Bookshelf Tour, Pt. 27 | The Stats

While bored in the midst of the corona pandemic last year, I decided to publish a series of bookshelf tour posts. I combed through the two large bookcases and the one small one in my room to feature all the physical books I own and mention which ones I’ve read.

I had a lot of fun doing this; plus, it helped me to organize and catalog my books. I hope you all liked the posts too — it certainly seems as if you all did. But it was quite a feat. I began the tour in early May and published a post once each week until early November, which was surprising to me because I didn’t expect to complete the tour in 2020. I really thought it would extend to 2021. I was getting so overwhelmed by all my books!

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Bookshelf Tour, Pt. 26 | Art Books

Wow! We’re on the last bookcase I’ll show for this Bookshelf Tour series. I didn’t expect to complete this tour this year so to be at the end now is surprising. I really thought this would extend into 2021, but, here we are even though I twice took a week off from the tour.

I started this series back in May when everything shut down due to corona and I began spending more time blogging to ignore the world falling apart around me. It was successful for a while in distracting me, but eventually I had to pop my head out of the blogging sand and engage in reality.

I was happy to do this tour, and I hope you all enjoyed it too. I’ve always wanted to do such a series of posts but figuring out how to do it on a blog (and not on video) was tricky. The format I chose worked for me, but it is detailed and it took time to prepare the posts. However, I’m glad I did it this way because I was able to accurately catalog my books as I went along. I use the Book Collectorz app to keep track of my books but had not been keeping up with it, so my numbers there are probably a bit skewed.

According to the app, I own 1,200 print and electronic books, including audio books. I still wonder if that’s correct. Although I include stats on my books at the end of each of these tour posts, they do not include books I bought since beginning this tour series in May or my e-books or audiobooks. So maybe I’ll do a separate post with the final stats to fully wrap up this series. Maybe…

Anyway, here’s the final bookcase we’ll tour. It doesn’t look like the previous ones because it’s just a short office furniture that I use as a bedside table and mini bookcase. Check it out:

Bookshelf Tour, Pt. 25 | Picture Books & Graphic Novels, Pt. 2

So this is the last shelf on this tour. Well, it’s supposed to be because since the beginning of this bookshelf tour series, I’ve only mentioned that I’ll tour the two large bookcases in my room. There is one more bookcase in the room. Actually, it’s a small office desk that I use as a nightstand. I mostly store there my art books. When I started this thing, I didn’t plan on touring it too, but now I think I might. I mean, why not, right?

Well, since I’m nearing the end of this tour series, I hope you’ve hung in there with me and have found a few books that interest you as well. Not only was it fun (and a bit time consuming) to do this series, but it was also helpful in allowing me to accurately catalog my books. I use the Book Collectorz app to keep track of my books, but I hadn’t been keeping an accurate catalog of them for some time. This tour series helped me to get back on track.

Well, anyway, we’re on the second bookcase:

And we’re touring the last untoured shelf, which is the one at the very top. Let’s take a closer look:

Bookshelf Tour, Pt. 24 | Comics (continues)

I took a break from the bookshelf tour last week because I was unprepared (Monday crept up on me), but I’m back with it now because…

I have more comics to you! 😀

I kind of jumped headlong into comics once I started getting into them. The format really appeals to me and, shortly after getting into comics, I began to give in to my love of picture books as well and started to collect them (that’s coming up on the next shelf).

With comics, I’ve realized that I tend to lean toward fantasy stories (no surprise there) and stray away from superhero comics, which is a bit weird since I enjoy the Marvel movies. But I just prefer stories that aren’t about superheroes, and I enjoy seeing what creators do with the comic book format. So far, I keep collecting and not reading, so I really need to schedule a time where I focus on nothing but comics.

Anyway, the second bookcase:

Bookshelf Tour, Pt. 23 | Comics (begins)

Not everyone likes comics, but I do. I’m surprised it took me so long to really start reading them and to give in and start collecting them. I guess the delay is because I wrongly assumed that comics are mostly about superheroes, which I’m not interested in reading about.

I didn’t start reading and collecting comics until about 2015, when a comic book store opened close to my job at the time. I went there and got some recommendations and enjoyed all the ones I tried — Rat Queens, Saga, Wicked + Divine, etc. I was hooked after that and kept on purchasing comics, although I don’t read them as often as I would like (so many of those listed below are unread).

With comics, it’s not just the story that has to appeal to me. The art is a major part of it too. I’m notorious for cover buys for my books. If a book has a nice cover, it’s highly likely that I’ll get it. It’s even more so for comics. If it has great illustrations on the cover, I’ll pick it up. I’ll then do a quick flip through and it I LOVE the illustrations I see, I’ll buy it and probably not even read up on what it’s about before doing so. If I don’t like them, then I’ll read the synopsis before buying and look up reviews and do all that jazz. So yeah, stunning illustrations and use of color are catnip for me.

Well then, we’re on the second bookcase still:

And we’re nearing the top because now we’re on the first row of the comics shelf, which is the fifth shelf from the bottom or the first one from the top. Let’s check it out:

Bookshelf Tour, Pt. 22 | YA (continues)

I’m in a mood today.

I just want to stop time for a bit, ignore the world, and get lost in my books because I think this world is spinning out of control. Things are so bleak that I gotta fight to see positivity in all that’s going on.

