Shelf Saturday Featuring Tessa @ From the Bookshelf of T.B.

We all love our books, and we want them to have the best shelves ever. Also, this is a new way to sort of show off your book collection, along with your funky shelves.

ARGH thought fitting himself in the bookshelf will help him sleep.

For this new edition of Shelf Saturday, let me feature the book case of this blogger friend of mine, Tessa @ From the Bookshelf of T.B.:

Hi everyone!  My name is Tessa.  I’m fourteen years old and an eighth grader in middle school.  I’ll be going into high school this coming fall.  I love to run and I’m in track and cross-country.  I’m more of a long-distance runner, with my main events being the 3000m race and the 1500m race, but I enjoy sprints as well. 

Some random facts about me:

         -I’m the youngest of three.

         -I love, love, love the color teal.

         -My grandpa was the one who got me to start a blog.  Intrigued? :)

         -I could eat cookies ‘n’ cream ice cream for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

         -Italian food is my favorite, especially lasagna.  Did I mention I like food?

Now enough about me, let me tell you a bit about my shelves.  I actually got my shelves from a Borders store that was closing nearby me.  It was the last day they were open so there wasn’t too much left.  Luckily, I was able to buy four bookshelves from Borders for really cheap.  The funny thing is, when I got home only two would fit in my room.

The feature I love most about my bookshelves is that they’re pretty tall and they’re double-sided.  It’s cool, because it feels like I’m in a library or bookstore when I go between them.  And I get double the shelf space, which I could always use more of.

This is what the front of my main shelf looks like.  The top shelf holds my books that are in a series, and are a mix of paperback and hardcover.  For some reason I just don’t like having a series with both paperbacks and hard covers.  I’d rather have only one or the other.  Next, my second shelf consists of my hardcover books. Then, my third shelf has all of my paperbacks that are in a series.  Finally, my last shelf holds my paperbacks (some might also be in a series, but I just don’t own the rest yet).  Other than that, I tend to organize my books by the ones that jut out the most on the far-left, and the rest just by the jacket color in an order that pleases the eye.  I know, a bit complicated and quirky, but it works out great!

Another shot of my bookshelf.

This is what the front side of my other shelf looks like.  On the left side of the top shelf are books that I’ve borrowed from my family or friends that I still need to read.  On the right side of the top shelf are books that I have read but still need to write reviews for.  I always tend to fall behind :p  My second shelf holds all of my books that I have bought and still need to read.  I really need to start reading all of these!  All of my ARC’s and books sent to me by publishers are on the third shelf.  Plus my painted ceramics and little chotchkies are on this shelf as well.

My mom made this for me, and it fits perfectly on the top of my shelf.  The letters spell the name of my blog, From The Bookshelf of T.B.  It was extremely thoughtful and sweet of her to make it for me.  I love seeing it everyday as a reminder on top of my bookshelves.

So that basically sums up what my shelves are all about!  Thank you so much Nina (and ARGH!) for this wonderful opportunity!  It was a lot of fun, and I hope you all enjoyed seeing my shelves.  I hope to have even more books filling them soon!

    

Eating ice cream the whole day!  I would love to try that some time!

Those are very nice book shelves you have there, Tessa!  They give this library feel which I'm sure most book lovers are crazy about!  Lucky you to be able to snag these shelves from Borders.  I'm sure a lot of the readers out there are now planning to scour their area for book stores about to close to get a couple of shelves (on one hand, I hate it when book stores close shop, but I love it when they sell their store equipment, especially the shelves and tables!).

And that name thing is awesome, your mother is very creative!  Same goes for those bookends. Your having a grandpa who would tell you to go make a blog about your books is amazing, I wish all grandparents are like that.  You have a really cool family, I can tell! :D

Thank you so much for sharing your bookshelves with us, Tessa!

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Think this is a great idea?  Want to have your shelves featured?  Then fill out this form and ARGH and I will email you for details on how to be a movie star - er, how to be featured on Shelf Saturday :D

Shelf Saturday Featuring Playing.Librarian

We all love our books, and we want them to have the best shelves ever. Also, this is a new way to sort of show off your book collection, along with your funky shelves.

ARGH thought fitting himself in the bookshelf will help him sleep.

