SHOW ME THE SHELVES SUNDAY!

Today on My Overstuffed Bookshelf, we have Kristy from The Overflowing Library 

Lets sit back and take a peek into her bookshelves!!

I hope this post goes some way to explaining the name of my blog The Overflowing Library. I have always loved books from when I was tiny. I vaguely remember my infant school teacher bringing me in extra books from home as I had read all of the ones in the school library. When I was younger I read a lot of Enid Blyton and was often found with a torch under the duvet late at night reading one of the hundreds of books I borrowed from the library.

Fast forward 20 or so years and I finally have my own library to love and fuss over.  As you can see from the montage picture our library is very much overflowing.  My husband is actually worse than I am and most of it is his. Most of shelves are his fantasy and sci fi books along with a few graphic novels, his Doctor Who collection, some main stream adult books and a few board games. There is a shelf (top right picture) of my children’s books, most of which are Enid Blyton. I can’t realistically see myself reading these again but I can’t bear to part with them ever. It’s a fab little room off the back of the kitchen which isn’t big enough to do anything else with and it work perfectly as our library – complete with huge comfy chair (I have no idea how the boys got it in there).

As you can see my own collection takes up only a fraction of the space in the library (although I have read a lot of my husband’s books as well as my own). My own collection is spilt over two bookcases. We have a “to be read” bookcase in our bedroom. My books take up the top two shelves. It is right next to my side of the bed so also has all kinds of things all over it including my lamp and random toys I have been bought. There is no order to it particularly I just thrown them all on and pick up and read what I fancy as and when.  This is the bookcase I look at lovingly before I go to sleep and it soothes me. Books I have read (or later ones in a series where I haven’t got that far – e.g. book 3 of the beautiful dead is there as I haven’t book 2 which is on my TBR shelf) are sorted into alphabetical order on my bookcase in the library. They are most young adult books, with the odd adult book thrown in (most of those are historical fiction). I am going to run out of room soon and have plans to relocate some of my husband’s stuff to the spare room to give me some more space.

I struggled long and hard to pick my favourite three books. There are so many I love (I don’t tend to keep the ones I don’t love and put them on www.readitswapit.co.uk) but in the end it came down to the ones I have reread (and will continue to reread) the most. They are presented to you by Angel (if any of your are Buffy and Angel fans and have seen the Angel episode “smile time” you’ll recognize him)

Twilight – Stephenie Meyer.
I am proud to say that I own a first edition of this book. My husband purchased it for my quite randomly one Christmas (not long after it had been published) because he thought the girl on the cover looked like me. I had never heard of it but read it and loved it and was ecstatic to find out it was one in a series of books. I have read it at least times and will probably reread again soon.

The Hunger Games – Suzanne Collins
Another book picked by my husband which I got to before him and read and loved. It is simply awesome. I read it in half a day in one sitting and then immediately ordered the second and preordered the third. I am planning to reread it very soon in time for the release of Mockingjay.

Uglies – Scott Westerfeld
I picked this up at school on one of the books fairs they had because the cover looked weird. This book literally blew me away and it is another one I have reread on numerous occasions. In my opinion this is the strongest one of the set (although I did enjoy the rest particularly Extras). I love the character Tally and the whole concept of whole built up around her. It was fast paced and engaging and well worth a read if you happen to come across a copy.

**Wow Kristy! I have never seen that Twilight cover before! I love the Angel doll! I loved that episode! LOL Thank you so much for letting us take a look!**

If you would like to have your shelves featured on the blog, just send me an email at

djsfoxylady (at) gmail (dot) com