better luck with it now. The novel gives a backstory to Mr. Rochester’s “mad” wife in Jane Eyre.

Quicksand & Passing by Nella Larsen ★★★★☆

Great reads; both are about interracial Black women who can pass as White. Some choose to do so while others don’t. The stories gives us insight into the psyche and emotions of women who are able to “pass” in Black and White spaces in 1920s Harlem. It’s been a while since I read these stories, so my memory of them is a little shoddy. Of the two, I liked Quicksand more.

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STACKED: LEFT TO RIGHT (continued)

Dr. Faustus by Christopher Marlowe ★★★★★

The Playboy of the Western World by J.M. Synge

The School for Scandal by Richard Brinsley Sheridan

The Tempest by William Shakespeare

One thing I hated about college is having to buy a specific edition of a book for a class because the professor insists on it. That’s how I ended up with two copies of The Tempest. I will unhaul one of them. I’ll keep Dr. Faustus because it’s a favorite, but will also unhaul The Playboy of the Western World because I neither remember it nor care for it. I’ll keep The School for Scandal as well. I love that play although I hate reading it, lol.

The Cavalier Poets: An Anthology by Thomas Crofts (ed.)

Will unhaul this too

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe ★★★★★

This is a friend’s book I’ve had for years. I think he forgot that I have it, lol. I’m horrible at borrowing books, which is why I try not to. Anyway, Things Fall Apart is a great read that I highly recommend. I’ve only read it once and have since forgotten much about it, so I’d like to reread it and might do so with Rae at Rae’s Reads and Reviews.

In the Castle of My Skin by George Lamming ★★★★☆

Another great read that I highly recommend but read so long ago that I don’t remember much details. I’d love to reread it too. Lamming is a Bajan author.

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë ★★★★☆ ½

I surprised myself when I read and enjoyed this a couple years ago. I attempted it in college (for a class, of course) and hated it so much that I didn’t bother doing the homework or whatever. But it worked for me when I read it for the blog. Loved how atmospheric it is but didn’t like the end much.

100 Poems: Old and New by Rudyard Kipling

Penguin Book of Modern British Short Stories by Malcolm Bradbury (ed.)

Tom Jones by Henry Fielding

I’ve attempted to read this several times but have yet to complete it. It’s hard for me to work through the writing style of these early English novels. The story is funny, but the writing drags on sometimes and bores me.

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

Moby Dick by Herman Melville

STACKED: HORIZONTALLY

The Prince by Niccoló Machiavelli

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

Take Me With You by Andrea Gibson

Once Upon a Time: A Short History of Fairy Tale by Marina Warner

Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie

Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke, transl. by Charlie Louth

The Art of War by Sun Tzu

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

Metamorphoses by Ovid

The Travels by Marco Polo

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← Bookshelf Tour, Pt. 14 | Top Shelf

Bookshelf Tour, Pt. 16 | Classics (continues) →

SOME STATS

Total books in this row(s) = 47
How many I completed = 28
How many I will unhaul = 7

Total shelves so far = 7
Total books so far = 559
How many completed = 225
How many I will unhaul = 23

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