For this new edition of Shelf Saturday, let me feature the book case of this blogger friend of mine, Playing.Librarian:

I was about seven years old when I first fell in love with books. It was the day I received my first school library card and was eager to use it. Lots of books, I thought. In the end I chose an Enid Blyton book, probably attracted to it because of its nice hard cover—something about a rabbit if I remember correctly. And though the book was a little too advanced for me at that time—I had just started learning English—I just loved the touch and feel of it.

When I got older I discovered that my school library had a complete collection of The Sweet Valley Twins series. I was hooked, coming back every few days or so returning and checking out more books until I read them all. And since then, I can always be seen burrowing over a book and my life has never been the same since.

But, enough of the sentimental (I tend to overly romanticize things, don’t I?)

I didn’t have a huge collection of books while growing up. Not until I earned my own money did I become a book collector—a book hoarder, if you will—and it has become an obsession, a dangerous threat to my bank account! 

Here’s my bookshelf and my collection over the years. I bought it  [my shelf] from IKEA and it's dark brown wood. Yeah, I’m old school like that. Looks like I’m going to run out of space soon, don’t you think?

The middle shelf at the far right is where I put my stationery and stuff I use for wrapping books and the one at the bottom with the door is where I dump every other thing in :P

I don’t really have a specific rule as far as arranging books is concerned but as much as possible I like to keep books by the same author together: I have Agatha Christie the most (12), Paul Auster (7), Jeffrey Archer (6), Kate Morton (3), Gabriel Garcia Marquez (3), Irene Nemirovsky (3), Stieg Larsson (3), Haruki Murakami (3), Carlos Ruiz Zafon and multiple in two's like Elizabeth Kostova, Jonathan Safran Foer, Wally Lamb, Jonathan Franzen, Maggie O'Farrell, Nicole Kraus, Khaled Hosseini, Jed Rubenfeld, Audrey Niffenegger…

I share this bookshelf with my hubby. While I collect books, he collects DVDs. He reads all those geeky stuffs like science, National Geographic and gadget magazines but he wouldn't tolerate any fiction at all (much to my futile coaxing)! Oh well, you know what they say, opposites attract :)

Until we could afford a bigger home with wall to wall floor-to-ceiling shelves, I guess we just have to be satisfied with this one. But a girl can dream, can’t she? And oh, I've always wanted to become a librarian (can't you tell)?

Playing.Librarian.  It's so very easy to tell from your blog name itself that you would love to become a librarian.  So go ahead and follow your dreams!  As the cliche would say. 

I am positively drooling at all the books on that shelf!  After reading this post by Playing.Librarian, I went and rearranged by book shelf again.  Hers look so organized and looks like everything is in the right place.

Thanks to the Sweet Valley series, a lot of readers were born.  I know this book was something I also borrowed from the library and these books were the ones I practiced to read fast with.

And how many readers would agree that books pose a serious threats to our bank accounts?  Because I do!

Thank you so much, Playing.Librarian for sharing your book shelf with us!

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Think this is a great idea?  Want to have your shelves featured?  Then fill out this form and ARGH and I will email you for details on how to be a movie star - er, how to be featured on Shelf Saturday :D

Armchair BEA Day 3: The Network

Hello Armchairers!  We are now on Day 3 of Armchair BEA, wow!  We're almost halfway toward wrapping up the week.  For today, we are supposed to publish an interview we did with another blogger but as I learned about Armchair BEA at the last minute, I was unable to snag an interview with some awesome bloggy friends of mine.  

 
So in place of an interview, I would like to do something different.  ARGH will be interviewing me about some of my blogger friends, which might prove very interesting.

Here goes:

ARGH:  Are you going to play favorites?

Me:  Sort of?  Not really, I'm just going to talk some of the blogger friends who are also participating in this year's Armchair BEA.  And I might also mention a few who may not be participating but whom I really like.

ARGH:  Okay, blogger friend number 1.  Does this friend have a mustache?

Me:  No!  But this blogger friend does have an awesome talent for singing, and must be the coolest nerd I've ever known (apart from myself :D).  I'm talking about none other than Lah from Lazy Girl Reads.

Lah reads a lot of James Patterson (his suspense thrillers), lives in New York, and is actually the first ever blogger who helped me spread my very first feature/meme, 10 Good Things on a Monday.  Because she is an opera singer, which I automatically classify as a music freak, she is my go-to girl for when I want to talk about background music for some books I read.  When I began receiving blog awards, she's the first blogger I think of to pass on an award.  And apparently, I'm the first one she thinks of too to send an award.

