What Does Your Book Collection Say About You?

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If a stranger were to look at your collection of books do you think they could gain an insight into your personality or your life a little? I think sometimes the books we read can say a lot about a person when you really think about. When I look at the titles that grace my shelves I always seem to find a lot of similarities between the books I'm really drawn to and want to keep and similarities in my life or personality.

Escapism

I read a lot for escapism so I really love reading books that are set with elements of magic to them. That's why you'll find all the Harry Potter books and titles like Night Circus on my shelves. There's something that takes me back to being a child and wanting to believe in magic (and Casper the ghost, for some reason I remember wishing that was real). I guess it's different to being into full on fantasy or alternate worlds as magic realism still has that element of truth to it.

History

I'm a huge history buff but more than being interested in the events and dates of significant events I find it fascinating to learn about how people lived. This is something that history classes never covered that deeply and why I'm always partial to picking up a historical novel. Phillipa Gregory, Dennis Lehane's The Given Day and Jennifer Donnelly are all authors whose novels bring the past to life so well.

Travel

I love to travel both physically and vicariously through novels. Not only can books set in different countries really bring them to life, the culture, food, sights and sounds - i love the feeling of wanderlust I get when reading about parts of the world I want to travel to. I also love revisiting the feeling of a place I've been. After travelling to Africa last year I read one of Tom Parks novels and it was exhilirating to have all of the senses and feelings of being in Africa come to life on the page.

Humour

I do love a good laugh and whether it's sarcastic, dark, crude or off-beat books that can get me chuckling are always ones that I want to reach for again and again. Authors like Marian Keyes, Helen Feilding and Nick Hornby are some of my favourites who know how to bring the LOLs.

So, what do you think your book collection says about you?