My Bookshelf Portrait
January 29, 2013
Earlier this month Lindsay from The Pursuit of Style posted on some of her favorite books as she was rearranging her bookshelves. She posed the question, “What would you include in your bookshelf portrait?” you know, “the ones that changed your life, that define who you are, that you read again and again” I instantly fell in love with this question! But to pick my favorites, the ones that define me…I love all my books and the ones I don’t get sold for pennies, so I can buy more books. After surprisingly little deliberation I was able to narrow it down to 5.
- POTTERY BARN HOME: This is the first interior design book I ever purchased. I was in college when I saw it in the discount pile at my favorite book store (I was a marketing major I might add.) It’s made all my moves, it peaked my curiosity on taking interior design seriously. I don’t really refer to it nowadays but it keep it on my shelf as a reminder of how things started.
- DOMINO, THE BOOK OF DECORATING: Domino magazine was my favorite magazine and then it died. Sad day. I was so excited when this book came out, I’ve read it a million times! *Interesting fact about this book, my copy is missing pages 217-240. I don’t know what happened to them, they just didn’t come with my copy. I’m always tempted to buy another one.
- FOOD EVERYDAY, FRESH FLAVOR FAST: Martha Stewart is my new cooking hero. I have only recently discovered her. Sure I’ve heard of the infamous MS but I never read her magazine, watched her show or cooked her recipes. Until now, I checked this book out from the library last year and renewed it 3 times before returning it. After all that I figured I should just buy the dang thing. It’s full of quick delicious meals and I love it! Thank you Ms. Stewart for showing me the light!
- GONE WITH THE WIND: This is my grandmother’s copy of the book. A couple of years ago I mentioned to her in passing that I’ve never read the book or seen the film. She was flabbergasted and lent me her very own copy to read. This book is old, seriously old and I was so nervous I would ruin it because of it’s frailty. I didn’t, thank goodness. But when I finished it and tried to return it to her she told me it was mine to keep. I was honored to be this book’s new keeper and proudly display it on my shelf.
- THE HISTORIAN: When my husband and I took our honeymoon we stayed in this lovely resort in St. Lucia. We partook in all the resort had to offer from drinks on the beach to archery lessons to limbo contests and romantic candle lit dinners. We met some of the most interesting and delightful couples while we were there too. One of them happened to give us a book they had just finished reading. It was the perfect beach read, interesting and not mentally demanding. But I love it because it reminds me of our time together in St. Lucia, the place we first began our marriage together.
So now I ask you, what does your book portrait look like? What books have shaped your life?
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This is so funny that you posted this today–I was pondering this EXACT question on my drive home from work last night! We have those 2 huge book shelves in our main room, and I have been thinking about which books I would display. Most of my books have been boxed for almost two years, and I can’t wait to open the boxes in the next few weeks and sift through them.
One book that was amazingly inspirational to me was a book about MLK Jr and Malcolm X. It’s called Martin & Malcolm & America: A Dream or a Nightmare by James H. Cone. It was the first book I bought when I decided that if I was going to spend time reading, I needed to learn something vs just reading non-fiction fluff, and I really wanted to learn more about these two men. I went on to buy and read many other books on the lives and work of other influential, historically significant people–Gandhi, Frederick Douglass, Ladies of Liberty. I bought that first book five years ago, and I only recently began adding non-fiction back into my book collection (for book clubs, since no one else will read my “boring” (awesome!) history books;)).
Those are some that will make my shelves.
Sarah
What an awesome idea! I’m not much of a reader (I wish I was!) so mine would probably be filled with pretty coffee table books
The little story behind The Historian = so cute!
go for the glam
I would love a bookshelf full of pretty coffee table books!!
Ooops! Edit to my post — I typed “non-fiction” (twice!) where I meant to type fiction; “fiction fluff” and “recently began adding fiction back into my collection”.
Loved reading about your bookshelf portrait! You definitely have to get another copy of Domino. I’m so curious which pages they left out? xx
I can’t believe I left that blank! I wonder about my mind sometimes…Pages 217-240! Thanks for the inspiration BTW! I had so much fun with this post!
The Demon Haunted World by Carl Sagan would have to be the first book on my shelf. It is a great starting point for skeptical thinking.
Hmmm thanks! I don’t have nearly enough books in that genera to be living next door to you!