What's in Your Library?

I cycle through some books from my personal library, sharing them with friends and family and donating to my local library for their fundraisers, but some books are treasured and will never leave my shelves. These books would leave the house first in a house fire before my own person, in fact, I would forgo putting on shoes or grabbing my wallet to take my books with me, I love them that much!

Over the years, I've collected a bunch of books that remain in my permanent collection. My shelves are organized according to my weird writer's logic. I have a horror/sci-fi/fantasy section, broken up into author groupings and then a special section for short story collections.

There's the Native American section, the arts, gardening and cooking sections, and my world religion section, which includes everything from The Tao of Pooh to a copy of The Holy Qu'ran.

I also have a poetry and English major section, which runs the gamut from The Complete Stories by Flannery O'Connor to James Joyce's Ulysses and Frank O'Hara's poetry. (Toni Morrison holds a special place in that section).

And then there's my research section, which consists of books like Weird Wisconsin and Fabulous Creatures and Other Magical Beings, a bestiary of mythological creatures, Joseph Campbell's books, The Golden Bough, and lots more.

My husband has started the tradition of buying me collectors books for my library for my birthday and other special days. The very first book he bought me was a signed first edition hardcover of Clive Barker's The Great and Secret Show. For the holidays this year I got a first edition signed Tick Tock by Dean Koontz. For my last wedding anniversary I got a signed copy of Postscripts # 10 with great signatures like Stephen King,  Ramsey Campbell, Graham Joyce, Lucius Shepard, and more! And a few years ago, my kind husband relinquished his already purchased and signed hardcover copy of Ray Bradbury's Dandelion Wine to my brother-in-law for our annual gift exhange. (However, I still give my lovely husband credit for that one!) There are others in my collection, but those are my favorites.

I hope to acquire more throughout the years. Next to my family, my cats, and my pizza, I love my books the

best. I missed out on an early copy of The Raven by Edgar Allen Poe last year. As Kim Harrison's character Madison Avery would say, "Son of a puppy!"

That concludes my Show and Tell today, folks.

Offtopic side note: My husband brought this balloon home to celebrate my Godzilla/Hello Kitty love story I previously blogged about. Notice the drawn on mouth which correlates to my story, now up on the Critters forum in first draft for critique, if anyone is interested. I've been getting some good feedback and am currently working on flushing out Hello Kitty's character. Thanks to everyone who has critiqued this week!

Also, Kim Harrison has a sneak preview of her new Hollows novel, Pale Demon up on her site, for anyone who follows that series.

As always, happy writing and happy reading!