I need to confess.
I am ruthless about getting rid of books.
It’s become a problem. I used to be your
ordinary, run-of-the-mill book hoarder but then I started losing my children
among piles of books and realizing I might not need the book called ‘noisy
neighbours and you’ from 1999. And so I started getting rid of books that I
didn’t like, wouldn’t re-read or had never read in the first place.
Now I have these weirdly empty shelves. But
the things on them are treasures.
Above this shelf I have Harry Potters,
Narnias and Jane Austens: these books will never leave. They are like magic
spell books and if I didn’t have them I think my powers would cease.
I don’t have a system. Sorry if that makes
you twitchy.
This is my shelf of books I’ve read, loved
and can’t ever say goodbye to or that I want to read. It’s missing a few
beauties that I’ve lent to friends. There are shelves of books below this one,
but they were too messy to photograph!
The main themes are:
Classic YA: Phillip Pullman (god of
stories), Patrick Ness, Louis Sachar and Suzanne Collins.
New YA: Lisa Thompson, Melinda Salisbury,
Eve Ainsworth (there are loads missing here!)
Books that are in my heart forever: I
Capture the Castle, The Night Circus, 64 Charing Cross Road, Myths &
Legends.
Plus, I have snuck the copies I have of my
debut YA novel, Ink onto the shelf. They are extremely special to me and I
still can’t quite believe they exist.
I may seem like a bit of a bookcase
minimalist, but the truth is, I am an ebook girl. I can’t resist the lure of
having a book in my library immediately and I love the way I can have hundreds
of books without everyone knowing the extent of my hoarding.
In Ink, people have shelves full of a
different kind of book: a book made of the skin of loved ones who have died.
You can read their lives from the tattoos they had on their skin and it is a
way of keeping their memory alive forever. For me, books tell the story of my
life as a reader and there are many that I hope remain part of me forever.
Alice
Broadway drinks more tea than is really necessary loves writing in her
yellow camper van. She hates being too cold or too hot, and really likes
wearing lipstick and watching terrible Christmas movies.
@alicecrumbs | www.alice-broadway.com
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