Sunday, December 11, 2011

Book Me . . .




Okay, I love this--it's from a post on Facebook, showing (in lighted glory) a holiday tree made from a stack of books. Sort of a virtual depiction of a book lover singing, "All I want for Christmas is . . . a box of books, crate of books, all I want . . ."  You get it.  I can relate, for sure. When I shared it on Facebook, the responses were similar--including one clever mention of trying to create a tree from Kindle downloads
And then I thought of this photo:

It was sent to me by a reader, showing a vintage 60's (ouch on "vintage," since I was most certainly a reader then) headboard bookcase. In the center book shelf cubby is my trio of Mercy Hospital books--that made me offer a vintage smile, for sure.

It all made me wonder . . . How big is YOUR stack of books? To be read, already read, destined for re-reading, signed by author, awaiting gift wrap? If you took them all, pulled them from cubbies, shelves, closets, under your bed (c'mon, there's one there, right?) and piled them up, would they be tall enough to string with lights for a tree? For the Rockefeller Center tree? 

And what do you do with your books after they've been read? Share them? Re-sell them? Donate them?

My mother was a voracious reader, at least one book a day. She had a room in her house that was off the kitchen, behind the basement door. It was once a watch repair workshop (my Dad's), but ended up a book room. Tidy shelves at first, then piles, then . . . very tall stacks. Avalanche worthy. Mom could have made a Christmas tree of books. With some left over to build a sleigh and big chair for Santa. Her collection was just shy of a "Hoarder's" episode--s book  lover's edition, but without that weird "Eeeeep" sound effect . . . you know the one.

My personal stack of books isn't tree worthy, as I tend to give them away--share them, forget to whom. And before we moved cross country I donated a carload for the local library's fundraiser. My office shelves do have duplicate copies of my own books, waiting to be sent to reviewers or blog giveaway winners. 
Here they are, in all their cover-hero glory: my Mercy Hospital series. In the photo, too, are bookmarks, a signed bookplate, and a handwritten letter--ready to send to a reader to include with a gift.
I wanted to remind you now--before it gets any closer to Christmas--that I am more than happy to send a free personalized book plate, bookmarks, and a letter for any Mercy Hospital book you're giving as a gift. As a reader just told me, it helps to make the gift even more special. Just let me know via e-mail: candace@candacecalvert.com, and I'll get that right out to you.

So, back to that pressing question . . . is your personal stack of books tree-worthy? What's your number estimate? Should we say . . . "Eeeeep"?

8 comments:

Ann Revell Street said...

Love it!! I could do a couple of trees at least. Very creative.

CandaceCalvert said...

Couple of trees? Wow, cool. Where do you keep your books? Are they arranged in any particular order, or . . .? LOL, yes, I'm snooping. :-)

Ann Revell Street said...

They are in the guest bedroom and the office. Well to be honest one tree would be made of children's books (some from my childhood and some I use with my students) My husband built a bookcase for me to hold them. That is why he likes the Kindle - they take up less room. ;)
I gave some of my books to the church library to make room.

Beth said...

That is awesome.....with what I have here could definitely fill up to make at least a 6 ft tree and that is just the actual books....now add ebooks and well that would make a couple trees easy. That is all to be read and some that have been signed that I won't give away.

My books that I read I typically donate to our churches library. They get most of their books from donations so I love being able to give to them for others to enjoy them.

Jan Marie said...

My books number in the hundreds ... I give them away, I loan them to friends, I donate them to the library, I trade them on PaperbackSwap. But they are like the woman with the bottle of oil and the meal ... they just keep multiplying over and over and over. Since our children have moved out on their own, my books have taken over several rooms in the house. I dare say I could make a Tree of Books in at least five rooms in our house and still have plenty left over. But the fact is, I never tire of the feel of breaking open the cover of a new book and all of you wonderful authors keep writing books that I just HAVE to read; so my collection will undoubtedly continue to grow.

A Sender said...

I love the picture of the tree made out of books! Someone was super creative. Thanks for sharing the pics. I think I definitely could build a tree - I need to find a place to stack the rest since my bookcase is full :)

Andrea said...

WELLLLLL, I'm the library girl! I read too many books to justify purchasing them. BUT I do have LOTS of kids books. I could justify those because I re-read lots of those and I wanted to instill the love of reading in my boys (which worked!). Now I saved their very favorite books. They are in a plastic tub. The rest line my shelves at school. I am very proud to say that because I had boys I obviously have a lot of "boy" books. Many of my boy students LOVE to pick books from my shelves because they are boy oriented. The school library does not carry a lot of these books. I can't blame them. A few parents might be offended at a book titled "The Day My Butt Went Psycho". IT is a hilarious "boy" read. I am just thrilled to get those boys reading!!!! Makes my day!!!

misskallie2000 said...

Hi Candace, I have Code Triage and Critical Care, both autographed, that I won within the last yr and Disaster Status in ebook and can't wait to read more.
I have my old bedroom from the 1960with bookcase bed (2 sliding doors) full of books, 5 book shelves I had built (8 ft long), one 6ft bookcase, 4 stacks (3 ft tall) of books, plus books in my old entertainment center. I am sure there are over 700 books and could make at least one very large tree. lol. I have been reading over 60 yrs and have given over 4,000 books to local Friends of the Library plus trading some for more books but I just can't quit reading and hope to continue for yrs to come.
Thanks for writing such great books and please don't stop.

misskallie2000 at yahoo dot com