ARGH:  So apart from being each others' award sender, how else is Lah special to you?

Me:  If being the first blogger to support 10 Good Things on a Monday is not enough to make her special to me, then commenting on almost every post I made and being my 90th follower does.  And besides, she loves you in glasses.

ARGH:  So that was her!  I love her too!

Me:  Oh come on, if I didn't remind you that she was the one who liked your glasses and thought you were cute, you wouldn't even care.

ARGH:  But I do!  And all your readers think I'm cute.

Me:  *rolls my eyes*

ARGH:  So blogger friend number 2.  Does this blogger walk backwards?

Me:  She could probably do that but not every time.  My next blogger friend I am featuring is Small from Small Review.  Her blog is filled with so many awesome book things.  I met her through her feature, Busting the Newbie Blues where each newbie answers a set of questions to let other bloggers get to know them more.  In a way, I rode on her popularity :D

ARGH:  So you used her.  How could you!

Me:  I didn't.  That feature was open to everyone, and it was how I got to know her and made me decide she's awesome.  And remember our  first Nina vs. ARGH article?  It was totally inspired by her Cover Crazy post and she knows it because she's amazing. 

ARGH:  Great blog features, inspiration for one of our posts, amazing blogger.  I got it.  So blogger number 3.  Is this blogger an alien?

Me:  Well, if she visits the Philippines, then she'll be considered an alien.  Becky from Becky's Barmy Book Blog is from the UK, and is such a Gleek, that's why I'm so happy to get to know her because I'm a Gleek to and it's fun to have someone to gush about Glee!

Actually, last week, I was able to feature her on this new segment, Shelf Saturday.  Check out Becky's book shelf and get to know about her massive book collection as well as a little bit about herself.

ARGH:  Now for other blogger friends, that is, those whose names you did not see listed over at Armchair BEA and whom you just wanted to give a shout out.  I'm going to mention some of them and give me the first word that pops into your head the moment you hear their name.

Ready? 

Kelsa from The Amateur Voice of Could-Be Writer 

Me:  Gold

ARGH:  Ruperto from Bookable Reads 

Me:  Blog kuya (big brother)

ARGH:  Ao from Aobibliosphere 

Me:  Unisex

ARGH:  Ann from The Book Gatherer 

Me:  Intelligent

ARGH:  Jenni Elyse 

Me:  Pink

ARGH:  Khadija from Black Fingernailed Reviews 

Me:  Poignant

ARGH:  Playing.Librarian.  Why do you not know her name?

Me:  TBR list.  She does not give it away.

ARGH:  Cat from Cat the Librarian 

Me:  Shelf

ARGH:  That's it.  I hope you're satisfied.

Me:  I'm more than satisfied!  I'm so glad to have known all these wonderful bloggers and I am looking forward to meeting them personally someday.  And I'm also excited to share their blogs with you fellow Armchairers so you could also experience their awesomeness.

Armchair BEA Day 1: This is How I Blog

Hello there!  You're here for the Armchair BEA?  Well, me too!  So come on, lean back on your seats and let's talk!

I'm Nina, I'm 25 years old, and the reason I could not go to this year's BEA is because I'm all the way from the Philippines *doing my best Rachel Berry voice* "where it's sunny all day!"  So no matter how much I really want to, I just can't drop everything and hop on the next plane to New York.  I'm a nurse, by the way, and as much as I love my job, I get a kick out of reading books more.

Helping me stir things up on my blog is this cute monster ARGH, a real book-loving creature I just picked up one day on the side of the road.  He provides most of the fun, and says most of the crazy things I myself could not bring myself to speak of. 

You are aware that he's just a figment of my imagination, right?  So you won't be bothering me with questions whether he has his own email, or who is the real person behind this green abomination.

As you can imagine, I like to draw.  When I was not yet blogging about books, I used to spend all my time reading and drawing pictures.  This really helped me in making some really unique posts on my blog now because it makes things more interesting.  I'm a very visual person and nothing attracts me more than a good picture.

This is a picture I did for my first About a Book in Four Pictures post.

