Greetings, fellow bibliophiles!
Well, the weekend is upon us (so close, yet so far!!), and I've decided to bring you a little blurb. This is NOT a review, I repeat, NOT a review! Today, I'm going to do something a little different, but don't worry, it'll be just as fun!
A little while back, I was contacted by a company called Invaluable. They're an auction house located in Boston and they deal with all sorts of arts and antiques, including, you guessed it... books! Not just books, but rare books, signed books, foreign language books, children's books, and just an endless list of books!! Anyway, they're hosting this fun literary project where bloggers discuss their ultimate dream libraries. In some stroke of luck, they reached out to me to see if I'd be interested in participating (obviously, it was a resounding yes on my part). Asking a bibliophile to compile a dream library is like asking a fashionista to build an ideal closet. It seems impossible and daunting! I'm giving it my best shot. I decided instead of overthinking it (which I was already in the process of doing), I'd just let my heart decide what novels I'd love to see on my shelves every day and here's what I came up with (I was originally going to do a top ten, but figured it would take too long, so I consolidated to a top five instead):
5) Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series. I love a good romance, and her books offer that and so much more! I've read books 1-8 and I'm thoroughly anticipating number 9 and however many more may come. Her writing is superb to say the least. Every sentence on every page is so well thought out and researched that reading her books not only transported me to another world, but left me completely speechless and impressed at how deep her investment in her characters and novels really ran. Luckily, when it comes to these stories, I not only get to enjoy the written word, but I get to watch Diana's ideas unfold on TV in the Starz series as well.
4) This is a tie because I simply couldn't choose between my two favorite Brit Lit stories. There's Beowulf by its unknown author, and The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer. I've just had such a history studying these stories both in Old English and Modern English all throughout my high school and university years that I couldn't leave these little adventures off of my list.
3) Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's complete Sherlock Holmes mysteries. What can I say? Who doesn't need a little bit of excitement and twists-and-turns with their literary journeys? Mr. Holmes and Doctor Watson love to keep their audience sharp and on their toes!
2) The Essays and Poems of Ralph Waldo Emerson. I'm a total sucker for a good Transcendentalist, so why not go for the founding father of the movement? Reading some of his select essays in college removed me from the classroom and placed me in the middle of a peaceful forest where I could ponder the complexities of life.
1) Anyone who knows me knows my top choice comes as no shock. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald has been my favorite tale since I was 15. I wrote my senior thesis on themes from the story and could honestly say I enjoyed every minute of the process. In all the reading I've done, both for mandatory and leisure purposes, I have yet to come across an author who can write something as magical as Fitzgerald was capable of when it came to the Golden Age and all that jazz. My dream is to possess a first edition of one of the most enchanting works of literature I've ever had the pleasure of reading.
Other than agonizing over which stories would make it into my top picks for the ultimate library, I had such fun coming up with this list for Invaluable! I really appreciate being given the opportunity to get creative over a topic I probably think about on a weekly basis! I hope to do it again sometime! Meanwhile, what do some of your hypothetical libraries look like?
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