I don't know if every bookworm has a special shelf just for those extra precious books (yessss...my precioussss...er..um sorry about that...) that shine like powerful, enchanted gold rings in the dark, but I certainly do. There are just some books that seem to glow, and to give off their own life and light, just as they sit there humming quietly to themselves on the shelf.
I prize these stories, like something rare, irreplaceable, priceless, and unique. I suppose if I were a rich art collector, I would pursue these novels around the world and pay any price for them, then keep them in a special room with a carefully controlled atmosphere so they would not deteriorate ever. I would invite only highly privileged people into my book-treasure room. We would all stand around and savour rare vintages in tiny crystal glasses while contemplating and discussing my preciousssss collection of prized literary acquisitions.
No, wait, that is totally wrong, and not me. I'm much more the down to earth, touchy-feely, hold it in my hands, smell it, read it, casually relax and hang out with it kind of girl. I guess that is one of the reasons why I don't collect rare things that break easily (besides not being rich).
Perhaps that's just one of the reasons why the books I consider special aren't special because they are old, rare, historical, collectable, or worth a great deal of money. They are mass market genre novels and are special only because they've touched me personally in some wonderful way. They stand out from the rest because of the way they are written. They have various, perhaps indefinable qualities to them that I can't always quite pin down or describe. All I know is that I love them more than most of the other books, so they get put together on a special shelf where I can look up at their spines and see them easily, anytime, from where I am sitting reading, or working on the computer.
Right now the books on the special shelf are not many. This is for several reasons. One is because I've just recently moved and most of my books are still packed away. The other is complicated and ancient history by now.
So what are these few, very special glowing books right now?
1. Robin McKinley's _Sunshine_ (I so wish she would write another one of these...a sequel, or another comparable one to this...)
2. Susan Hubbard's Ethical Vampire Series
3. John Ajvide Lindqvist's _Let the Right One In_
If I were to write a book, I'd want it to be as good as Sunshine, to have many of the qualities in it that I am so in love with in Sunshine. Sunshine is both sensual and spiritual, earthy and ethereal, hilarious and scary, homey and alien. When I see Sunshine, I hunger for cinnamon buns AS BIG AS YOUR HEAD. The book has become my good luck charm and my talisman against all evil. How does McKinley do what she does? I want it. I want it bad.
It would also be as powerfully visual as Hubbard's literary images are. I want to move right on in and live in that silvery-turquoise coloured bedroom and I never want to encounter the creepy white faced harbinger in that van, ever.
Also, my imaginary truly awesome book that I'd write would also be as fresh and tart and tangy and startlingly cold and dark and brutal as _Let the Right One In_.
My special list of extra-treasured books is a very short one right now. These are the ones that I can't pack away or go without looking at or thinking about for very long. The present ones also all happen to be about vampires, but they are all very different from each other. None of the vampires sparkle, which I think is good.
The list changes from time to time, but there are some that stay on it. I just don't happen to have the older books with me since my used-to-be larger library is no longer in my possession, and hasn't been for over 10 years now. Obviously there are ones like TLOTR, and the complete set of The Chronicles of Narnia, but I don't own those ones right now. One I really miss from my childhood is Great Swedish Fairy Tales, illustrated by John Bauer, which I think is now out of print.
Anyway, that's my short list for now.
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