Let’s Talk! The Keeper Shelf

Let’s Talk is a fun new meme to discuss an little bit of this & a little bit of that (not always bookish) hosted by Smash Attack Reads and A Book Obsession.

This weeks question:

How many books do you own (keepers) and how many are in your to-be-read pile? Feel free to include pictures!

This is my keeper shelf. I just reorganized it last month but I already need to do it again as I keep adding books. (sorry about the crappy picture quality)



Shelf #1 is dedicated to signed or important to me books. I have every book by Jeri Smith-Ready (signed) as well as a few foreign editions of her books. Next to hers is the growing Ann Aguirre collection and a signed copy of Catching Fire and Mockingjay. I also won a few “marked up” books through a charity auction so they’re on that shelf. (total - 28 books)

Shelf #2 are my favorite paranormal books. The first four Sookie books, Jeaniene Frost, Kelley Armstrong, Stacia Kane, Carolyn Crane, Mark Henry. A few of them are signed as well. (total - 39)

Shelf #3 is mostly YA books that I love. A few paranormal books and a signed J.R. Ward book are stuffed in there too – decidedly NOT YA lol (total 34)

Shelf #4 contains my husbands zombie keeper books, a BDB boxed set, a few more paranormal and several contemporary romance keeper books. (total - 41)

Shelf #5. Now that I’m looking at it I have no idea why some of these books are in my keeper shelf lol I’m thinking that the TBR pile overfloweth and ran into this set of shelves. Also, there are a few series there that I’m in the middle of so I keep them until I’m sure the entire series stays or goes once it’s over. (total - 26)

Grand total for the keeper shelf is........ 168! Yikes.....I did not know there were that many books on my shelf!!

TBR pile.

I refuse to count. It will stress me the hell out! I’m finally making some headway so I don’t want to demoralize myself. But here are a few pictures – two separate bookshelves. There are more books in boxes and throughout my house. I’m guessing close to 200, probably more. When I purchased bookshelves a few years ago I purposely got a few with doors so I can pretend that I don’t own as many books as I really do. Plus it keeps my favorite books free of dog/cat hair!

     

I have several 100 books on my Kindle if we're counting that too.

It used to be really difficult for me to get rid of books but the more I read I realize I can’t keep everything so I clean everything out once or twice a year now and try to focus on keeping books that made an emotional impact on me.