History Of My Bookshelf Tag

Like many bookish tags, i wasn’t tagged in this, i just think it’s really cool and wanted to try it out. The History Of My Bookshelf tag was created by Emmmabooks on YouTube, and it’s all about the history of your shelves, your past reads and how your shelves have developed over the years.

I went pretty quickly from being a non-reader to owning over 600 books, within the space of about four years, so i wanted to see how my reading has changed and how my shelves have changed.

The Oldest Book On Your Shelf
If we’re talking about the book that i’ve had the longest, i believe it would be Cinder by Marissa Meyer. I got this pretty early on when i first found YA literature, and guess what, it’s still not read.

A book you read in 2013
I Am Number 4 by Pittacus Lore

A book you read in 2014
My Mad Fat Diary by Rae Earl

A book you read in 2015
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

A book you read in 2016
Simon Vs The Homo Sapians Agenda by Becky Albertalli

A book you read in 2017
The Witch’s Kiss by Katherine & Elizabeth Corr

A book you read in 2018
The Knife Of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness

A book you read in 2019
Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams

A book you’ve read more than once
There are honestly very few books that i read more than once. I have to absolutely adore the story. The book i’ve read the most of is probably The Fault In Our Stars by John Green.

A book you waited over a year to be published
Anything The Fletcher family write i tend to wait an extremely long time for. Most recently, i’ve waited over a year for The Eve Illusion to be released by Tom & Giovanna Fletcher.

A book you read on vacation/away from home
I have very particular memories of reading Girl Hearts Girl by Lucy Sutcliffe in Disneyland Paris a couple of years ago.

A book you got from someplace special (anything that’s not your local bookstore/online retailer).
I pick up a lot of books in small second hand shops, or charity shops (not that these are counted as special), however there is one book that i picked up Wetlands by Charlotte Roche, because i’d seen it around and wanted to know what the fuss was, whilst i was on holiday. I was near Stone Henge with my parents, on a family trip, and we stopped at the smallest village that literally housed a cafe, a souvenier shop and a small second hand bookshop in a barn. And that book always reminds me of that time.

A book you that made you cry
I’m not a huge book crier, it takes a lot to make me cry from a book. However a book that i rarely mention is How To Make Friends With The Dark by Kathleen Glasgow, and i was a mess during most of that book.

A book you read in one sitting
I have a very fond memory of reading The Perks Of Being A Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky in one day. I remember the movie was due to be released and Sophie wanted to see it, she lent me a copy of the book and the next day we had planned to see the movie. I had one day to read it, and i read it all in an afternoon.

A book that was a gift
Kind of stemming from that, i have a copy of The Perks Of Being A Wallflower, that Sophie gave me one Christmas. She gave me her copy and wrote in it, which is one of the single things i adore.

A book you read before owning (library, borrowed from a friend)
Shamefully, there are very few books that i’ve read before owning them, because i tend to just take the plunge and buy them when i’m interested. However i did borrow This Is Going To Hurt by Adam Kay from the library, and then picked up my own copy because i adored it so much.

A book you lent to someone else
I lend books out a lot of the time, i like to share my books and for other people to experience them. The last book that i lent was to my friend who wanted to read Aristotle & Dante Discover The Secrets Of The Universe.

A book that has been damaged
My copy of The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins is pretty beat up. I used to take the first book every where with me and it go caught in a couple of heavy rain downpours!

A book you got on sale/discounted
I won’t lie, a lot of my books are discounted or sale books. But one of my biggest achievements was buying a hardcover of Warcross by Marie Lu for £1. My local bookshop/cafe were trying to sell off their books for a change around, and it ended up that everything in the shop was £1. I’d been eying Warcross for some time, so grabbed the last copy.

A book you read with someone else (buddy read/read with a book club)
I do a lot of co-reading and i also run a book club, so i guess i have plenty of options for this. More recently, myself and Lois have been reading a lot together, and one of our favourites was A Curse So Dark And Lonely by Brigid Kemmerer.

A book you associate with a song
From the time i was reading it, i really associate Turtles All The Way Down by John Green with the After Laughter album by Paramore. It was something i listed to a lot at the time of reading that book.

A book you associate with a food
I never really associate books with food, but the only thing i can think of is assosiating peaches with Call Me By My Name, for obvious reasons if you’ve read the book…

A book you got years ago that you probably wouldn’t buy now
I specifically remember being at University and the book Meant To Be by Lauren Morrill was cirulating. I adored the cover, and watched and waited for this to go down in price as it was so hard to get in the UK. I bought it, i was thrilled, i still haven’t read it. So probably wouldn’t bother to pick it up now.

A book you associate with a specific time in your life
I associate a lot. It’s a part of my personality and my mental illness, that i will generally associate anything with anything that’s happening at the time. Admittedly, most of my associations are sad ones, however i have a big association with Lauren James’ The Next Together and starting my first job. I’d be coming home on the bus at 11pm at night, hating late shifts and still be so happy and proud of myself. And i remember i was reading The Next Together in my first couple of days at that job.

A book you used to like, but don’t anymore
I think i talked about this a couple of years ago when we chose to read Everyday by David Levithan for book club. It was our first ever book club pick, and i used to absolutely adore that book. I thought it was wonderful the first time i read it. When i re-read it for book club, it earned a good 2 stars from me and i found all the flaws in it i wish i never had.

The newest book on your shelf
The newest addition to my shelves currently is Date Me, Bryson Keller by Kevin Van Whye. I pre-ordered this.

That was the History of My Bookshelf tag! I hope you enjoyed my answers, i tried to be semi imaginative, and really look back on the last few years of reading.

I’m not going to tag any specifically, so please just take part in this if you want to!