TTT: Books I’d Like in My Personal Library

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl.  There is a new topic each week for bloggers to join in with their own top ten. If you’re looking for some new or different book blogs to read, hop on over to her site and check out some of the links.

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday is a such great topic. Since I read so much, the majority of the books I read are from the library or borrowed from a friend or ARCs. So there are tons of books out there I’d like to own but don’t own.  I’d be living in my car if I bought all the books I want, and need a mansion to house them all!

 Anyway, the topic this week was suggested by Annemieke from the blog A Dance With Books…Books I’ve Read That I’d Like in My Personal Library.  Since there will be so many, I’m going to do like usual and use the first books that pop in my head.  Also, there will be some books I already own on the list. As much as I love my Kindle and the freedom it gives me to carry hundreds of books around with me, there are some special books I would like to have a paper copy of, whether hardcover or paperback depends on the book.

The Bronze Horseman series by Paullina Simons

I read the first book in this series many years ago, then a few years later re-read the first book as a refresher before reading the other two in the series.  I got the books from my local library each time.  While I adore The Bronze Horesman, the other two stories are a bit darker and, believe it or not, more sad. But I’d still like them all in my collection of both hardcover books and ebooks, not just the first one.

The Cold Fury Hockey series by Sawyer Bennett

It wasn’t until the last story in this series, Marek, that I finally bit the bullet and started pre-ordering all of Sawyer Bennett’s books.  I’m not a patient person when it takes months to get a favorite author from my libraries. One of these days I’ll have to back-fill my Cold Fury series on my Kindle.  Truth be told, I wouldn’t say no to any of this author’s books in paperback either.

The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling

Don’t get me wrong, at some point I owned all of these books.  I would buy them as soon as they were published and my older son and I would read them together.  When we first started that ritual he was 3 and, though a precocious reader, he wasn’t quite at the HP stage yet.  Of course by the time the last story was published he was reading them on his own, so we the last few books got passed back and forth. We would each read a few chapters at a time only, so we could be at the same parts at the same time and discuss without spoiling things for the other.  Josh read and re-read all of these books so much there is nothing left to them at this point.  I’d love to get another copy of the series in hardcover, as well as get a copy for my Kindle. Heck, while I’m at it I need to get him a copy, too!

Lords of the Underworld series by Gena Showalter

All of the books I’ve read in this series so far have come from either my brick and mortar library or my online library.  I’d love to have this series in paperback for easy lending and re-reading.  Paranormal romance can often be a hard sell if a reader isn’t already a fan, so I’d love to be able to easily lend these out to hook other readers with the fun, action, romance, and fantasy that is these stories.

The Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon

I’m 99.9% sure I’ve mentioned this a time or two…or a hundred, I’m a huge fan of the Outlander series.  I started reading these books many years ago, getting them from the library.  As time went on I started accumulating them on my Kindle.  A few years back my older sister got me the hardcover 20th Anniversary Edition of Outlander, prompting me to add any anniversary editions of the other books to my wish list.  I now have Dragonfly in Amber and Voyager in the 25th Anniversary Editions.  Since this author writes long and detailed stories so can have quite a few years between books, this collection may take a while.

Dreams Come True series by Stacey Keith

A couple years ago I received the first book in this series as an ARC.  I was lucky enough to get to read all three books in the series and fall in love with this author.  While she does the majority of her work as a ghost writer, I can’t help but anxiously await the day she releases more of her own stories. In the meantime, I need to get my hands on the paperback versions of this series for my own collection. And I’ll also recommend following her on Twitter.  She’s one smart cookie.

The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins

A long time ago, before the days of the Kindle and Nook, my husband got me an odd contraption called a Sony eReader.  I loved my eReader and got a lot of scorn from others who did not yet understand the joys of electronic books.  It wasn’t as easy to get books in this format at first, but it quickly easier and cheaper as the idea caught on.  It actually became quite easy to borrow books from an online library.  I stuck with my Sony when the other eReaders came out since I wasn’t about to spend the money on a new device when there wasn’t anything wrong with what I had.  Alas, my Sony finally went kaput and 95% of the books I had on it were not compatible for me to switch over to my new and shiny Kindle. This series is one I regret losing. I know it’s a looooong way off, but I’m looking forward to sharing these stories with my still unborn granddaughter some day.

Pier 70 series by Nicole Edwards

I have almost all of this author’s books on my Kindle.  I’m still working on filling in the gaps, but I have read all of her stories so it’s harder for me to justify spending money on a book once I’ve read the book. Regardless of having all almost all of her books and all of this particular series on my Kindle already, I’d love to also get the series in paperback.  As I said about the paranormal romance genre above, LGBTQ romance is a hard genre to sell other readers on if they’re not already fans. I’d like to pass these around a bit to change some minds.

Nancy Drew Mystery Stories by Carolyn Keene

I’m sure I’ve mentioned before that I grew up reading these books.  My mom had a boxed set that my older sister and I read again and again.  I don’t know what happened to those books, I just know they’re not around anymore.  I’m thinking this may be another series I’ll love sharing with my granddaughter someday.  Of course, things change a lot through the years so I better give them another read through first to make sure they’re not filled with racism and/or misogyny that I wouldn’t have been quite as aware of in my white cis lower middle-class childhood.  What I do remember is that I felt Nancy was such a go-getter.  Hopefully I’m remembering correctly.

The Dark Protectors series by Rebecca Zanetti

Another amazing paranormal romance series that I’d love to share with others.  (I actually first discovered this author on a recommendation I was from the above author, Nicole Edwards!)  As with the Lords of the Underworld series I mentioned earlier, I’ve read all of these stories through the library.  I’d love to have these in both Kindle and paperback editions.

There you have them.  Truth be told, I wouldn’t turn down any books, but these are the ones that popped in my head first.  I also didn’t mean for this to turn into a post about series, but that’s how things played out.

A side note for my family…if any of you are reading this you can just view this post as my Christmas/birthday list!