Division Essay

I recently went through my mini library of books I have been collecting for the past few years. I want a shelving system for my books and I needed to divide them into categories that would make them easier to find. I had decided that the simplest way of dividing my books would be by author. After thinking about my choice of division, I changed my mind and decided to divide the books from my favorites that I read over and over, to the books I kept because I enjoyed reading them once and I might read them again, down to the books I have kept not necessarily because they were good but just because they were written by my favorite author. I have a hard time when it comes to organization, so this was a long process for me.

After sifting through my cardboard boxes full of books, I started dividing the ones that I just want to keep because of author not content. I found myself scanning each book’s description on the back cover and trying to decide which I would read again. I enjoy books so much that just dividing out the books that weren’t my favorites took over two hours. There were my droves of Nora Roberts’ books that didn’t really get my blood pumping when I read them, but because she wrote them I had to buy and keep them. Then there were a few Stephen King books, like Everything Eventual and Dreamcatcher, which I should have just left on the book store shelf, but couldn’t pass by. I found a few Beatrice Small books that sounded so good, but turned out to be really boring. I love Beatrice Small and I can’t pass up anything she writes, even if it is not very good.

I finally got through all of the bland books, only to discover that my day was half over and I still had so many boxes left to go through. I needed to divide what was left of my books into “good but not my favorite”, and my “absolute favorite” books. I had so much fun doing this. I spent hours among my novels. Among some of my “good but not my favorite books” are a lot of Stephen King novels and short stories. Misery, Pet Semetary, Desperation, From a Buick 8, and Lisey’s Story, fell into this group. I really enjoyed these books and I will probably read them again sometime. I also have put a few series of books into this section. My Hannah Howell, Highlander series, my Christine Feehan Dark and Game series, and my Sherilyn Kenyon Dark Hunter series, are here. I love a good dark romance novel. There is nothing better than sitting down with a book and losing myself in the plots that the author twists into being. I love all the characters in all the books I mentioned, even the mean, nasty vamps in Feehan’s Dark series. I can get so carried away in these books that I have to hide them from myself so I don’t spend all my time reading.

After all my sorting was complete, I was left with my absolute favorite, can’t put them down books. These books include Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series. Her characters are so real I feel like I know them. I have read this series five times already and now that they have been unearthed from their cardboard box, I am going to start reading them again very soon. I love Diana’s gift of bringing her settings to life in such detail that if I close my eyes, I can see Scotland in the 1700’s, and she does the same with her plot and characters. It’s like I’m a ghost watching the entire story as it unfolds before me, but I am also able to feel what each character is feeling. The Outlander series holds the number one spot in my heart. I also found my Stephen King Gunslinger series. He has the same gifts as Diana Gabaldon when it comes to character and setting descriptions. I love sitting down with these books and getting lost in the depth of the story. Stephen King makes the impossible feel real when I am reading the Gunslinger novels. I have read this series at least three times.

I love to read. I tend to get so caught up in a book that I forget the time. I also love collecting books that my favorite authors write. Even if the books are boring and bland, I still stick through until the end at least one time through. I have to keep all my series books as reference for when I purchase a new book by the author. My favorite books of all time are the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon. I have ordered a new book from her just recently that stems off from Outlander. I am hoping that she can cast some light on the main character for me because he is somewhat of an enigma in her previous books. When I graduate from EMCC and we finally get a bigger house, I am praying that we have extra room for a mini-library. I’m sure that the way that I have divided my books now will be totally different in the future as I purchase and read more books. I’ll never get rid of any of the books I have, and I am always buying new ones. Maybe I should just move into Borders, they already have all their books divided by category, and I would never get bored.