Saturday Snapshot: Book Spreads

On June 23, 2012June 20, 2012 By cherylmahoneyIn Saturday Snapshot15 Comments

Do you ever spread your books all over the floor, to get a new look at them? Or a possible photo opp?

Okay, maybe that’s just me. But at various points I’ve spread out my book collections of three of my favorite authors–and they turned into interesting photos! In ascending order by number of books…

I have 18 Tamora Pierce books – basically her entire Tortall series (except Mastiff; I’m waiting on the paperback), plus my favorite Magic Circle book.

L. M. Montgomery accounts for 46 volumes of my book collection. There’s one book of poetry I still need, but other than that, I own, well, everything. If she wrote it and it’s available, I have it. I’m kind of a completist… But you know what’s very frustrating? I have 199 LMM short stories. One more would make a round 200, but you can’t get another one anywhere (they exist, but they haven’t been printed). I live in hope that someday they’ll put out a new collection.

And the biggest collection of all – 54 Edgar Rice Burroughs books. I’ve added a few since this picture was taken. Burroughs was extraordinarily prolific, so I still have about twenty left to collect… Someday I’ll have them all, and then I won’t know what to do with myself in used bookstores!

What authors do you have the most books by? And have you ever spread them across your floor for a photo…or is that just me? 😉

Check out At Home with Books for more Saturday Snapshots!

Once Upon a Time VI – Wrap-up Post

On June 22, 2012June 22, 2012 By cherylmahoneyIn Ruminations13 Comments

I’m really quite sad that the Once Upon a Time Challenge has ended. It’s been so much fun sharing reviews, and reading everyone else’s! This challenge focuses on some of my very favorite kinds of books (fairy tales!) and I’ve loved putting the emphasis on them for the last few months. (Although now that it’s ending, maybe I’ll finally get back to the Foundation trilogy…)

Another reason I’m sad it’s ending…I’m not done reviewing things! Too many books and movies, and I got behind, so stick around–more reviews are coming.

For now, here’s the wrap-up of everything I read. Links go to reviews, starred titles mean a review is coming soon. Feel free to ask if you’d like to know more about anything!

Let’s look at this by category, shall we?

Fairy tales:

Rose Daughter by Robin McKinley (Beauty and the Beast)
Enchantment by Orson Scott Card (Sleeping Beauty)
The Fairy Godmother by Mercedes Lackey (Cinderella)
The Mermaid’s Madness by Jim C. Hines (The Little Mermaid)
The Thirteenth Princess by Diane Zahler (The Twelve Dancing Princesses)
Red Hood’s Revenge by Jim C. Hines (Little Red Riding Hood and Sleeping Beauty)
The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale
Mermaid by Carolyn Turgeon (The Little Mermaid)*
Cinder by Marissa Meyer (Cinderella)*

Mythology:

The Serpent’s Shadow by Rick Riordan (Egyptian)
Underworld by Meg Cabot (Greek) – abandoned, but I’ll tell you about why*

Fantasy:

Fairies and the Quest for Neverland by Gail Carson Levine
The Magical Misadventures of Prunella Bogthistle by Deva Fagan
Equal Rites by Terry Pratchett
Trickster’s Choice and Trickster’s Queen by Tamora Pierce
The Magician’s Ward by Patricia C. Wrede
Kenny and the Dragon by Tony Di Terlizzi
The Catswold Portal by Shirley Rousseau Murphy
The Freedom Maze by Delia Sherman
The Secret Country by Jane Johnson

Quest on Screen:

The Thief of Bagdad, 1924 (Arabian Nights, loosely)
La Belle et la Bête, 1946 (Beauty and the Beast)
Ever After, 1998 (Cinderella)
Alice, 2009 (Alice in Wonderland)*
Red Riding Hood, 2011
Puss in Boots, 2011
Mirror, Mirror, 2012 (Snow White)

A Midsummer Night’s Dream:

Lords and Ladies by Terry Pratchett
Shakespeare ReTold: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, 2005

So that’s…20 books, and 8 movies. Like I said–this challenge exactly covers my favorite things to read! And there were so many, many good stories. 🙂

Saturday Snapshot: Visiting Book Characters

On June 16, 2012June 16, 2012 By cherylmahoneyIn Saturday Snapshot27 Comments

I’ve mentioned before that I love visiting places that figure in books, and I’ve been lucky to do that fairly often. Once in a great while, I get to visit a character from a book–sort of!

These are the original Winnie-the-Pooh characters, the dolls owned by Christopher Robin Milne, A. A. Milne’s son. Rabbit and Owl were slightly more imaginary, and Roo was lost in an apple orchard around 1925, but you can go visit Kanga, Tigger, Edward Bear, Piglet and Eeyore at the New York Public Library. There’s a lovely display in the children’s section. You can’t see it in this picture, but Eeyore’s tail really is held on with a tack!

This is the Peter Pan Statue in Kensington Gardens, which is where Peter ran away to when he left home. I don’t actually know those two little girls, but they happened to be there when I snapped the picture and I liked how it came out. And I’m fascinated by the base of the statue–I see something new in it every time I look at it.

There aren’t very many bookish characters available to be visited…but at least there are plenty more bookish places I still want to go…

See more Saturday Snapshots on At Home with Books!

Saturday Snapshot: Johnny Depp

On June 9, 2012June 9, 2012 By cherylmahoneyIn Saturday Snapshot32 Comments

I wish I could give you an actual snapshot of Johnny Depp…but I’ve never met him. Still, seeing as it’s his birthday today, I thought I’d make him the theme of my Saturday Snapshot. So I’m giving you a glimpse into my fandom. 🙂

This is my Pirates bookshelf, with all four movies, some books on historical pirates, and a couple biographies. They’re all presided over by a Captain Jack Sparrow action figure, and a doll McDonald’s put out for the second movie–and I managed to buy the doll without actually buying any food from them. It turns out they will sell the toys separately.

This is my most expensive item. Somewhere I have a paper certifying that it’s an authentic signature. I blame my friend for this purchase–we were in the store, she decided to buy an autograph first, and then of course I succumbed to temptation!

I’m not exclusively a Captain Jack fan. Here’s my Johnny Depp movie collection. Other favorite characters include Roux in Chocolat, J. M. Barrie in Finding Neverland, and while I don’t exactly love Sweeney Todd, I find his movie to be a remarkably cathartic experience.

I must say, this all looks fairly reasonable. But then…I didn’t show you the two boxes of magazine clippings and movie reviews! 🙂

I know the rest of you must have favorite actors too. Tell me about your fandoms! And check out At Home with Books for more Saturday Snapshots.

Saturday Snapshot: Discworld Titles

On June 2, 2012June 2, 2012 By cherylmahoneyIn Saturday Snapshot, Summer in Discworld21 Comments

I thought I’d play with pictures and book titles today. I just launched a Terry Pratchett Reading Challenge for the summer, so I have Pratchett on the brain–and I decided to have some fun pairing images with his book titles.