Ecstatic About Books

Two of my bookshelves.

I have to confess, I am ecstatic, passionate, giddy about books. Between the books on my bookshelves and the ones on my two Kindles, I have more books than I can read in two lifetimes. So in reality, I guess that I am obsessed with books.

Well, as I've pointed out before, I have my mother to blame for my obsession, passion, love of books. At a very early age she read not only the standard fairy tales to me, but the wonderful stories by O'Henry and Terhune. When I could read on my own I took off like a racehorse and never looked back.

In two of my August posts, "Crazy About Books" and "In Love with Books," I gave a guided tour of three of my bookshelves.  Well, this post is a guided tour of my last two bookshelves. All my other books live in boxes under the bed in the guestroom, in boxes and stacks in the guestroom closet, on my Kindles, or in the Cloud. More books than I care to count, but still never enough.  There are just so many great books out there, that I keep buying more.

You can imagine my husband's relief when I started buying more eBooks than paper books. At least the next time we move there won't be additional boxes of books to lug around. I think with our last move, from the Texas Hill Country to the Florida Gulf Coast, I had approximately twenty-seven very heavy boxes of books. But all those zillions of eBooks can be carried around in my purse. I have to say that's awesome!

So here's the guided tour of the bookshelves in the photo above. Obviously there are too many books to list them all, so I'll only list a few of them. The top shelves have "treasures" collected through the years, but the other shelves are packed with books and magazines.

Left bookshelf from top to bottom:

Clouds and Eclipses (The Collected Short Stories) by Gore Vidal
New Stories from the South (2007 - The Year's Best) ed. by Edward P. Jones
New Stories from the South (2008 - The Year's Best) ed. by Z. Z. Packer
Like unto Like by Sherwood Bonner
Mothers & Daughters (An Anthology) ed. by Alberto Manguel
American Avenue, Rhythm & Reason (A Collection) by William Steding
The Quiet American by Graham Greene
The Best American Short Stories (2006) ed. by Ann Patchett
The Best American Short Stories (2009) ed. by Alice Sebold
Half in Love (Stories) by Maile Meloy
Best American Voices (2003) guest editor, Joyce Carol Oates
Best American Voices (2004) guest editor, John Casey
Best New American Voices (2006) ed. by Jane Smiley
Best New American Voices (2007) ed. by Sue Miller
Rob Roy by Sir Walter Scott
The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty by Eudora Welty
The Stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald Selected by Malcolm Cowley
Girl with a Pearl Earring (A Novel) by Tracy Chevalier
The Lady and the Unicorn (A Novel) by Tracy Chevalier
Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier
The Forest Lover (A Novel) by Susan Vreeland

Once an Eagle by Anton Myrer
The Day the Cowboys Quit by Elmer Kelton
The Time It Never Rained by Elmer Kelton
Sandhills Boy (The Winding Trail of a Texas Writer) by Elmer Kelton
Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry
Shane by Jack Schaefer
Education of a Wandering Man (A Memoir) by Louis L'Amour
Louis L'Amour's wonderful books (54 of them on this shelf, too many to list)
The Great Trek by Zane Grey
Shower of Gold by Zane Grey
The Everglades: River of Grass by Marjorie Stoneman Douglas
The White Witch of Rosehall by Herbert G. de Lissor

Southwest Art (Magazine) (two stacks, several years)

Art of the West (Magazine) (one stack, several years)
Southwest Art (Magazine) (one stack, several years)

Right bookshelf from top to bottom:

The Complete Works of Shakespeare (Revised Ed.) ed. by Hardin Craig
Masters of Modern Drama ed. by Haskell M. Block & Robert G. Shedd
A Field Guide to Central Australia by Penny van Oosterzee
Guide to Scenic Highways and Byways by National Geographic
Guide to the National Parks of the United States by National Geographic
A Field Guide to the Birds East of the Rockies by Roger Tory Peterson
Seashells of North America (A Guide to Field Identification) by R. Tucker Abbott

House Plants (How to choose, grow, display) by Sunset
Introduction to Basic Gardening by Sunset
The House Book by Terence Conran
Illustrated Guide to Gardening by Reader's Digest
Best Loved Garden Plants by David Myers, Lance Hattatt & Lindsay Bousfield
Will Write for Shoes: How to Write a Chick Lit Novel by Cathy Yardley
How I Write: Secrets of a Bestselling Author by Janet Evanovich with Ina Yalof
Walking on Alligators: A Book of Meditations for Writers by Susan Shaughnessy
Handbook of Short Story Writing by The Writer's Digest
Handbook of Short Story Writing - Volume II by The Writer's Digest
Lew Hunter's Screenwriting 434 by Lew Hunter
Character Naming Sourcebook by The Writer's Digest

Art Books (48 of them, which I'll save for another blog post about art and art books)

American Art Review (Magazine) (one stack, several years)
Birds & Blooms (Magazine) (one year)
Hallowed Ground (The Civil War Preservation Trust Magazine) (one year)
American Art Collector (Magazine) (one year)
Country Lifestyle (Magazine) (one year)
Plus an assortment of other art magazines.

I hope you've enjoyed the guided tour of my bookshelves. Please check back for other blog posts, because I'm always talking about books.