I've had a lot of books in my lifetime, but unfortunately I've
moved house many, many times and had to shed books along the way. Some
have remained with ex-partners, and new partners have then filled up my
shelves with their books, and so on…it's a kind of meiotic process that
lead to strange new genetic combinations! Sadly a lot of our books and
bookshelves aren't easily accessible at the moment - my husband works
from home as a non-fiction sales rep, so a good many of our own books
have had to be packed away to make room for his stock, whilst others are
on bookshelves wedged behind furniture - or, in one case, a bicycle! -
which makes for terrible photos.
So, I've
concentrated on the bookcases that are important to me as a writer. The
first, of course, is my SF and fantasy collection, in the corner of the
bedroom. This holds everything except the complete Terry Pratchett
collection, which practically needs its own bookcase! It's a mixture of
old favourites and new, and a few TBR titles on the top shelf - I mostly
buy ebooks these days, purely to save space, though if I really love a
book I may buy the dead trees edition as well.
Because
it's arranged alphabetically (apart from the TBR section at the very
top), you can't quite see the battered paperback three-volume copy of
The Lord of the Rings, which is probably the oldest book on there. You
_can_ see the 1970s edition of the Deryni Chronicles by Katherine Kurtz,
which I bought when I was an undergraduate, and my fairly comprehensive
collection of Lynn Flewelling paperbacks (with a space kept for the
final Nightrunner book, due out next year I believe). And yes, those are
Argonath bookends from the Lord of the Rings DVD boxed set - sadly my
cat has chewed their outstretched hands, so they're not exactly
collectors' pieces any more!
Second is my main
reference/research bookcase. This holds a bunch of writing books -
again, not all I've ever bought, but the ones I currently feel are worth
holding on to - and most of my historical research. The second shelf
down is almost entirely Elizabethan stuff, from general social history,
through specialist topics like the Elizabethan secret service, to
biographies of famous individuals such as Sir Francis Walsingham and Sir
Walter Raleigh. My favourite is probably "The A-Z of Elizabethan
London", which is an annotated reprint of a map c.1570 - it's been
invaluable in writing my historical fantasy series "Night's Masque". The
layout of the main streets has changed so little that one can still use
it to navigate from the reconstructed Globe on Bankside to the Tower of
London (something I did once, to see how long it would take my
characters to walk the route).
The lower
shelves are a more mixed bag: ancient, medieval and early modern
history; books about Venice (the middle book of my trilogy is mostly set
there) and other Italian cities; the history of technology; and for
some reason several books about sex in history! Well, perhaps not so
surprising - it's one of those topics that tend to get skirted around in
school history lessons, but as a writer it's as important to know what
your characters' attitudes are to sex, as it is to know about dates of
battles or the economic effects of the Black Death.
The
third and final photo shows the bookcase that sits next to my desk,
within easy reach when I'm at my computer. On the lower shelves are more
reference books, this time with the emphasis on language: dictionaries,
and books about linguistics. I've been interested in constructed
languages since my teens (even before I read Tolkien), and they
constitute a small but vital element in my books. Naturally I also need
to know about the history of English and how it was used in
Shakespeare's day, and then there are the random foreign and specialist
dictionaries I've accumulated over the years.
The
upper shelves are a mixture of business and pleasure. This is where I
keep both my own "archive" copies of my novels and (on the shelf below)
the spare author copies I'm saving for giveaways (not many left now!).
As well as my books, you can see there are art materials - drawing pads
and boxes of pens - and a box of Playmobil people (to go with the
Playmobil pirate ships on my desk); a 6" figure of Spike from "Buffy the
Vampire Slayer"; and the obligatory writer's bottle of whisky (in my
case, Glenkinchie 12-year-old single malt). Hanging from the righthand
side of the shelves is my collection of convention badges, most
prominently the one from this year's WorldCon. Hiding away in my study
writing novels can be lonely, so I love to get out and meet other
writers - and of course readers!
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