Ideal Bookshelf Project
The Ideal Bookshelf Project was a collaboration between Art and English, involving our favorite books from childhood and books that we distinctly remember making an impression on us. In English I wrote a few paragraphs explaining my book choices, and in Art I made a watercolor copy of my stack of books.
Ideal Bookshelf Write-up
When I was a little girl, The Beauty and the Beast movie sparked an intense love for books that grew as rapidly as I did. Belle, a girl who loved reading so much she didn’t care what the people in her town thought of her, was the best role model I could have had. To this day, every single time I think of how beautiful the Beast's library is, I have to refrain from releasing little girl screams that might scare off any strangers within a five-foot radius.
It surprises people that I bloomed into the extrovert I am today because I wasn’t always the beacon of light that I am now. Nine or ten years ago, I was a small, gangly girl with knobby knees who was covered in bruises and scrapes from the previous day’s adventures. A girl who would have much rather been left alone than have to spend a single second conversing with anyone her own age. Yes, I was this little girl. I liked spending my time reading and eating my lunch under the bungalows, and I didn’t need any teacher to escort me to the cafeteria, thank you very much. I preferred to keep to myself and didn’t understand why my parents and teachers told me to try making friends when I had all of the friends I needed in the words on the dirt-covered pages I read.
In the fifth grade, the Nancy Drew books were all I wanted to read . My obsession started when my mom brought home the first three books combined into one volume. I loved Nancy’s absolute willingness to do the right thing and how she constantly put herself in danger. I decided to read the Pendragon series by D.J. Machale because I’d completely finished all of the Nancy Drew books, and they were the next series catalogued in the library. Machale’s writing was like nothing I’d ever experienced. I loved his books because I felt like an adult reading them. I had to focus on the words and reread certain sections because the ideas were more complex than anything I’d ever read before. His books also inspired me to read more books by male authors with male characters--something I wasn’t quite accustomed to.
After my Pendragon obsession, I graduated to the Alex Rider series by Anthony Horowitz. These books were the first that made me fear for a character's life. The characters had guns, harrowing escapes, and realistic missions. From there, I moved on to all of Ally Carter’s novels about female spies and thieves. They had sassy, stubborn, and absolutely insane female characters that empowered me and continued to help me love books and the characters within them.
All of favorite books include suspenseful and dangerous events. During middle school, fantasy books were important to me because they taught me to believe in the beauty of magic and love and imagination. The most impactful book of my middle school experience was definitely The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins: a book completely devoted to survival and death. I soaked up the words on those pages like a sponge. I read that book in two-and-a-half hours, not putting it down once. I distinctly remember the experience because I believe it was one of the first books that made me cry. The idea that a book could make me feel such strong emotions helped me dive deep into the vast universe of literature.
My personal library consists of three mismatched book cases from Craigslist filled with over 300 of my favorite books. I even have an app on my phone that catalogues all of the copies that I own. I am commonly known to spend my time unwinding at libraries and second-hand bookstores, sitting on the floor like a toddler with multiple stacks of books surrounding me. Don’t even get me started on what I must look like to all of the other people in the library when I try to carry all of the books I plan on checking out up the stairs. Like Belle of Beauty and the Beast, I embrace these feelings and continue to read books that make me see the world in a more beautiful way.
It surprises people that I bloomed into the extrovert I am today because I wasn’t always the beacon of light that I am now. Nine or ten years ago, I was a small, gangly girl with knobby knees who was covered in bruises and scrapes from the previous day’s adventures. A girl who would have much rather been left alone than have to spend a single second conversing with anyone her own age. Yes, I was this little girl. I liked spending my time reading and eating my lunch under the bungalows, and I didn’t need any teacher to escort me to the cafeteria, thank you very much. I preferred to keep to myself and didn’t understand why my parents and teachers told me to try making friends when I had all of the friends I needed in the words on the dirt-covered pages I read.
In the fifth grade, the Nancy Drew books were all I wanted to read . My obsession started when my mom brought home the first three books combined into one volume. I loved Nancy’s absolute willingness to do the right thing and how she constantly put herself in danger. I decided to read the Pendragon series by D.J. Machale because I’d completely finished all of the Nancy Drew books, and they were the next series catalogued in the library. Machale’s writing was like nothing I’d ever experienced. I loved his books because I felt like an adult reading them. I had to focus on the words and reread certain sections because the ideas were more complex than anything I’d ever read before. His books also inspired me to read more books by male authors with male characters--something I wasn’t quite accustomed to.
After my Pendragon obsession, I graduated to the Alex Rider series by Anthony Horowitz. These books were the first that made me fear for a character's life. The characters had guns, harrowing escapes, and realistic missions. From there, I moved on to all of Ally Carter’s novels about female spies and thieves. They had sassy, stubborn, and absolutely insane female characters that empowered me and continued to help me love books and the characters within them.
All of favorite books include suspenseful and dangerous events. During middle school, fantasy books were important to me because they taught me to believe in the beauty of magic and love and imagination. The most impactful book of my middle school experience was definitely The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins: a book completely devoted to survival and death. I soaked up the words on those pages like a sponge. I read that book in two-and-a-half hours, not putting it down once. I distinctly remember the experience because I believe it was one of the first books that made me cry. The idea that a book could make me feel such strong emotions helped me dive deep into the vast universe of literature.
My personal library consists of three mismatched book cases from Craigslist filled with over 300 of my favorite books. I even have an app on my phone that catalogues all of the copies that I own. I am commonly known to spend my time unwinding at libraries and second-hand bookstores, sitting on the floor like a toddler with multiple stacks of books surrounding me. Don’t even get me started on what I must look like to all of the other people in the library when I try to carry all of the books I plan on checking out up the stairs. Like Belle of Beauty and the Beast, I embrace these feelings and continue to read books that make me see the world in a more beautiful way.