Coronation of Books

Catherine here with another post about books.

In my last post, I shared my lofty goals for summer reading.  While the pace of my reading has been steady, the volume has not been as exceptional as I might have hoped.  I’ll tell you WHAT has been exceptional: the amount of TV I’ve watched thanks to the wonder that is Netflix.  But that’s a post for another time.

A common bond uniting the three ladies of 2137 is a love of BOOKS.  We all boast (not sure that’s the right word, ha!) English majors (Jocelyn is working on English degree numero tres), and Jocelyn and Jennifer make their living by loving books. This shared love was the unofficial theme of Christmas 2010.  Jennifer gave us each Hatch Show Prints celebrating the 30 years of the now deceased Davis Kidd Booksellers.  (My print is now framed and hanging proudly in our entryway).

Jocelyn, delight that she is, gave me bookplates.  Mine have lain dormant until today when I chose books worthy of receiving a bookplate!

To choose the tomes worthy enough to receive a bookplate (and immortalization as one of MY books), I knew I had to go to the holiest of holies: my FICTION collection.

Beauties.

While there are lots of books throughout our humble abode, I hold my fiction dearest.  Try as I might to read nonfiction, I will always be a fiction girl.  So these are the books that live in our bedroom because they are my favorites.  (Not pictured: books on my nightstand, those that have been loaned, and the ones that still live in Chattanooga).

I plopped myself down in front of these lovelies to pick the 8 that would receive a bookplate:

Here are the winners (surprisingly, one book of non-fiction made the cut!):

Elite Eight

They are, in no particular order:

(Before I go any further, let me say that I think books are the ultimate home-decor item.  I long for a day when I can line entire walls with books.  See my Long Live Books pinterest board to see what I’m talking about…).

Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann

Atonement by Ian McEwan

The Good Life by Jay McInerney

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver

The Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri

Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri (I love her)

And for the one non-fiction honoree:

Listening to Your Life by Frederick Buechner (so love-worn)

So there are the initial 8.  I believe that all of these are books I have read in the last few years so they do not necessarily (or exclusively) represent my favorites of all time. Some are loaned out and others are in Chattanooga but these 8 books are the ones on my shelves that I love most dearly.

I had two bonus bookplates (I gave bookplates to some graduates from my school and had extras) and so the two books that earned these were:

Admission by Jean Hanff Korelitz

and

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

Here are two in their plated glory:

Plate from Jocelyn

Leftover plate (from papermonkeypress, etsy.com)

So there you have it!  My initial inductees into the “Catherine Bookplate Hall of Fame!”  If any of these books strike your fancy, make your way to a brick and mortar bookshop and pick one up today.

(And in case you were wondering, here’s what Atticus and MowMow did during my bookplate-ing ceremony):

Useless creatures.

xoxox and happy reading,

catherine