TOP TEN TUESDAY | SPECIAL BOOKS

I am not just a reader, I am a book collector. As you can quickly tell by walking into my house, which has bookcases and stacks of books everywhere. I don’t generally lend out my books because I have had some bad experiences of either not getting them back, or getting them back damaged or with suspicious marks on them. Even when I’ve said it’s one that’s important to me. So to save future friendships, I just stopped lending books, unless they’re ones I don’t really care if I get back.

That said, I do still have some books that are more important to me than others.

I have a few signed books that I love, and that I definitely keep on a special shelf:

Heroes – Stephen Fry

This is one I have yet to read (I already read Circe this year, and am still planning to try to finish the Woman’s Prize shortlist, which means The Silence of the Girls, so that’s more than enough mythology for one year), but I’m interested to see what he does with the topic. If I’m honest, though, I mostly just wanted something signed by Stephen Fry, because I admire him as a person.

Circe – Madeline Miller

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this book. I loved that Circe’s character grew and changed, but also never tried to be perfect. She was flawed, but those flaws ended up leading her to important lessons and taught her her own strength and resilience. There’s a lot to learn from her, and I particularly loved her moral compass and her need to set things right, even when it cost her.

The View from the Cheap Seats by Neil Gaiman

Neil Gaiman’s books are hit or miss for me – I tend to like his books for young readers more than his adult books, and his co-authored book Good Omens is my all-time favourite. But I like this book because it’s a collection of writings on various topics. I haven’t read it cover to cover (hence no review here) because some of the pieces held no interest for me, but the ones I loved I really loved.

Warlight – Michael Ondaatje

I know this book has had mixed reviews and generally isn’t his most-loved book, but it spoke to me. I loved the atmosphere, and I even loved the unanswered questions, because to me, they all felt intentionally left blank and I thought quite cleverly so.

Some special editions:

The Book of Dust – Philip Pullman

I’m saving the Philip Pullman books for when my kid is older – it’s one of the few major children’s series I haven’t already read. So I’m looking forward to discovering these with her and passing the lovely editions (I have an Everyman’s bind-up of the original trilogy) on to her.

Travels with My Aunt – Graham Greene

This is one of my all-time favourite books, and when I found this lovely clothbound Folio edition in a secondhand bookstore I couldn’t resist. I tried, I really did. But it had to come home with me. I know I’ll re-read this one several more times in my life, and this edition is so much more fun to do it with!

I collect leatherbound classics as well as special editions of classics. I have quite a few, some of them that were given to me by my parents (hence a couple of duplicates). They’re old so they’re pretty delicate, so some I can’t even read, let alone let other people play with!

That’s it for this week – I have some others I could include, but honestly I don’t want to take any more photos!

I’d love to hear from you on this topic. Do you share your books freely? Or do you have a strict no-lending policy? Do you have any blacklisted borrowers? Any special books you won’t even let anyone touch?

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly link-up feature created by The Broke and the Bookish and hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl. Every week TTT has a different topic, and everyone who links up has to create a link of ten items that fit that topic. To see past and upcoming topics, go here.