Mipiano reminded me today, through her blog tag, that I have two half-finished blog posts for her wonderful community, just waiting there in drafts. As is usually the case, I'm always late to respond to interesting topics, or for some unknown reason I am posting things that go completely against the theme, almost as if it's intentional. xD The same thing has happened this time as well. I don't even remember when books and our bookshelves were the focus, maybe a few months ago..
Back then, I immediately and honestly mentioned somewhere in the comments that I don't really have much in common with books, especially when it comes to novels. Don't ask me why, it just doesn't work for me. Even the required school reading was never my thing; I always found a way to get out of reading it. Throughout elementary and high school, the only things I actually read were Antigone and The Epic of Gilgamesh - cause they were short enough and quite interesting, then of course The Little Prince. xD So basically, nothing longer than about fifty pages. Besides those, I also read the plays Zona Zamfirova, Pokondirena tikva (A stuck-up woman) and The Miser; those were easy and enjoyable for me. The one and only longer book I read in high school was When the Pumpkins Blossomed. And that was exclusively because of one particular part that even the worst students were reading and retelling: "You know, there's that part where, uh... ahem..." - teenagers and raging hormones. I guess we all went through the same thing. xD
So, based on everything I mentioned above, you can probably guess that this is our home library, located in the childhood room my sister and I shared, and that I haven't even touched most of these books. Except when I'm dusting the shelves, which happened to be the case when I took these photos. (:
I'm kidding; there are actually quite a few of my own books here as well. I received them for excellent grades at the end of each school year, as prizes in recitation competitions, awards for earning the Vuk Diploma in primary and secondary school and for being Student of the Generation. Later in life, you realize that it's not necessarily because you're exceptionally smart, but rather because you come from a small town and attended an elementary school with only about 25 students per grade, haha. So, the best in your village, but far from it once you go somewhere else. Then I got my first 6 (satisfactory) grade at university.... and that turned out to be my first little slap of reality. xD
My favorite books among all the ones on these shelves are the old collections of love poetry, a few that I bought myself on school trips, children's poems, illustrated encyclopedias and stories from Greek mythology that I still enjoy going through from time to time to remind myself of things from my childhood. I also love to read all the religion books we have, the teachings of Patriarch Pavle, Elder Thaddeus' Our Thoughts Determine Our Lives and similar ones. <3
Those three large books, Ratnici mira (Warriors of Peace) Volumes 1, 2, and 3, are something my mother received when she was a Vukovac - Vuk Diploma student. Some kind of communist propaganda, I'd say in layman's terms. My mom and sister read novels. They like Backman and Yalom.... My sister has, of course, read all the Harry Potter books, The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings and whatever else belongs to that universe. I don't really know, since I've never been much of a fan of that series. I do like Harry Potter 馃槏, but not nearly as much as she does, she's a real fan!
As for me, I'm more into zombies, apocalypses, pre - and post-apocalyptic stories, and natural disasters. xD
My dad and I are more visual types, movies, series, documentaries, anything works. Actually, dad read a lot of novels in his youth, so I end up being the only black sheep in the family. xD Whenever I get stuck somewhere in a story and can't find the right words to describe the simplest thing, the three of them tell me: "When was the last time you read something? Go read a book, join a library!" 馃榿
And then I, a dutiful child, but also forever a child at heart, go to this bookshelf and, of all things, pick something from first grade of elementary school, for example this "How Snowflakes Get Warm". I read it in a minute or two and remind myself of my beautiful childhood. <3
Did you recognize any books from my library? What looks familiar to you, what have you only heard of and what have you actually read? Leave a comment if you find something interesting; maybe after your recommendations I could even pick up one of these books and actually read it, instead of just dusting it off. (:
In any case, I hope that even the most hardened book lovers will like me after this text, if only because I take good care of these books. I love both old and new ones, the smell of both, the very appearance of books where each one is like a separate work of art in itself, visually speaking, of course.
Sending a big greeting to everyone! See you soon in the next blog, blog abooooout: cute fridge magnets. Bye bye. <3
