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Member: BiblioFool

CollectionsYour library (3,051)

Reviews32 reviews

Tagsjuvenile fiction (311), canadian (263), picture book (219), horse (197), arc (187), horses (179), fiction (167), SO (148), kids nf (146), teen fiction (132) — see all tags

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GroupsChildren's Literature, Knitters Inc., What did YOU buy today?, Writer-readers

About meI'm a writer living on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada. I review books, work part time in a fabulous independent bookstore (Bolen Books), and am involved with various writing, literacy, and children's book/author organizations.

About my libraryIt's a mess! And, it's everywhere! I have no idea how many books I have (that's part of the joy of this LT project, I might actually get a handle on what I have buried in the bookshelves... current estimate somewhere between 5,000 and 7,000 books). Due to work (I write a books column for a regional parenting magazine, edit the Children's Literature Roundtable newsletter, review for the CBRA, and work in the kids section at the bookstore) I have a LOT of children's books. From picture books to non fiction to early readers, teen fiction, hi-los, pop-ups - you name it, they take up plenty of shelf space. Canadians are well represented in the collection... There are quite a few ARCs (Advance Reader Copies) and even a couple of spiral bound manuscripts (my all-time fave is the spiral bound copy of Artemis Fowl I scored from a book rep! Colfer even signed the first page when he did an event at Bolen Books! He was rather taken aback when I presented the manuscript for his signature - I was afraid he was going to confiscate it!)

People assume that with all the childen's books I must run a kindergarten or something, but no - those are all mine. And while I don't go quite as far as forbidding children to touch my precious volumes, I keep close track of them when the nieces and nephews come to visit. There's also plenty of fiction for big people, travel accounts, art and photography books, contemporary poetry (mostly obscure Canadians), writing reference books (I teach writing workshops and I'm always looking for new ideas for fun exercises and strategies), memoirs and biographies, reference books related to various subjects I write about (for example, I have lots of Gold Rush and Pony Express reference books that I read as background for the two historical novels I wrote for young readers), plenty of horse books (I also have four horses), gardening, crafting, and cooking also take up quite a bit of room. And then there are the random books that I acquired for reasons long forgotten, but to which I have become attached...

What about the public library? Well, I use that too - except for when I've accumulated so many fines I can't afford to pay them off. My basic nature is perpetually underorganized so keeping track of library books has always been a bit of a challenge. Beware those who feel the need to lend me a book! (Yes, Jane, I still have the Javier Marias...] Mostly, though, I like to own the books myself so I can re-read, compare, collect works by favourite authors or on particular subjects. I like to know that at midnight when I'm working on an article, or a review, or an author profile, or a new book that I can walk over to the shelf and take down the reference books I need. That, to me, is bliss incarnate.

Have I read all the books in my library? No. Do I have room for them all on the shelves? No... there are boxes full in the basement, waiting for more shelf construction. Do I have a book problem? Absolutely!

Homepagehttp://www.nikkitate.blogspot.com

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Real nameNikki Tate

LocationVancouver Island, British Columbia

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Account typepublic, lifetime

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Member sinceOct 2, 2006