Book Shelf Challenge: What Are Local Guides Reading? #bookshelfchallenge

[JordanBurleson]

I know that many Local Guides not only love to travel in the real world but also love taking adventures through the pages of a good book. I’m curious to know what many of you are reading? Do you love reading something new all the time and then return or sell the copy? Or do you, like me, re-read your favorites again and again and sometimes even amass multiple copies/versions?

The Book Shelf Challenge

My challenge to you is a simple one. Take a photo/screenshot of:

• Your favorite book
• A book you are currently reading
• Your entire bookcase/shelf
• Your favorite section or shelf
• Your e-reader’s shelf or copy if you don’t have physical copies

Then write something short and sweet and use the hashtag #bookshelfchallenge so other guides can get inspired, find a great new book, or learn more about you!

I will get us started

My Tolkien Shelf

This is my favorite section of my bookcase. It houses multiple copies of The Hobbit, Lord of The Rings, The Silmarillion, multiple volumes about the history of Middle Earth, and collectibles from the film franchise based on the novels. This is my favorite area because Tolkien is my favorite author. I read The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Silmarillion, and Unfinished Tales once a year, and have been since I was 17 years old. I love Tolkien’s works because I can always find an escape, hope in dark times, the value of friendships, the power of duty, making the most of a bad situation, and that not all tears are evil.

Now Your Turn

Now it is your turn to share your favorite book/shelf/series. What are you reading? What books can you not get enough of?cWhat can you share using the #bookshelfchallenge?

[BeatrizAguilar]

@JordanSB this is a good challenge that I think some local guides of #teamtacos might find interesting, @LightRich what do you think?

I currently prefer read ebooks. Since I moved to another country, I’ve given all my books to the public library in my city. But, I brought some books with me because they have emotional value to me. One of them is: El Principito, Antoine De Saint-Exupéry.

[JordanBurleson]

@BeatrizAguilar I forgot to mention e-books! I can include it in the original challenge post so I don’t discourage any readers who are away from home or who prefer to read on an electronic device! Thank you!

As for your selection, I have never read The Little Prince but I do believe it would be perfect for me to read to my 3 boys! Great choice!

[BeatrizAguilar]

That’s perfect @JordanSB ! E-books are popular too. I’m wondering, how does a e-book shelf look like?

I recommend reading of The Little Prince because is a short story of a boy from another planet with a curiosity that leads the reader to sobering answers. Very good to promote values.

[JordanBurleson]

@BeatrizAguilar I was very interested in that e-bookshelf as well so I looked up mine. Turns out people can share those images. Here is mine!

[AlexandreCampbell]

Hi @JordanSB . It is a sweetie challenge. Reading more is one of my resolutions to 2021, and because of it, I recently bought an e-reader. I do prefer reading physical books, but an e-reader is more convenient (less space, you can find books in other languages easily, etc.). It is the book that I’m reading now: A promised land, by Barack Obama. It’s the second Obama’s book that I read, and I’m enjoying it a lot.

Before this book, I read “Slavery” by Laurentino Gomes, a Brazilian Journalist who writes history from a journalistic perspective (no clichés, no invention, just journalism, and history). As the famous quote: “those who fail to learn from history are condemned to repeat it”. It was the first of 3 volumes, and I’m looking forward to the next ones.

I loved your bookshelf section, very diversified. I also love to read about different subjects: from History to Harry Potter.

#bookshelfchallenge

[JordanBurleson]

I have loved reading both of Barack Obama’s books, @AlexandreCampbell ! I remember reading the first one while he was president and it provided interesting insight.

The second one, Slavery, looks interesting as well. I am with you, I can just as easily sit down with some fantasy, some young adult fiction, or a good biography!

[AdamGT]

An interesting topic @JordanSB . You can tell a lot about a person from what they read. Sadly however, being totally honest, I am not and have never been a big book reader but having said that, I have a fascination with old books and for this reason, I love visiting secondhand bookstores. I love the smell and feel of old books. I love holding them and touching them. I love browsing through their pages and reading a bit here and there. I’ve even bought some lol. Don’t get me wrong, I have read some books.

What books can I not get enough of?

One book in particular, first published over 100 years ago, I have read several times and will very likely read it again because it is just one of those amazing books. As for other favorite books, well I have a bent towards travel and geographic type books with lots of great photos. I’ll mention but a few of these below but I do have many books like these.

