When Moving Finally Results in Your Own Personal Reading Nook

So, some of you may know that I recently bought a house. It was the kind of ordeal that I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy, but at the same time, it was sooo totally worth all the pain and aggravation. We love our new place. We lived in a rural suburb before but now we really live in a rural area.

Luckily, we made a lateral move that ended with Katie still attending the school she's already made so many friends at. We're not in the same city, but it's the town next door and it's so small -- population under 1,500 -- that it shares the same school district as where we were before.

And Katie loves it. She loved our old house, too, but we now have almost three acres for her to wander and fish and ride around on. It's kind of a dream come true for all of us.

Here's a picture of the pond from when we first moved in and then one of it after all of the recent rain we've had:

You might not be able to tell, but it's nearly doubled in size. And let me tell you, the fishing is good. The previous owners stocked it with bass. What an upgrade from the perch and bluegill in the pond at our old house, though there are some of those here, too. (And not that we aren't catch-and-release people, but the catching is fun.) Katie's already been out there several times, and she's caught plenty. As you can see. =)

But my favorite, favorite thing about our new house is obviously my new reading nook. I had a book room in the old house, but I always felt separated from my family when I spent any time in there. And my new reading spot is just off the side of the living room, so it's perfect. Jerrod can be gaming, Katie can be building Lego civilizations at the dining room table and I can sit on my new reading sofa in the book nook, and we can all still converse at the same time. I just love the open floor plan; it's actually kind of perfect.

Plus, I can see my books ALL THE TIME! And who doesn't love just staring at all of their lovely books from time to time? I know I do!

It was honestly the hardest it's ever been for me to organize my shelves in the new place. I used to have a shelf that was Katie's next to my shelves, where I stored my ARCs to be read and the classics that didn't really fit in with the rest of my books but that I definitely wanted Katie to read at some point. That shelf is in the spare/guest room now, and Katie's collection of books fills it up, so I really had to cull some books from my own collection in order to not invade Katie's territory. :)

And now that my books are out in the open and visible for all to see, I didn't want them all cluttered up. They may look like that to the casual observer anyway, but there's a method to my madness. My collections (Stiefvater, Maas, Schwab, Bardugo, Bracken, Spooner/Kaufman/Kristoff, and Meyer) make up the whole top row of shelves. Never mind. I'll just show you below. :P My collections kind of spilled over to the second row, too, with a whole cubby for Bray's work, as well. And then I tried to separate by subject matter and/or genre as best I could. Not an easy feat when some fit into more than one, or when you want to keep an author's body of work together, even though they write fantasy and contemporary. Such is the life of a bookworm, though. Maybe I should let my inner librarian out and just go back to alphabetical order by author. Nah, too boring. :P

But the thing I'm most excited about -- besides having an adorable little love seat in my reading nook -- is my collectibles display at the top of my shelves. No one ever got to see this stuff in the other house, but now it's out for all to see:

the Harry Potter collection: complete with wands, gilly water, broom and my "If you don't get my Harry Potter references then there is something Siriusly Ron with you" mug

The Princess Bride collection: The Princess Bride-opoly, talking Miracle Max bobble-head, and wine (empty now, obvs) from the feast/quote-along at the Alamo Drafthouse (given to me as a present by my sis...I couldn't make it *sads*)

Already, my shelves have changed a bit from when I first took these photos a couple of weeks ago. I'll probably be rearranging them for the rest of my life. Such is the nature of the beast, I suppose. Collections grow. What was thought to be a stand-alone becomes a full-blown series. Books are taken to Half Price Books to make room for others. ;0)

I kind of want to do a full shelfie tour, but I'm not great at the video thing. Also, my voice makes me sound like a 12yo. Maybe someday, though.

I haven't been able to spend as much time as I'd like in my new reading nook because of all the other stuff related to moving, work, and preparing for the holidays. It's been kind of chaotic, to be honest. Things are finally settling down, though, and I have all next week off, so I'm really hoping to get some serious reading in. Especially since the perfect weather for hammock reading was during the move. :( Lucky for me, I have an amazing new reading nook to christen! :D


Where's your favorite place to read? Have you always dreamed of having your own reading nook, or are you one of those lucky few that already have their own dream libraries? ;^)

Read More

Labels: new house, reading goals, reading spots

The Bookshelves Behind the Bloggers

Okay, so on Monday, you guys were introduced to the newest blogger here at The Starry-Eyed Revue. And yesterday, you got to read April's first review and saw just how awesome it's going to be having her around here.  And, sure, some of you may have already known who April was and what she was about.

But, I think that the best way to get to know a fellow reader is by taking a peek at what's on their shelves or on their Kindle, as it were.  But I'm not just going to call out April and make her share on her own.  Several people have hinted that they'd like a peek at my shelves, as well, and though I'm not doing a full shelf tour today -- first and foremost, I don't like being on camera or hearing my recorded voice (I sound about twenty years younger than I am) -- I am going to give you a little tour of where I spend a lot of my free time.

First, though, I think that since April is our resident newbie, she should get top (shelf) billing.  =)

Hi Everyone!! I feel so special going first! Jen is spoiling me already. <3 lol Anyway. I have one large book shelf.

Here is the top. As you can see, my Jenny Han books are being protected by a monkey squinky. ( Great series btw) I didn't even realize he was there till I took the pic.

