Books, Books, Books

I love books. I have more than a hundred books in my room and every time I stare at my bookshelf, I’m always wondering how does it feel if I don’t have those fabulous books.

Yes, I’m in love with my collection. I treated them carefully like jewels. I collected them since years ago – and some of them I got it from my favorite second-hand bookshops, Omuniuum and Reading Lights.

So, here I just want to share my favorite books – among the many. I will talk about them one by one later, but here’s a recap. Just so you know 🙂

Marie Antoinette – The Journey by Antonia Fraser

Since I am a big fan or Marie Antoinette, this book is one of my precious books ever. Please ignore Kirsten Dunst’s face in the cover – the book offers more intriguing history of the last queen of France. The movie was not as good as I expected, but this book is great. I was looking for this book for years, and ordered it in Times bookstore. I finally had it few months later, in a good price!
Now the book is safe in my bookshelf, and never got out of my room.

The Queen’s Confession by Victoria Holt

Just like Antonia Fraser, Victoria Holt also wrote the complete history of Queen Antoinette. But this one is more exciting as she wrote it as a novel. Just like a historical fiction with the Queen’s point of view, reading this book is like experiencing the story myself. Actually I have two copies of this book, just in case if anyone would borrow it.

The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova

Beside Marie Antoinette, my other obsession is vampire or dracula. No, not the blingy bloodsucking boy under the sun – I’m talking about the real myth, the damned creature with fangs. This book is telling the story about Dracula, which originally was a Romanian prince named Vlad Tepes III from Wallachia. I shall tell you more about this book, since this is a must-have book for real vampire lovers (but perhaps would be shocking for those who love the overly sensitive glittered vampire from Forks, Washington).

Tales From Shakespeare

First time I read Shakespeare was on 7th grade. I fell in love with Romeo and Juliet immediately, and my shcoolmate had this Tales From Shakespeare book which soon became my favorite ever since. I bought Penguin’s Tales From Shakespeare book three times, because I lost it whenever someone borrowed it. Which made me learn my lesson, to never lend it to anyone. Now I have the illustrated book, thanks to my boyfriend who bought it for me in Singapore. Never got bored with the stories, and way much easier to understand than the plays. Although, of course, watching Shakespeare’s tragedies like R+J and Hamlet is always a good experience.

Blood and Gold by Anne Rice

Anne Rice is the world’s best vampire stories’ writer of all time. Screw Stephenie Meyer. Miss Anne’s version of vampire is the best described of a damned creature – flawlessly gorgeous, unhuman abilities, with fangs and astonishing history of their creation. You might remember Lestat from the famous movie Interview With The Vampire (with Tom Cruise as Lestat, and Brad Pitt as Louis) – yes, this book tell the story of Marius and Lestat, and all the drama. I got this hardcover book around 2005-2006 from Omuniuum for only Rp 60,000 (less than US$6) in an almost-perfect condition. How can I not love this book.

Horrible Histories Books by Terry Deary

For me, history is my favorite subject in school. And Terry deary did such a remarkable job by putting boring histories into an interesting illustrated book. My first Horrible Histories book was Angry Aztecs, and I’ve been craving for more ever since. So far I collected about nine books – mostly about British history (Victorians, Stuarts, England kings and queens). But I’m still looking for another series, of course. I wouldn’t mind if anyone would give me the French series 😛 Who said learning history can’t be fun? It is fun with this book – well, at least for me.

Barbara Cartland’s Books

I love Barbara Cartland. Just like any other girl in the world, I love romance. And I think Barbara Cartland is truly the queen of romance book. She wrote zillions of historical romance – I can’t hardly pick which one is my favorite since I love them all. Each novel gives not only a graceful description of 1800s England romance, but also exciting adventures like French war, Nepal expedition, even Thailand suspense. Her novel is never outdated, and I treasure every book from Dame Barbara.

There are still a lot to put in this list – but I guess it would be never ending. So that’s it for now.
So which one is yours? 🙂