I love books, and i love reading. I absolutely have used and abused library cards my whole life, and I have owned lots of books. But something I've noticed recently, is. The books i own? Quite a few i haven't read recently. And we're really getting to capacity for my shelves. So at the start of the year I decided that, throughout the year, im going to read every book on my shelves, and really think about whether I want to keep it, or if I'm ready to let it go.
Why every book? Because, let's be honest, some books are on my shelves as nostalgia. I loved them then, so obviously I'd still love them now, right? But. That's not necessarily true. And my tastes have definitely changed. Plus, growing up poor, theres a definite "but it's *mine*!" Mentality that I'm trying to work on, since I don't want to end up a hoarder. (Having helped deal with FOUR fucking hoarder estates now, im definitely motivated to not end up buried in *stuff*.)
So, basically, everything has to be evaluated, everything has to hit the chopping block, at least a little bit. Therefore, a major rule was i had to finish a shelf before I could go on to the next one- no skipping series just because "Well obviously id keep those". No. Not how this work. And I came up with basic questions to really force myself to make the hard choices, no wishy washy maybes, it either stays, or goes.
Did I finish the book? Obvious, but opens to door to what to do with DNFs. In my case, if I DNFed a book, the entire series is now forfeit.
Did I enjoy the book? Again, obvious, but i have convinced myself to keep books before for various reasons, even if I didn't like it. So this deals with that.
Would I read the book again in a years time? Ah, longevity. As i said before, I'm a big proponent of libraries, so it's not worth it to me to keep a book i read once and enjoyed, but wouldn't pick up again and again. Space is a premium here.
Would I haul it across the world? This is for those really hard books, where for one reason or another I feel guilty getting rid of them. But this question really forces me to step back and consider- are they worth hauling to Germany or Australia or Antarctica? Is the time and effort of packing them worth it? Or could I get them out of a library when I reach the other side? Strange as it may seem, I have gotten to this question multiple times so far.
So, now with the admin for this project out of the way, time to share my first two shelves of progress! Spoiler warning for basically every book I discuss.
What a difference, ey? As I said, I went by shelf, so I'm gonna go over everything in order:
Chanters of Tremaris by Kate Constable: KEEP
Rose shades ON. This is a nostalgia series for me, and while the reread revealed its weaknesses in pacing and writing, i love so much of the world building and the messages and ideas that Constanble was trying to share, and many I feel are still relevant now. Again, I know it has issues, and it is really a 3 star series at max, but if she ever rewrote them and expanded on what she has here? First in line to get them. They are also hard af to find copies of, so getting rid of them would really shoot myself in the foot.
Taste of Lightning by Kate Constable: TOSS
Rose shades OFF this sequel sucks so much ass and I had to slog to finish it. I could literally write a rant post about everything I hated (and I still might) and I still would feel fiery rage in my heart 0/5 should've DNFed
Song of the Lioness by Tamora Pierce: REPLACE
So i love Pierce. I love her so much. And Alannas story is really where Tortall begins. She's not my absolute fav, but gotta respect the starting point. However. I dislike or outright hate so many of the covers for her books it's not even funny. But! Illumicrate did a fabulous set which i pre-ordered and is due sometime in the next three weeks, at which point, alannas story will be back on my shelves.
The Immortals by Tamora Pierce: KEEP
Alanna is where Tortall starts, but Daine is where it really steps away from the rest of the high fantasy pack. Wild magic? Spidrens? Mother fucking STORMWINGS? Iconic, all around. The romance isn't to my taste but most aren't so I dont hold that against them.
Protector of the Small by Tamora Pierce: KEEP
MY GIRL. MY ICON. MY ABSOLUTE BELOVED. KELADRY OF MINDELAN. My first Pierce book was Squire, and gods has nothing else really compared. The world building, the characters, the plot. Chefs kiss 5 stars all around literally perfect my only quible is the deus ex machina in Lady Knight but I can overlook it.
Trickster's Duology by Tamora Pierce: TOSS
Andddd then we come back down with an absolute crash. Alys story has always been bottom of the heap for me, and I thought it was just because I liked the others more. But on reread, it became clear- alys story is, well. Boring. The only stand out moment in the first book is the climax with the prince, and even then, you spotted it coming a mile away. And while book two definitely is better, it comes at the cost of being dependent on book one for all our character intros. I literally had to go back and double check who was who multiple times. The only parts I enjoyed were Alys 'letters from home' visions- which is a problem! The set is also the Pierce books which feel the most classically YA, especially with the romance. Nawat is nice, but it felt like such a kiddie romance after all the other series. So, didn't like it, won't miss it, sorry to all those who I know are die hard fans.
