I had one blogging goal this year, which was to do one discussion a month. This isn’t quite a discussion post, but it’s discussion-ish, right? It’ll have to do.

I saw this tag on Feed Your Fiction Addiction, the original is from 24hryabookblog, and I haven’t done a tag in a while, so I figured it’d be fun! I also rarely talk about my bookshelf, so this seemed like a fun chance to do that.

Rules copied from the original post:

– Link back to the original creator’s post 24hryabookblog┃Personal Library Book Tag
– Answer the questions / prompts
– Tagging is not required, but you can if you want to
– Feel free to use my graphic for your own post (with credit) if you’d like or create your own

How do you organize the books on your shelves?

Oddly. The image I used above is a visual explanation, from the tweet below. But, to explain it simply here, mostly by complete series, incomplete series I have more than one book for, series for which I only have one book, and standalones. It’s what makes the most sense to me. I also like to keep unread books in the top half of the shelf. But everything is also in a weird arrangement (e.g. having two sections for one book in a series, but those two sections aren’t next to each other) because I wanted the whole shelf to feel balanced in regards to the organization. It makes sense to me *shrug*

Every time I see people arguing over how book shelves should be organized, I feel like I am the monster who could unite everyone against a common enemy because my shelves are organized in the absolute weirdest way possible. pic.twitter.com/WCq4Jdzfo7

— Kit (Metaphors and Moonlight) (@KitTheNameless) April 7, 2019

Any particular aesthetic or niche genre of books you’d like to see more of on your shelves?

I wouldn’t mind having more graphic novels. I believe I have eight right now. But it’s much easier for me to read comics in print than on the computer because of headaches, and also graphic novels are just great.

Pick a book on your shelf and share the personal story behind it!

Ooh, I know just the book! Well, two books. A Girl’s Guide to Vampires and Sex and the Single Vampire by Katie MacAlister. These were the first adult romance books I ever read. I had read and loved all of this author’s YA books as a teen, but I wanted more, and I loved vampires. I knew my mother would never let me have these, so I convinced my grandma to buy them for me one day at the bookstore when I was maybe 15 or 16, even though one of the books had the word sex right in the title. Then I hid them on my bookshelf in my room on the bottom shelf, pages out so the titles wouldn’t be visible and my parents would never know. These are no longer really the kind of books I like, but I plan to keep them forever because this is such a funny and kind of fond memory to me.

Name a book (or books) in your personal collection that people would be surprised to see that you own.

I don’t think you all who know my reading habits would be truly surprised by anything I own, unless knowing I have a few non-SFF books (albeit not actually on my shelf) surprises you. I’ll go with The Knight and the Dragon by Torrance Hu, because I don’t read a lot of children’s picture books, and it’s the only picture book I own. I mostly wanted it for the beautiful artwork, but I also like the idea of a knight and dragon falling in love (huh, I just realized my love for Dragonheart, the movie, makes even more sense now lol), and I like that it’s an LGBT+ children’s story.

What’s a book that you own that’s still on your TBR?

Umm, quite a few, though not nearly as many as some book lovers, from what I gather. Technically there are 35 books on my shelf I haven’t read. Some of those are not my fault because they were just sent to me for promotional reasons or given to me because someone was getting rid of old books and I figured why not take a few I might read one day? But one I plan to get to soon is Goldfinch Vol. 1 by Sam Bowen & Ari Pluchinsky. It’s one of those aforementioned graphic novels!

Name a book (or books) you desperately want to add to your personal library.

There are lots of books I’d love to have, but not any one book in particular at the moment. I generally try not to purchase or ask for print books unless it’s something I already know I love and it’s either a standalone or a short enough series that I think I’ll be able to get all the books eventually.

Any particular goals you have for your collection?

Nope! But I always love getting new books, even if I don’t have any more space for them XD

Bonus!

This isn’t part of the tag, but because I’m talking about my bookshelf, I just wanted another excuse to show off the beautiful print by Martina Fackova of the beautiful vampire who stands watch over my books. And would definitely murder me if he ever came to life. (And I would let him.)

The frame is cracked (not my fault) and I kind of mangled the edges of the print cutting it cuz it was a smidge too big, but look! I bought this in Nov, and it's finally framed on my bookshelf! 😍 I have a sexy vampire for company now. pic.twitter.com/DWEv7PCQgZ

— Kit (Metaphors and Moonlight) (@KitTheNameless) March 8, 2021