And the bottom. Clearly I need to clean shop! Stuffed to the brim. I do plan on getting another book shelf someday, but right now we are renovating the house, so there isn't any room at the moment. That brings me to my prized possession.... My kindle. I'm for sure an ebook girl. I love physical books, but my kindle goes everywhere with me. Here is a peek of some books I have on there.

There are so many that I haven't read yet! That's sad. Shed some tears for me please. I need more time in the day.

Jen's turn now...

Okay, a little prior warning, guys:  I'm a bit of a perfectionist, a little obsessive when it comes to organizing my books. And the way you see my shelves here is probably -- most likely -- not the way the shelves will look in a month's time. Okay, the shelves will still be the same, but the placement of the books will assuredly not be.  Here goes nothin'...

This is where the "magic" happens.  Lol.  Nah, it's just my desk,
with the family portrait Katie drew for me, my movie souvenirs and
other kitschy stuff, and my unread ARCs...at least the ones I
plan to read soon.

This is my other workspace.  Or, well, there's one other one,
but it's not set up right now.  I had to move it out of the way
in order to take pics of my shelves. :)  But isn't that just a
lovely view from my office window?

This is the other half of my office. I wish I'd bought the
shelves in any color but dark brown because they look
black. Wonder if I could paint them and just how much
work that would be...

Here's a better view of that first shelf on the left.
Hanging above it are the Shadow & Bone and the
Siege & Storm maps/posters.  Don't they look awesome
side-by-side like that?

And here's a better view of that shelf on the right.  The
one that's under that gorgeous signed poster of the cover
for These Broken Stars.  Seriously, that thing is so
freaking gorgeous...I would totes marry it.

And this is my shelf of favorites.  Hard to tell what some
of them are, I'm sure, but I'll bet that top one on the right is pretty
obvious.  =)  There's a shelf here for fantasy -- okay, more than
one -- one for contemporaries, one for dystopians, etc.  It was
pretty difficult deciding which books made the cut -- and which
did not -- but I'm pretty happy overall.  For now, anyway.  Oh,
and then there are my leatherbound classics up top, plus the
mini bookshelf necklace my mom made me.  I think it's
safe to say I love this shelf best.  :D

Sorry for the not-so-great pics, guys.  I should have known better than to use my iPhone, but I didn't want to drag out my good camera.  Plus, I'm not even sure the battery is charged on that thing.  :(  I promise I'll do a for-real shelf tour soon and just suffer my lil girl voice.  :)

But after seeing April's shelves, I'm even more sure that this co-bloggership was destined to happen.  Did you see how many of the same books we own?  Or, well, you could see that if you were able to make them out in my pics...again, sorry.

So, what do you guys think?  What do our shelves -- and the books sitting on them -- say about us?  All good things, we hope.  :)  Jen is sure glad she gave away that hardcover set of the Hush, Hush series.  She doesn't at all like to think about what those books might have said about her.  Or what having owned them in the first place still says about her.  :P

I mean, at least we don't look like this:

Right?!?  =)

Anyway, we'd love to check out your shelves, too, if you've done a similar post!

Read More

Labels: 2014, bookshelves, reading spots

Thoughtful Thursdays: How do you read?

So, I'm a pretty fast reader.  I'm not a speed-reader by any means, but I think I read relatively quickly, at least for the average person.  What I mean to say is that when reading over my husband's shoulder, I'm ready to flip the page before he's even half-way done.  He's sort of a non-reader, which is to say, he reads, but I don't think he's finished a book since we've been together, which will be ten years next month.

I suppose I could read even faster.  I have plenty of friends who speed through novels.  But I don't absorb everything I want from the book if I read that quickly.  And I need to immerse myself in a story, to soak up all of the details. Because I'm reading for pleasure, not to simply get through a book and move on to the next one.

I'm also an easily distracted reader.  I have to have headphones in while I read because outside noises annoy and distract me to no end.  I can read just about anywhere, though, if I've got my tunes.  (I've really been enjoying the Explosions in the Sky station on Pandora lately...it's pretty and instrumental and not at all disturbing while I read.)  My favorite place to read is on my back patio.  When I get it to myself, meaning my daughter is off in her own world and the hubby's sequestered himself in his man cave, I find that the sounds of nature make for pretty good background noise while I'm reading.  Behold, my favorite reading spot:

Since I've been listening to so many audiobooks lately, I've noticed it's also changed the way I read a physical book.  If I know a character has an accent, that character now has a distinct voice in my head.  I read italicized passages as asides, the way they do in audiobooks.  I take my time reading descriptions of scenery, visualizing what the author was trying to portray with their words.

I don't know if it's my new-and-improved method of reading or just that I have really awesome taste in books, but I've had the best reading experience lately.  Everything I pick up is gold.  And I'm not usually that easy to please, but neither am I high-maintenance when it comes to my reading material.  I just want to read a good story that pulls me in and makes me forget about the world outside the book.  I don't think that's asking too much.  ;0)

So, are you a fast reader, or do you prefer to read at a leisurely pace?  Do you read with funny accents?  Do you require complete silence when reading?  Do you have a favorite reading spot?  How do YOU read?

Read More

Labels: reading habits, reading spots, thoughtful thursdays