#shelfie

Ms.Bjork here, this is my bookshelf. Well, one of my bookshelves at least. Lol. My favorite kind of bookshelves are Ikea Kallax cubes. I have this one, pictured, which is 4x4, I also have a 4x2 and 2 2x2s. I don’t know what it is but I just love the way my books look in these shelves. In my About Me post, I wrote about my love for library books and how last year, in 2020, I bought a Kindle when the libraries closed to continue to be able to check out eBooks. I also wrote about my love for audiobooks (which I also get from the library). With all that talk of digital technology, I wanted to still be sure to make space, literally and in words, for my bookshelves. I have moved around a lot in the past 10 years - from New Orleans to Chicago to Los Angeles to Seattle - and my books are always something that I bring with me. I probably own more books than anything else. Whenever moving to or even visiting a new city I love finding a local used bookstore and getting lost in it. The best way to find yourself is when you’re lost in a used book store. As you can tell from my #shelfie, I also love me a knick-knack. A few pictured here are The Tower of Hanoi, a snow globe from London, and dice from the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. I also have a few family photos. My family is so important to me!

Getting to the books themselves, in my About Me, I told yal that my favorite genres are scary stories and non-fiction memoirs. While this may be true, my book shelf tells a bit of a different story. To start off, I have 2 shelves dedicated to Russian Literature. It used to be 4, but I’ve cut back quite a bit. What I love about Russian Literature is the prose and the way the characters are fleshed out specifically with writers from the “Golden Age.” Crime and Punishment is one of my favorite books for its depiction of moral dilemmas.

After the killing of George Floyd in May of 2020, I took a hard look at my books and realized that I needed to decolonize my book shelves. I was shocked and disappointed in myself by how few books by authors of color I had and was reading. This is something that I have made a commitment to changing. I encourage you to also take a moment and consider how you too can #decolonizeyourbookshelf

My Bachelor’s Degree is in Fine Art, and so the bottom of my bookshelf has all of my art books. Art books tend to be quite large so you can really get a good look at the images. I also have a Master’s Degree in Mental Health Counseling with a specialization in Art Therapy, so I have a lot of theory books. I only just graduated in 2019 so I still have a lot of school books. I also enjoy reading fiction and non-fiction that addresses mental health, which I think you’ll notice in my book choices. My other book shelves are where a most of my forever fiction is, I’ll show you those another time.

Thanks for stopping by, I hope this finds you on the couch under a soft blanket and ready to start your next favorite book!

xo -Ms.Bjork