What's In Your Library?

[MrsK]

I've been adding to my library lately. (I guess that finally being done with residency has inspired me to start accumulating things again.) There are so many wonderful books that it is hard to edit. I've been focusing on books about art and Judaism, classic literature, classic children's books, and children's reference books. In the "What do you Collect?" thread, a lot of you mentioned that you collect books. If you were building a library (which many of you have) which five books, other than The Bible or comparable, would be essential? For adults? For a children's library?

[WolfpackWife]

What's In Your Library?

Oh man, great thread! I'll have to come back to the adult portion, but when we had to curb our spending when entering med school, I had to get used to toning down the frequency with which I purchased books. Since then, I keep a lengthy list of to-read books on goodreads and consult it whenever I'm in a bookstore. I try to approach buying books with the notion of building our library with things that have "staying" power/classics, things that we've really really loved, and things we would like our kids to read. Case in point: we have all three Hunger Games books on an old nook, but I've still purchased them in paperback. They may not be some peoples idea of "literary" but they are fun reads and instant classics, things we think future kids would like.

Every time I'm browsing I consider if what I'm buying would be something I'd be glad to know I owned and could revisit. It's not always a classic, it's not always highbrow, it's not always a best seller. I get so much joy out of collecting books. I'll have to consult my shelves and see if I can pick five.

As for kids? Oh man. There are so many books that meant so much to me as a kid, and I can vividly remember reading them and the palpable joy it gave me. As such, DH and I have started doing book baskets for baby showers for friends and family that include all of our very favorites. We pick books that kids can read through the years - from classic dr. Seuss for the youngest readers, to Superfudge. Here's the basket we did for our good friends a couple years ago:

Looking at this brings back so many great memories of discovering the joy of reading. Make Way for Ducklings, Nate the Great, Ribsy, Goodnight Mr. Tom, Blueberries for Sal, Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel, A Fish Out of Water, Ribsy, the Berenstein series, and more...so many wonderful books.

[spotty_dog]

For kids' books, I have two references to help guide me to high-quality literature that I want my kids to have access to for re-reading: the Read-Aloud Handbook and Classics in the Classroom.

I think that fairy tales would be a strong emphasis for me at your kids' stage, and high-quality picture books, and some read-alouds you'll personally really enjoy sharing with them. At my kids' stage I am phasing out their leveled readers and board books, curating their soft-cover Scholastic editions and their picture books to just the best ones, and buffing up their kids' classics, contemporary classics, and science-oriented books. Winnie-the-Pooh, Black Beauty, an abridged David Copperfield are among some recent additions that I look forward to seeing them enjoy repeatedly!

For me, I never say no to a book about spinning yarn. My adult classics are hit or miss because my public library has such a good selection. Poetry, though, I like to have at my fingertips so I recently acquired a Norton anthology and I'm probably going to pick up a volume from Wendell Berry because I adore him.

[Sheherezade]

What's In Your Library?

I am not at all discriminating. I have bookshelves all over the house and when I run out of space I buy another set. I probably have thousands if books at this point. I have trash and treasure alike. I do like having complete series though and I do have some particular favorites, but I could never choose just five. That's impossible.