BookBlogWriMo – Days Twenty-One, Twenty-Two

BookBlogWriMo.  Book Blog Writing Month.  Created by “Book Bumblings” as a book bloggers’ version of NaNoWriMo.  I found it through “Shattered Hearts Reviews“.

Day Twenty-One – My First Reviews

My intent with this blog wasn’t to become a book blogger or reviewer, but I have posted a number of reviews over the last four years.

My first review was “Review:  The Complete Handbook of Novel Writing” by Meg Leder, Jack Heffron, and The Editors of Writer’s Digest.  In this review I didn’t provide the authors/editors, a link to where the book could be purchased or read about,  or a picture of the cover.  I gave my thoughts on the book’s contents, recommended it, and was done.

A few months later, my second review was “The Guide to Writing Fantasy and Science Fiction:  a Review“.  It also failed to provide helpful information on how to find a copy of the book.

My third review, “Review: Gauntlgrym, Neverwinter Book I” by R.A. Salvatore, was much more detailed, but had the same shortcomings as the first two.

In my fourth review, I finally hit upon the format that I try to follow for all of my reviews.  “Review:  The Red Pyramid (The Kane Chronicles, Book 1)” provided title, author, date published, author’s website (or wikipedia page), genre, my review, and my “bottom line” on the book.

Including a few drafts still in the works, I’ve reviewed 56 books so far.

Day Twenty-Two – Bookshelves

Here’s a pic of the built-in bookshelves I have downstairs.  You probably can’t tell that there’s any order there, but there is…a little…

Stephen King is all in the upper left, along with some Dean Koontz and Dan Simmons horror. The rest of the horror books are on the far right on the second level down, along with some science-fiction, like Dan Simmon’s “Hyperion Cantos” and Robert Heinlein’s “Stranger in a Strange Land” and “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.”

Robert Jordan’s “The Wheel of Time” series takes up the shelf below it with Brandon Mull’s “Candy Shop Wars” series and George R.R. Martin’s two “Dreamsongs” volumes.  Other fantasy books are mostly on the next shelf over at the top.  They include “The Inheritance Cycle“, Cassandra Clare’s “Mortal Instruments”, “The Prydain Chronicles“, Fred Saberhagen’s “Book of Swords” series.

The third shelf from the top at the far left hosts Stephanie Meyer’s “Twilight” series and other paranormal and fantasyish romance books, including a few Nora Roberts books written as J.D. Robb.

“Classics” by Ernest Hemingway, Socrates, and Charles Darwin share space on the third shelf from the top in the right column with Frederick Forsyth’s “The Odessa File” and some comedy’s, like Dilbert books, a couple Calvin and Hobbes books, and a couple “The Far Side” galleries.

Dungeons & Dragons rulebooks and novels take up the entire top shelf, second from right, and spill over into some of the space on the next level down.

Books on writing and publishing fiction and poetry, as well as grammar and style guides, dictionaries, and thesauruses take up the top right shelf.  This includes the two books mentioned above as my first and second reviews, as well as Stephen King’s “On Writing.”

Non-book items in these shelves include a Dracula “action figure”, a St. Patrick’s Day dachshund figurine, Dan Dribble (a Finnian), a few family/baby pics, a few crafts by the girls, and other various fantasy figurines.

This does not include the full-height bookshelves in both of my daughters’ rooms, the office, or the living room.  The only one of those not full of books, is the one in the living room.  Bookwise, it only hosts the Harry Potter series, including The Tales of Beedle the Bard, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find them, Quidditch Through the Ages, and Harry Potter and Philosophy:  If Aristotle Ran Hogwarts.