Well, for me, blogging is one of the positive corners of my life, especially these posts. I’m enjoying sharing this tour of my bookshelves with you all, and I hope that it brings you some enjoyment too.

We’re touring my second bookcase; here it is:

And we are on the second row of the fourth shelf from the bottom that’s dedicated to only YA books. Let’s take a look:

Bookshelf Tour, Pt. 21 | YA (continues)

In part 19 of my Bookshelf Tour posts, I talked about the cat I live with. And yes, my living situation has now become me (and the rest of us humans here) living with the cat. The cat does what he wants (for the most part) and we have to adapt to him.

Well, Laila asked for a photo of Sir Kitty (one of my many nicknames for him) and I thought I’d comply because, if you follow me on IG, you’ll see that I enjoy serving as his paparazzi. So here he is, the Shadow Cat:

“Damn paparazzi!” — Sir Kitty

I now serve as his personal camerawoman and backscratcher/petter. It’s my job to pay attention to him by petting his back, head, neck, ears, and belly to send him into deep purrs of pleasure whenever he begins to wind himself between my ankles to trip me up while alternately looking up at me demanding attention with his unblinking stare.

And before y’all get the wrong impression — no, this is not my cat. He belongs to my brother but has attached himself to the rest of us by nudging his way into our affections. It’s hard not to like him, even when he’s annoying.

Well anyway, let’s get back to books. We’re touring my second bookcase:

And now we’re on the fourth shelf from the bottom that’s dedicated to only YA books. Let’s take a look at it:

Bookshelf Tour, Pt. 20 | YA (begins)

There was a discussion post over on Pages Unbound a couple weeks ago about the popularity of YA books that made me consider my relationship with these books and how it has changed over the years.

These days, I mostly read adult novels, picture books, and middle grade novels. There was a time when I read a lot of YA, and I believe that was back when I discovered booktube. It’s easy to get excited about books booktubers jump for joy about, and most of them were YA. Plus, at that time, the majority of bloggers I followed read YA books.

But slowly I started losing interest in such books. Not many of the stories captivated me, and I kept feeling tricked into reading romance stories although the books are marketed as fantasy. I mostly read fantasy and whenever I picked up a YA book, it would be a fantasy novel. But often what I ended up reading were romance stories set in a fantasy world, so the story focuses more on the romance than on the fantasy elements, which didn’t work for me especially if there’s a love triangle (I hate those in YA).

I decided to take a break from YA after reading S. Jae-Jones’s Wintersong, which was a decent read, but the romance overpowered everything else and annoyed me. That was back in 2017. Since then, I’ve dipped in and out of the YA category and have been lucky to sometimes find gems, like the Diviners books by Libba Bray and Dread Nation by Justina Ireland.

However, I’m still wary about reading a YA novel. (I’ve yet to read Children of Blood and Bone despite the many praises I’ve seen for it.) These days, I add a YA novel to my TBR if fantasy reviewers I trust highly recommend them or mention something about the story that makes me think I can read it all and not DNF it. I know a lot of peeps enjoy reading this category of books, but for this reader, it’s more of a love-hate relationship.

Anyway, we’re here to tour my second bookcase…

We’re on the second row of the third shelf from the bottom, which is where my YA books begin. Let’s take a look:

Bookshelf Tour, Pt. 19 | Middle Grade (continues)

Do you own a cat and if so, how do you prevent it from nibbling on your books?

I ask this because my household got a cat a couple weeks ago. It’s the most curious, friendly cat I’ve ever met. I’ve always thought that cats were aloof; you know, stuck up and giving zero fucks about cuddling up next to you. But this one likes such things. He loves to play and to be petted. He LOVES attention. I didn’t expect that at all.

He also loves to smell everything. Is that typical of cats? When he comes into my room, he smells every nook and cranny (that’s how I realized that certain areas were dusty because he sneezed…never heard a cat sneeze before). Once he saw some books on my chair and began to nibble on them. That’s a big no-no for me. So I told him to get out. Of course, he just paused to look at me before going back to nibbling. I had to take the book from him. He doesn’t bother the books on my shelves, so far, but he sure loves cords and the random wayward book laying on the bed or the chair. For some reason, though, he doesn’t bother the Funko Pops on my shelves. Weird cat.

Anyway, we’re touring the second bookcase in my room.

And we’re now on the third shelf from the bottom, which also has my middle grade books. You’ll also see a few YA books mixed in. Let’s take a look:

Bookshelf Tour, Pt. 18 | Middle Grade (continues)

Okay, so today we’ll tour a row that has nothing but middle grade books on it. It has some of my favorite series as well, majority Rick Riordan — which I can’t help because I really enjoy the Percy Jackson series. It even held up well on my recent reread of it.

I didn’t read the Percy Jackson books until a couple years after they were published. People kept comparing them to the Harry Potter books, which made me think they were like them and I wasn’t feeling that. When I finally gave them a try, I was a little annoyed at myself for waiting so long to read such an entertaining story.

The books are light, fast reads that are like a crazy rollercoaster ride from beginning to end. And I just love that it’s based on Greek and Roman mythology. That made me like the stories even more and made me do my own research on such mythologies, mostly because certain things I thought Riordan made up I later learned were from the myths (like the Clazmonian Sow).

But anyway, we aren’t here to review Rick Riordan’s books, we’re here to tour my bookshelves. Here’s a look at the bookcase we’re on:

And now, we’re on the second row of the second shelf from the bottom — where the middle grade books begin.