As an English major, I read a lot of books. Even before I got to college and decided to study English, I loved reading and books. I was one of those kids who would rush to finish my class work so I could read, which I guess is why my teachers always loved me. I was reading at a college level by the fourth grade and was reading every book I could get my hands on. While that hasn’t changed, the books I read now have. I used to read a lot of fantasy novels, but now I read more non-fiction, adult fiction, or romance.
The first major series I remember reading was Percy Jackson & the Olympians. I was obsessed, which is how I started my obsession with fantasy books. I have read a large majority of YA fantasy series because that was the only thing I would read in my free time for almost 5 years. I have read everything from Harry Potter to The Lunar Chronicles to Fablehaven. These were all books I had read through my school library, so for most of my life, I didn’t own copies of these stories, even though they were my favorites. As an adult, I have slowly started collecting every book I loved throughout my life, even picking up one or two of my friends and family’s favorites.
Once I went to high school, I started buying copies of my favorite books and actually keeping them on bookshelves. My first bookshelf could only hold 50 books, so I would clear out my collection every couple of months when I ran out of room. Eventually, I couldn’t get rid of any more books; I loved all the ones I had, and there was no way I could part with any of them. So I got more bookshelves. In hindsight, I should have just lined the walls of my room with shelves. Three years later, and my four bookshelves are barely holding themselves together.
Now that I am in college, my collection has just exploded. I can now organize my shelves by genre, with each section containing almost 20 books. I alphabetized all of the shelves by genre so that I can actually let people ‘check out’ a book. I recently purchased a barcode scanner to catalog my entire collection. Eventually, I hope to have over a thousand books, which will officially qualify me as having a small library. Right now, I have 297 books in my collection, and I can’t wait for my next book haul.