 These are some pictures I drew when I was not yet book blogging:

My silly bears

As for my favorite books, I really do not have a particular genre I love, as long as the story gets to me, I read it, no matter if it's YA or historical, or a classic.  Sometimes, even dystopians, sci-fi, and paranormal fiction make my day and they're not even my most favorite genres out there.  I do not like series much, but there are also times that I suddenly fall in love with a whole series.  I would love to enumerate my favorite books, but that would take all day; besides, it feels like I'm picking a favorite among my children, and I don't want to be that kind of parent.  So instead of telling you about my favorite books, let me just give you a 10-Good-Things-on-a-Monday-like list and tell you about ten books that I am looking forward on reading:

1. The Lover's Dictionary by David Levithan
2. Entwined by Heather Dixon
3. Turn of Mind by Alice LaPlante
4. The Story of Beautiful Girl by Rachel Simon
5. The Interpretation of Murder by Jed Rubenfeld
6. Walking on Broken Glass by Christa Allan
7. Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde
8. Other Words for Love by Lorraine Zago Rosenthal
9. The John Cleaver Series by Dan Wells (I know that's three books but they're all part of a series, and I consider that to be just one long book chopped into three :D)
10. Leverage by Joshua C. Cohen

Too bad, I can't just go into a bookstore and get all of them.

So, that's it for me, now it's your turn to tell me all about yourselves as we spend time together in Armchair BEA :D

Shelf Saturday Featuring Becky's Book @Becky's Barmy Book Blog

We all love our books, and we want them to have the best shelves ever. Also, this is a new way to sort of show off your book collection, along with your funky shelves.

 ARGH tried fitting himself in a bookshelf but had a hard time doing it.  Big guy learned his lesson :D

For this second edition of Shelf Saturday, let me feature the book case of this blogger friend of mine, Becky @ Becky's Barmy Book Blog:

My name is Becky, I am 22 and work in a public Library as a Library Assistant. I believe I have the best job in the world. I always have a book with me and can read on average a book every two days. I am hyper, sporty, crazy and love to have fun, but when I have a book in my hand I am in another world.

If you want to talk to me you have to make yourself known, because I won't hear you, I'll be away in my book, it's one of the things my parents hate, they can start having whole conversations that I just won't hear.  LOL

I love my shelves because they are easy to navigate and fit nicely in my room. My room is actually tiny and every free bit of space is filled with books. I only got my main book shelves a few months ago and I love them so much. Makes it so much easier to grab the book I want.

My shelves also host other things. My medals and trophies from my sports (trampolining and diving), Snow globes, Troll toys that I've had since I was really little (they are good luck mascots) and anything else that I need to find in a hurry.

These were the shelves that I had put up when I first moved into my house 10 years ago, originally they were for my 'favourite' books, but now I have so many I love, it hosts the big series' and any others I can fit on really, although a lot would still count as my favourites.  As you can see I have 'Skulduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy on the top shelf along with my Garth Nix collection, my Narnia book and Malorie Blackman Set above the Lemony Snickets, then of course Harry Potter on the bottom shelf with Philip Pullman and Cornelia Funke.  All these books stand as firm favourites.

And yes my walls in my bedroom really are bright yellow - I'm a sunny person!

I have some shelves that are really tall, almost reach my ceiling so I had to take the picture in two halves. These shelves are actually two thin units side by side and then a wider one coming away from the wall making a little corner. It was the only way I could get them all in my room.  As you can see it's very cluttered and stuffed full.

 

You can see what the books are as I have cleared off the clutter. These book are my absolute current favourites - The Hunger Games, House of Night, Morganville Vampires, Wolf Brother by Michelle Paver and Aprilynne Pike.

These are continuation of my favourites, shorter series and just as many books as I can fit on really. As I say I have so many favourites that although I try to get them all near the top, they can't all be up there so some are nearer the bottom, but that doesn't mean they get any less love.

Not much else I can really say. I have another little cubby hole of books under my bed but it's too cramped and dark to get a good picture. There is also a pile of books on my floor! My ultimate dream is to have my own little library room, but for now I'm happy with what I have in the space I've got. I will never have enough space for all my books but they all have there own little places.

I hope you like my jumble of shelves!

That's an awesome lot of books!  My jaw literally dropped when I saw these pictures, Becky you have made me positively jealous of your books!  And the trolls and snow globes are awesome.

 And it's really cool that your walls are painted yellow, it really lets the sunshine and lots of light to get in - very conducive to reading!

And should I need to speak to you, I will make sure to bring a megaphone with me :D

Thank you so much for sharing your shelves Becky!

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Think this is a great idea?  Want to have your shelves featured?  Then fill out this form and ARGH and I will email you for details on how to be a movie star - er, how to be featured on Shelf Saturday :D