1. Earth from above is one of my favorite books - I guess this might be a coffee table type book but to me it’s so much more. At 300 x 370 x 40mm, it’s by far my biggest book and at 4.6Kg the heaviest . It has some 460 pages of amazing photos of our planet. The photo shown below of the White Horse of Uffington is an example of the amazing photos in this book. This is a 365-foot-long (111 m) silhouette of a horse carved into the chalky side of a hill in the county of Oxfordshire, west of London. Its similarity to the designs on ancient coins suggests that it is the work of Celts in the Iron Age, around 100 B.C. It’s a great illustration of the age-old human desire to trace onto the landscape images of power and dreams.
2. Another favorite and yes, another heavy book of mine is Antarctica. Once again full of amazing photos of this frontier continent.
3. Bhutan is yet another book about this amazing country and full of amazing photographs of life and culture there.
4. The 1910 book called The Science of Getting Rich is a book I’ve read several times and is one of those books that can change your life. There are a number of versions of this book, but I like this original retro first edition hardcover version which was faithfully reproduced to appear exactly like the original in terms of font style etc. I’ve actually been searching secondhand bookstores around the world for a copy of the original 1910 version.
5. While not anywhere in the same class of the above books, I also like creating my own books and gift these to my family and friends. These are basically journals of various trips and contain photos and stories about my many travels.

[Bobiisha]

Hey @JordanSB ,

I just love this challenge and I can’t miss taking part. So here are my photos:

On the second photo is the last book I read - ‘‘To kill a mockingbird’’ and the book I’m reading now “The Picture of Dorian Gray”.

P.S.: My favorite books so far are “The fountainhead” by Ayn Rand and “Стопанката на Господ” by Розмари Де Мео (I don’t think it has been translated). And yes, I re-read my favorites as well.

[Bobiisha]

Hey @AdamGT ,

I wanted to say that I just love everything about Bhutan and I will look for the book that you mentioned. I also found out details about this country in another book I read - ‘‘The Geography of Bliss’’ by Eric Weiner and since then it’s been on my bucket list. I don’t know how it would feel living so differently than what we are used to but I really hope to get the chance to visit.

[AdamGT]

Oh @Bobiisha , we have something very much in common then. I also loveeverything about Bhutan…so much history, so much spirituality, so much amazing art and ceremony, and so much amazing landscape to see (ike the monastery-hermitage of Taksang, perched precariously on the side of a mountain - shown on the book’s cover) in such a uniquely distinct and small country, quietly tucked away between massive China and India. The Book Bhutan, the land of serenity is by Matthieu Ricard (a Buddhist monk and photographer) and published by Thames & Hudson. It’s an old book, but you’ll easily find it at that big online bookstore. It’s a small easy to read book full of amazng photos. I love it, and had to mention it I do have another great book about Bhutan but for some reason it’s missing from it’s usual resting place. Hmmm a mystery!

ps: Now do let me know if you get the book as I’d love to hear what you think.

[Bobiisha]

Thank you so much for the detailed information, @AdamGT . I sure will let you know once I have the book and I am really looking forward to it, as I spend so much team on the internet just looking at photos from Bhutan. :]

[JordanBurleson]

@AdamGT I also love a good coffee table book. I have several books from the world of Tolkien, one about New Zealand with amazing photos of the North and South island, and another one from a famous photographer in North Carolina.

@Bobiisha I love seeing your shelf. It has been a long time since I’ve read To Kill a Mockingbird and The Picture of Dorian Gray but I loved both. I also read two of Ayn Rand’s novels every two years…The Fountainhead and my personal favorite Atlas Shrugged.

[agarwalsonika]

Beautiful book collection! My favourite books are the Harry Potter series…

[Bobiisha]

Hey @JordanSB ,

I must say I stumbled upon the ‘‘Atlas Shrugged’’ title a few times. I’ll make sure to get it next time. Thanks!

[StephenAbraham]

@JordanSB It’s a really interesting post, and happy to see what so many others are reading.

Currently I am just reading through Dale Carnegie’s “How to stop worrying and start living” and it is helping me get through the very difficult last few months when life is a struggle locally here trying to help many other less fortunate people and friends get through Covid-19, jobs, financial difficulties and more. Although personally I am not affected as much, but it has been a struggle helping out other less fortunate friends and people. Hopefully in the next few months, most of us can move on as we put the pandemic to rest.

