Bookcase Showcase: Liz from My Favourite Books

Today I have Liz from My Favourite Books to show off her shelves - be warned this showcase is epic...

Mark and I are really pleased to showcase our combined bookshelves for Overflowing Library. (To see Sarah's Bookcase Showcase - who also reviews on MFB click here)

I must firstly personally apologise for cheating here - the majority of Mark and my bookcases are double-stacked.  I have only taken photos of the books that can be seen - moving the first set of stacks to get to the ones behind is far more than I can tackle unassisted on a lazy Saturday morning.

I know a lot of people may think: wow, a lot of books, but remember MFB has been going for a long old time and these shelves are crammed with books both bought by a book obsessed couple and books that publishers sent on to us to review.  The selection of titles are wide and varied and we are incredibly proud that we do try and read as many and as randomly as we can.

We start off in the dining room where I have got four tally Billy bookcase.  There really isn’t much order to these, at all.  And if there ever was any order to them, they have been lost. Long ago. 

On display are my copies of The Iron Witch which I love.  Kaz has signed these, of course.  Also my tiny critters and my Muji doll which Sarah (@esssjay) had bought me for my b’day.

Our iPod, my “Once Upon A Time” bit of art from an British author living on Dartmoor as well as a small selection of my unused moleskines.  You may say that I am obsessed with them. My signed Prince of Stories by Neil Gaiman I’ve not yet read - it is too precious.  I may have to wait for the paperback version.

Some random bigger books and a handful of picture books which I am using for the MFB Picture Book Saturdays.  The shelf below the picture books are stocked with some of the books I bought towards the end of last year.  I have just finished reading Hate List by Jennifer Brown.  It is amazing.  The majority of these bought books were all recommendations from Neil at Foyles. 

A mixture of bought, proofs and finished copies.  Of these I am very excited to read Swamplandia, Ondine, Freaks and Demon Collector.  Oh, and Flip, of course!

Same as before - a mixture of bought and proof copies.  My signed dedicated edition of Deb Harkness’s A Discovery of Wtiches is resting there, whilst I decide where it should live. On these shelves I’m excited about Long Lankin, Odin’s Wolves and The Watchers.

Two Chaffy creatures are on display.  I fear they may take over my world.  I am a bit Eva Ibbotson fan, so I have some of her books lined up to read later this year.  Similarly with Frances Hardinge whom I was at a party with some time ago and had NO idea she was there! Am utterly mortified.

Mixture of proofs, bought and finished copies.  I am waiting for a chance to read every single one of those Buffy bind-ups. 

These are some of my oversized books that I couldn’t find space for elsewhere.  Please note my signed hardback copy by Rick Riordan.  One of my most treasured possessions. 

 You may notice a proliferation of Zombie titles and uhm more off the wall titles here.  This is the shelf where I try and put books I’m super keen on reading asap.  It doesn’t work. 

Ah, my series books are here - well some of them. JKR’s Harry Potter, Spooks, Marcus Sedgwick’s books.  It’s a mess and one of the more difficult shelves to control.

A better view of part of the previous shelf - you can see the Spooks books properly now.  These two shelves hold a massive mixture of bought and finished copies for review.  You can see one of our proofs for Department 19 as well as the proof for Zoe Marriot’s Shadows on the Moon.  I have no idea what is in the big blue folder...maybe recipes.

Now we move onto the lounge where we also 3 bookshelves - the lounge is slightly more controlled than the dining room.  I have no idea why.

The big monstrous looking bound book in silver is Mark’s Collector’s Edition of Deathwatch.  Next to it, is my Beadle the Bard. This bookcase is basically Mark’s geeky fan boy bookcase.  A shrine to the Black Library and Games Workshop.  We jokingly call it the DanAbnettBookshelf.

I rest my case.  More geeky Black Library books.  This bookcase also holds a great many non-fiction war and historical novels which both Mark and I enjoy reading.  It also holds some poetry, but sadly as our couches are so massive I can’t get in between them to take photos.

Our Jim Butcher, Tolkien, Arturo Perez Reverte and Mike Carey bookshelf.  Oh, please note the Punisher and Smurfs.  Us, geeky? Never!  Also, the lovely guy hanging on the left is Jasper, who came home with us from Prague earlier this year.  Oh, the King Tut mask - it’s not really gold.  But the stand is marble.  A very handy weapon...

Only some of our comics.  Including my beautiful Sandman collection. 

All my signed Neil Gaiman books and a mix-match collection of read and unread titles that are lovely to pick up and dip into.

My Charles de Lint collection at the top, with part of Mark’s David Gemmell books on the right.  The shelf below holds my Garth Nix books, my hard back copies of Leviathan and Behemoth and my Lamplighter trilogy.  Oh, and some more of our comics right at the top.  It also holds the great god Pan, a moon gazing hare, a gargoyle and a wonderfully tactile mother goddess figurine.

This fat little Buddha came all the way from China in the backpack of a friend, just for me.  These shelves are a crazy mixture of Holly Black, Cassandra Clare, Melissa Marr and Chris Priestly.  I try and keep these shelves as my “whimsy” shelves for my quirkier fairtytale books. 

Sighed copies of Jasper Kent’s books.  Signed poster by Will Hill from his big unveiling at the Churchill War Rooms last year for Department 19.  Pretty huh?  The arrows to the left are handmade my Mark, the dagger is a Tuareg dagger we bought in Luxor and the one arrow right at the top is from a now extinct tribe of hunters from Africa.

Our signed Joe Abercrombie and Brent Weeks books.  Signed Karen Armstrongs oh and a random bit of of our DVD’s to the side.

This is from Hellgate, the game.  It is a templar knight destroying zombies.  Mark bought this from Weta Workshop in New Zealand.  It is an amazing diorama and you may think it is quite visceral to have on display but it is an incredible bit of art and ridiculously detailed.  I love looking at it.  But of course, if Mark could carry this with him somehow, he would.

And those are my shelves.  I’m not showing you my reference bookcases or my research bookcases.  Those can be for another time.

Thanks for letting us come out to play!

If you would like to feature in a future bookcase showcase please find all the details on the bookcase showcase page. I would love to feature you.