Provost's Dog by Tamora Pierce: KEEP/REPLACE
AND THEN WE ARE SO BACK. Beka is my second favorite after Kel, and I love the very different take on tortall her books have. We see much more of the normal, not noble or noble adjacent people that populate this world, and beka deals with some very serious stuff. It's odd that, after the very YA Trickster books, we get perhaps the most adult story with Provost, but I'm not complaining. I also like how bekas various relationships are handled, and that unlike other Pierce protags, she doesn't end up with the man she meets in book 1. And, of course, there's the cult. And the knowledge that, this is what causes so much damage in the series that followed chronologically. I love books where, you as a reader can see the tragedy coming, even tho the characters can't. Goosebumps, every time.
The Circle of Magic/The Circle Opens by Tamora Pierce: KEEP
While the Emelan books don't hold my heart like Tortall, I still find them to be fun reads. I really enjoy seeing the four grow up and find their footing in a world that really doesn't want to acknowledge children as adults. Which. Feels quite relevant.
Melting Stones by Tamora Pierce: TOSS
While this and the next two are technically a set, I don't consider them as such due to them not being interconnected. Rather, I see them as standalones that expand the world of Emelan. Anyways, I DNFed this one. Originally it was written as an audio exclusive that then was made into a book and. I could tell. It did not flow as I wanted it to. Plus I saw all the twists coming, which made me rather bored. I like Evvy and Rosethorn, but they aren't exactly who I came to see, you know?
Battle Magic by Tamora Pierce: TOSS
Gods this one had such cool concepts. I just wish it wasn't so slow to get rolling. I was over halfway and the war still hadn't started, and I was worried about how an entire war would be crammed into less then half a book. That, and the cat deaths, meant I didn't want to read it again. I know, that's probably silly, because books are supposed to make you feel things, good and bad, but having lost pets, evvys cats being murdered just. Was something I could not handle.
Will of the Empress by Tamora Pierce: REPLACE
Personally, the only true follow up to the Circle and the Circle Opens. Our favorite foursome are back together, but uh oh! They have returned changed! And must now have siblings drama while dealing with a foreign court that wants to swallow them whole! Empress really is the culmination of the Emelan books, and i highly enjoy it, even if the anti-sandry nonsense from tris, daja, and Briar is rough. Like gods damn, children, her having money and not going traveling is no reason to treat her like scum. She murdered people for fucks sake! On a side note, I like how we get hints of what the four will be doing going forward- it's a nice way to tie things up while still leaving the possibilities open.
The Old Kingdom by Garth Nix: KEEP/REPLACE
Sabriel is an icon, Lirael is an icon, Touchstone is an icon- i could go on but i won't. I love the Old Kingdom as a whole- like Tortall, it is so well built and fleshed out as a world, that you could see it and it's problems being real. However, the books not matching. Really grinds my fucking gears. Like, I know the Dillons couldn't do all the covers but come on! At least try to make them match! So I've tossed all the non-Dillon covers, got a hardbound copy of the 25th anniversary edition (which i celebrated arriving th eother day), and am going to work on getting the UK paperbacks of the books so I can have a matching sets. Is it silly? Yes. Do I care that it's silly? No.
The Left-Handed Booksellers of London by Garth Nix: KEEP
One of the series i was able to finally fit onto the shelves! Hurray! They were languishing on the living room table for wayyyy too long. Where the old kingdom is dark and serious, LHBSL is dark and fun. I love our punk protag, I love the romance between her and merlin (shocking, since most YA romance i cannot stand), and most of all, I love how much this series is a love letter to England and it's mythos. Plus her dad's a rock god! (badum tsch)
Percy Jackson and the Olympians/Heroes of Olympus/the Kane Chronicles/Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard by Rick Riordan: TOSS
Now. For the rather giant elephant in the room. So, I would consider myself a longtime fan of Riordan. I first read The Lightning Thief for battle of the books in middle school, and had read literally every one of the books on my shelf. However, on reread. It was hard not to notice how PJATO is definitely a middle grade book. And while I enjoyed it, I didn't love it. And then right after was HOO, which i DNFed in the first book because I began to remember how little I liked the later books. And then I read Red Pyramid and when I finished I sat there and was just. Not motivated to pick up book two. Are Riordan books bad? No, definitely not, but i think that at this point I've simply. outgrown them. And while I'd pick up PJATO again, it wouldn't be within the next year. And its cemented itself as a modern classic so thoroughly that I know i could find it in most library systems, including my current one. So. With all that in mind. I've let them go.
And on that note, that finishes shelf 1 and 2! It was a bit more of a rollercoaster ride then I expected, but i don't regret any of my choices. I'm now working on shelves 3 and 4, which are a bit rougher because it's more authors with lots of short series or standalones, so don't know how long it'll take me, but I'm really glad to be making visible progress.
If you read all this inane rambling, thanks for your time, hope you enjoyed, and hopefully no one kills me for smalling a book they loved. We can only hope.
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Hi, just here to say we need an expanded Chanters of Tremaris trilogy where we get the full details of what Calwyn and Darrow say and do in Merithuros and Antaris and on Fledgewing…
I have been attempting to be more active in the book blogging community lately, but I'm pretty bad at talking to people (I get nervous lol) so I thought I'd do something fun, like make my own little book tag. Hence the Shelf-History Tag!