Each day is a new day, and each day, there are opportunities to make life better for ourselves and for others around us.

Also, I am also reading through the Silk Road: A new history of the world. Trying to learn about all the historical civilizations in the past, so when the world finally opens up again, I can travel and visit all these places with wide open eyes.

[JanVanHaver]

Great idea @JordanSB , so I gladly share some pics here to take part in the #bookshelfchallenge [BTW: there’s a typo in the hastag in the title of your post]

Here a picture showing the shelves that contain some of my favorite books. I like good storytellers, hence the books by writers such as Umberto Eco, John Irving, Hilary Mantel and the Millenium trilogy (which is the perfect illustration of the fact that the book is usually much better than the movie). I am always in the middle of reading some book, and when I get towards the end of 1 book I get nervous when I haven’t decided which one will be the next

I do like to switch between reading fiction and non-fiction - some examples of the latter being Homo Deus (Yoval Noah Harari), Capital in the 21st Century (Thomas Piketty) or the Elon Musk biography. One of the most recent ones I read was the one at tge right of the top shelf: The Future is Faster than You Think (Diamandis / Kotler), which I enjoyed very much - this decade looks so promising, although it is hard to imagine that given the current circumstances . My most recent fiction book was Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami, which I did not buy, but borrowed from the library (as I often do with fiction).

And did you notice the yellow book on the top shelf that has the Maps pin on it? It is called Never Lost Again by Bill Killday and actually tells the story of the early days of Google Maps. An interesting read as well! And by the way: the titles that make no sense to you: that’s Dutch, my mothertongue.

In terms of favorite author, I do have to mention John Irving. As you can see in this picture, I have purchased and read most of his work, and I plan to reread at least some of them… when I would find the time. Two other books on the Irving sheld are also worthe mentioning: Bad Science by Ben Goldacre (on how you need to be extremely carefum with things like statistics and claims from scientists outside the domain of their specialty) and Things the Grandchildren Should Know, which is written by Mark Oliver Everett, a.k.a. “E”, the frontman of the band Eels (my all time favorite band).

And finally I want to show what I am reading now (well, just started actually): The Narrow Corridor by Acemoglu and Robinson. The topic of the book is how a society can be orgnaized in such a way that the citizens have a maximum amount of liberty, while being provided the stuff they need by the state. I purchased the book while the book shown on the right, Why Nations Fail (by the same authors), is one of my all time favorites. If you ask me it should be a mandatory read for everyone responsible for teaching history and economics, as it contains really nice insights into the way everything is connected, and helps you better understand some of the things we witness in everyday life even today.

[HUMBERTO_V]

Actualmente estoy leyendo este libro “Historias de Frontera”, este no es un libro de historia, sino de historias, de relatos de personas y situaciones que reúne setenta narraciones de carácter histórico sobre un mismo ámbito territorial de la frontera Hispano-Francesa, de la Cerdaña al mar Mediterráneo. El historiador Josep Clarà constata el papel de la frontera como refugio en épocas conflictivas y emigraciones políticas, como espacio para preparar movimientos desestabilizadores del sistema vigente. También la frontera como territorio privilegiado de actividades clandestinas y como trampa para dejar la vida. Como lugar de control gubernativo y militar, para garantizar la defensa del territorio ante enemigos eventuales, y como espacio donde los derechos humanos no son respetados. Como escenario de episodios de la vida económica, religiosa y social de las poblaciones que se seña- taren. Y el autor tampoco olvida el hecho de que, en la frontera, no se levantan sólo límites o muros territoriales, sino que marcan poder, dependencia y subordinación entre las personas. #bookshelfchallenge

[JordanBurleson]

@StephenAbraham I love that book. I bet it would be great to pick back up during COVID-19 times!

@JanVanHaver your library and reading recommendations are amazing. Love the variety. The history of Google Maps sounds like something to add to my list and I’ve only read one John Irving book. I need to read more. Thank you for the spelling catch. It has been fixed now.

@HUMBERTO_V that collection of short stories sounds interesting! A huge fan of books that are collections of short stories. It makes for a quicker read and I love changing it up of I bore of one.

[Richardson]

Bem interessante suas opções de leitura. Eu gosto de vários autores brasileiros porém em especial sou fã de Charles Bukowski. Leitura que considero fácil e envolvente. Meu livro preferido é “Cartas na rua”.

#bookshelfchallenge