So, that featured image is prior to me organizing them on the shelf, haha.
I’m pretty proud of my book collection that’s taken years to amass through yard sales, book clearances, bookstores, Amazon and hand-me-downs. And I’m nerdy enough to have gone through and counted each shelf and then the number of hardback books on each shelf.
I also think I have a pretty eclectic selection. I organized them yesterday. I have memoirs, biographies, my own print publications, poetry, reference, sociology, religion, history, crime, politics, wrestling, graphic novels, so-called literature and the classics and then genre fiction with a few authors over-represented in Lee Child, Vince Flynn, Stephen King, Jeffery Deaver, Dean Koontz, John Grisham, and Michael Crichton.
So, I thought it’d be fun to take you guys through a “virtual” tour of my “library.”
Let’s start with the first of three bookshelves and the first “section” of it:
This is the memoirs/biography section. And yes, out of curiosity a while ago, I did buy Hitler’s book and I think it makes for a funny conversation starter if someone happens upon my book collection. Among this selection, for readers and writers, Stephen King’s On Writing is a must-read.
This picture has a few “sections” in it; there’s three books of my own print publications, followed by some tiny poetry books I have and then there’s the larger section I’ve deemed “sociology,” so there’s books about society and science there. Then to the far end on the right is what I’ve deemed “reference,” so I have the AP style book there and then there’s a book of jokes, which I’ve deemed the “miscellaneous” section.
Among the sociology section, I would highly recommend Columbine. One of the best books I’ve ever read.
In this picture to the right of the enormous blue book, I have the “sports” section, which only has three books represented and then it’s the religious section with a few books about Islam, atheism and Christianity. I’d highly recommend Simply Christian whether you’re religious or an atheist like me, it’s quite informative.
This section is my history/war type of books. There’s a lot of focus mostly on war and the Nazis and 9/11. Among those books, I’d recommend Dear Mr. President and especially 102 Minutes, if you’re looking for a good cry.
This is my true crime section with books detailing serial killers, crime and court cases. Among these, I don’t really have any specific recommendations, other than to say, if you’re interested in serial killers, any of those big collection books would be a good place to start.
As you can tell by the titles represented, this is my political section. Among those, Just How Stupid Are We? is a fun read. And whatever your political bent or opinion of Ron Paul, A Foreign Policy of Freedom is a book I would highly recommend to detail America’s horrible foreign policy history.
These are my wrestling books because I’m huge, unabashed wrestling fan. So, if you’re a wrestling fan, among these, the Mick Foley books, especially his first, Have a Nice Day, are must-reads, but those are obvious picks, so I’d highly recommend Bret Hart’s book, too, and not pictured here, David Shoemaker’s The Squared Circle.
This is my graphic novels collection since I’m also a huge comic book nerd. If you’re new to it and interested, Watchmen is the go-to recommendation; it’s transcended the genre. However, All-Star Superman is a must-read for any Superman fan; it’s probably the best Superman graphic novel there is.
Now the next are just photos of my over-represented authors and the case of Lee Child and Vince Flynn, it’s a series with the same characters, Jack Reacher and Mitch Rapp, respectively. I highly recommend those and really, anything from Crichton, Grisham, Deaver and King. I’ve kinda gotten over Koontz, but I grew up on him and he’s not a bad read at all. And of course, I have the Harry Potter collection, which I highly recommend. I also have the Hunger Games trilogy, Khaled Hosseini’s three books, all of Dan Brown’s, a good number of Dennis Lehane’s books, Harlan Coben’s, and then a few other guys, like Brad Meltzer and Jack Ketchum, I have a few of their books. A good number of the rest of the genre fiction are just authors I have one book of.
And then finally, the below picture is my “classics” section. I’m pretty proud of what I’ve been able to amass among those. I’ll talk more about them below.
Roots is by far my go-to recommendation among those books, but there are a bunch of good ones there, including Huck Finn, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and The Road. And unfortunately, there’s also a lot of books represented there I have yet to have a chance to read, but I’m excited to get to.
As for the number of books I have, what were your guesses? Let’s see how close you were!
There were 248 books on the first shelf. And then 128 on the second shelf. And finally, 121 on the third shelf.
Bringing it to a total of 497 books, which makes me want to go get three more to bring the total to 500. It’s a better, more round and fulfilling number, haha. As for the hardback — my preferred style of book, if I can help it, but they’re also way more expensive — there are 94 on the first shelf, 61 on the second shelf, and 29 on the third shelf, bringing the grand total of hardback books to 184. Not too shabby, I’d say.
Whelp, thanks for taking this “virtual tour” and checking out my books! I’d love to see other people’s collections.
Milam's Musings 