I asked on Twitter, Threads, and Discord if I should post a tour of my bookcases (also known as my library), and the response was overwhelmingly ‘yes.’ I haven’t counted how many books I have since June 2022, but I believe I have around 300 physical books. Perhaps more. Given this, I’m not going to go over every single book on my shelves as they appear in this tour, but I will go through the general layout of my shelves. Granted, these will very certainly be changed as I acquire additional books in the future in order to keep books by the same author together.
I have four book cases in total. Three are on one side of a small orange love seat that I got handed down to me by someone (honestly can’t remember who was the original owner at this point) and one on the other side. Since I read mainly fantasy books, I have those grouped together on the right three shelves then those that are primarily romance on the left shelf. Then at the bottom of all the bookcases are my oldest books, so those are kind of a mismatch of things.
So, starting with the solo left bookshelf. This is my mainly romance bookcase, meaning the romances take front and center in the series rather than the other elements. Not all of the books fall into this but the majority do.
On the very top shelf I have the Bargainer series by Laura Thalassa followed by Scarlett St Clair, Elle Fields, and the special editions of Ruby Dixon’s Ice Planet Barbarians. On the next shelf down we have Emily McIntire’s Never After series, The Demon Queen Trials Series by C.N. Crawford, The Ailsing Sea series by Vanessa Rasanen, then all my Tessonja Odette books. The next shelf down we have Kerri Maniscalco (Kingdom of the Wicked), Tricia Levenseller, Stephanie Garber, Shelby Mahurin, and Lore Olympus by Rachel Smythe. After that is J Brees, Elle Kennedy, Val E. Lane, and To Kill a Kingdom by Alexandra Christo. After this we get into books I’ve had for ages. Meaning the entire Vampire Diaries series, Hunger Games, A Series of Unfortunate Events, Divergent, Little Women, and mythology books from college I’ve held onto over the years. Oh, and the first and third Pokémon guidebooks.
Alright, heading to the other side of the couch. The first two shelves are my Sarah J. Maas books. The character standees (shelfies) are from A Touch of Magic Designs, this is true for the other shelves as well. Eventually I plan on getting other ones to join the collection, but for right now this is all I have.
After that we have the books I haven’t read. Now some of them I have and reviewed on this book, but a good portion of these I have done. A lot of them are individual as well or have sequels coming in the future. So, quick run down of authors: Alex Aster, Adalyn Grace, Ivelisse Housman, Adalyn Grace, Kathryn Purdie, Sara Raasch, Tracy Deonn, Chloe C Peñaranda, Rebecca Mix, Tomi Adeyemi, Alexandra Bracken, Chloe Gong, Claire Legrand, Jay Kristoff, Margaret Rogerson, Judy I Linn, Aiden Thomas, Brigid Kemmerer, and Samantha Shannon.
Then the bottom shelf is the Uglies series by Scott Westerfeld, House of Leaves by Mark Z Danielewski, The Help by Kathryn Stockett, The Fault in Our Stars by John Green, Lord of the Rings, and George R.R. Martin with my Ghost Funko Pop.
Next, is the middle shelf. Apologies this picture isn’t the best. I was trying to get the shelf alone but of course that’s not the easiest thing to do with this layout. The top shelf of this book case is empty so there’s room for growth and rearrangement.
Authors on this bookcase are: Carissa Broadbent, Rebecca Yarros, Raven Kennedy, LJ Andrews, Jennifer L Armentrout, Caroline Peckham and Susanne Valenti, Elise Kova, Stephanie Meyer, Scott Westerfeld’s Midnighters series, and Richelle Mead.
Of course, I have Toothless with Rebecca Yarros. He’s a black dragon and what I pictured one of Violet’s dragons looking like. Plus, it seemed like the best place that Funko pop of mine.
I am debating on replacing the Air Awakens and Vortex Chronicles by Elise Kova from combined massive books with each individual book in the series. Mainly so they are easier to read. I thought that was what I had purchased at the time until they arrived. Then I was like, oh no this is The Chronicles of Narnia all over again. You’ll see that book on the next bookcase, it’s at the very bottom. Basically I read it so much and took it everywhere with me so the book is held together with tape and has a seriously cracked spine.
The last bookcase has is another one with a lot of empty space so I turned some of the books to make it look fuller. There’s also a good portion on this bookcase that I have not read, but will eventually get around to reading.
So, authors on this bookcase: Holly Black, Leigh Bardugo, Marissa Meyers (yes, I’m aware the series is in the wrong order I will be fixing that), Adrienne Young, V.E. Schwab, Danielle L Jensen, Margaret Rogerson, author-who-shall-not-be-named but classic from my childhood and I don’t want to part with them (aka Harry Potter), Victoria Aveyard, Kel Carpenter, Maggie Stiefvater, Tahereh Mafi, Tamsyn Muir, Hannah Nicole Maehrer, Cassandra Clare, The Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis, Christopher Paolini, and Lauren Kate.
So, yeah those are all of my bookcases. On the top, I have my other figurines and stuffed animals because it’s a good place to place them where they aren’t going to fall over or where Pixie could destroy them. She is the destroyer of plush. And some of the stuff animals on display have sentimental value, while others are stored for safe keeping.
I have read almost every book I own physically I have read, but there are roughly four shelves out of twenty that I have not read, which is 20%. Which isn’t too bad. If things have been sitting on the shelves for years and have not read them and likely never will read them, then I donate those books and replace them with books that I will. Also, if there are books that I can never see many re-reading those also get donated. A few books are currently teetering that line, but I gave them another chance to see if in the next year or so I’ll get to them. But if they are not read by the next time I move, they aren’t coming with me again. As I have a lot of books in my TBR that I would rather give the space to if I can, especially as authors I know I enjoy come out with new things. Plus, then those books can go to someone else who would enjoy them more. The next time I go a major declutter of my bookcases I will make a post on what I’m saying goodbye to. I don’t think I did that the last time, but there were I think two grocery bags full of books that I said goodbye to prior to this most recent move.
Let’s play a name in the comments, guess how many physical books are on these bookcases.
Note: You can’t see all of them as there are some hidden behind other books (other editions) or aren’t easy to see in the pictures. So, counting them all off the pictures will not yield accurate results.
Love ya,
Mae Polzine
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