❀ This tag is for those books that came to you in an unusual, interesting, funny, or sweet way. Pick 5 (or more if you want) books from your shelf and tell us the story of how you came to own that book. If you're a public library user and don't really own any books, you can still participate. Just tell us the most interesting/funny/sweet ways you came to find a particular library book.
Tag your posts #ShelfHistory so I can see them all!
When you're finished, tag 5 (or more) readers whose Shelf-History you'd like to know about! This one can easily be done on any blogging/vlogging platform so feel free to tag cross-platform if you really want to. ❀
I'll go first as an example and also just because I want to play too:
Book 1: Â Jane Austen: Seven Novels + Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
I received these two as a gift from the pastor's secretary at the church I used to work at (but before I worked there). They are both beautiful volumes, but especially the gilded Seven Novels collection. I was in high school, so this was about 10 years ago) and had never read Jane Austen before and Ms. Judy highly recommended them. I wasn't sold so she went out and bought them for me and asked only that I give them a chance. They have sweet little inscriptions in them and I will definitely cherish these for a long, long time.
Book 2: Â The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale
My copy of The Goose Girl was purchased from the Scholastic Book Fair back in middle school. I bought it because the cover was beautiful and the title was interesting. (And because I always bought tons of books from the book fair lol) I took it home and read it right away and it totally swept me up. It was my first fairytale retelling novel and I was totally hooked. At the time I wasn't reading very much, I was really struggling with everything, and this book got me into reading again. The Goose Girl will always have a special place in my heart, and I hope I can hold on to this particular copy until it falls apart and then some.
Book 3: Â A Certain Slant of Light by Laura Whitcomb
Did you ever own a book that you had no idea how you got it or why you have it? One day I was rearranging my books and I found one that I didn't remember reading (this was back when I had a lot less books). I read the back and it didn't ring any bells at all. Despite this, it was clearly my book, since it was on my shelves. Over the years I have unhauled it at least twice, and yet somehow it always winds up back on my shelf. That's not me being cute. I mean I literally don't know how it winds up back on the shelf. I put it in the box of books to get rid of and it just doesn't get rid. I guess I figure I'm supposed to own this book...
Book 4: Â The Tenth Power by Kate Constable
This is my only Advanced Reader Copy. Oh lucky me, I got an ARC, right? Wrong. I ordered the hardcover version of this book online and received the ARC anyway. It wasn't a huge deal, but it bothered me slightly because hardbacks are expensive and because it didn't match the others from the series that I had. So I wrote to the seller and they offered to send me the copy I actually ordered and I could do with the ARC whatever I wished. Well lo, and behold, two weeks later, here comes a book in the mail. But is it the hardback copy that I ordered? No, bitch, it's ANOTHER ARC copy! At this point I just gave up. It was both too funny and too dumb to care about any longer.
Book 5: Â It Happened This Way
I don't know where or how I got this book, but I've had it since I was about 2 years old. The thing that makes this book truly special to me is that it's the book my mom used to teach me to read. The best I can figure, she found it at a garage sale or got it from one of the classrooms she used to interpret in before I was born. I don't know how I've managed to hold on to it all these years, but I still look through it every so often and love it so much. My favorite story in it is the story of Mark Park (who the kids called Mark Park Walk in the Dark). It will probably always make me smile.
Alrighty those are my Shelf History picks. Not the most interesting stories, but I'm betting that some of y'all have some really fascinating ones!
I’m tagging: @books-and-cookies, @books-cupcakes, @flamingmirrorbookish, @bookwormungandr, & @omgreading :) But feel free to give it a go even if you aren't tagged!
Kate Constable. If memory serves, 16yearoldme copied random snippets that were part of a comic about a coming of age ceremony in a post-apocalyptic world where the seas had drowned the cities (implied to be because of global warming).
---
light leached from the sky
a tiny bundle, wrapped in skin and secret
The path is long, but our feet are light
we recognise it as surely as if it had been woven through our dreams.
It is the bellow of the ocean, like some great beast.
Far below, the ravenous waves devour the rocks, then, roaring, spit them out again.
The stones are sharp underfoot as shattered bone.
The sky is a bowl of copper, a bowl of rosy gold, licked by the white flame of the rising sun.
mired without a name
So we grip our courage tight, and we follow them.
a drowned city. A city of ancient times, ... , a city of warning and dread.
We turn our backs on the dazzling sea and its mysteries. We fold our secrets inside our hearts; they are part of us now.
all our secrets and all our fears were suddenly let go.
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“When twelve-year old Clancy and her fourteen-year-old sister, Tash, visit their Pa at his aged-care facility, they have no idea that the three of them will soon set out on an intrepid adventure.
Along the way there are many challenges for Tash and Clancy to overcome and in the process, they discover their own resourcefulness and resilience and demonstrate their heartfelt love for their grandfather.“
