My dream home is one that has space for all the books I aspire to own. It will have several bookcases for nonfiction, two bookcases in or near the kitchen for all my cookbooks and foodie books (basically anything with a recipe in it), a large bookcase or two for my feminism/political science/sociology section, and a small bookcase for music.
As for fiction, I want one bookcase for every letter of the alphabet. That does not mean, of course, that I will have enough books in each letter to fill a bookcase. Some will overlap. I mean, I love Anna Quindlen, but I will never have as many Q’s as I have A’s (because Allende and Alvarez…also Austin…suffice it to say there are a lot of A’s). But just imagine – 26 bookshelves, all full of fiction. I’d never want to leave the house.
L is another letter that could use its own bookcase. As it is, it takes up two and a half shelves.The L shelves are the reason that my fiction and nonfiction are currently mixed together; I just can’t bring myself to separate Anne Lamott’s memoirs from her fiction. I want to keep all those babies together. Ditto for Jen Lancaster and C. S. Lewis.
The section of the L Shelves that I have pictured above highlight three of my favorite women to read. Anne Lamott spoke to a lot of my misgivings with various churches I attended and let me know I wasn’t all alone in the world. Jen Lancaster (shout out to Maggie for introducing me to Jen Lancaster, or JenLan as…only Maggie and I…call her) and Jenny Lawson started out as writers of blogs that I love and now have written books that I love. The L’s need their own bookcase so that I have room to own everything they ever write.
Any time I lack motivation or ambition, I just think of how glorious all those bookshelves will be, and it drives me.
What drives you?
I am writing 31 Days about my shelves and all the love I store on them.
M. Suzanne Terry 
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