Today’s Top Ten Tuesday topic from That Artsy Reader Girl asks us to consider books we’d like on our personal bookshelf.

Rudi would tell you that I own a lot of books. And I do. But I own way fewer books than I read. I couldn’t afford to be a reader if I had to buy every book I read. So these days I try not to buy too many books for my personal collection because I am neither made of money nor do I have unlimited (or even a reasonable amount of) space for them.

But if I did have a steady cash flow and a spare room with built-in bookshelves, here’s some of what I’d like to add to my personal library:

1. A complete unabridged copy of the Oxford English Dictionary (The last print addition was 20 volumes with three supplements. It’s the first thing I’m going to buy after I win the lottery (and procure a house in which to store it).)
2. The illustrated version of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, which will be published this fall
3. To be fair, I’d ideally like to own a copy of each of the sets of the Harry Potter series, but again that’s a wait until you win the lottery kind of acquisition.
4. Pumpkinheads by Rainbow Rowell and Faith Erin Hicks, which comes out today
5. Wayward Son by Rainbow Rowell, which comes out next month (she is the rare automatic-buy author for me)
6. The Lady Sherlock series by Sherry Thomas (I own the third book, but love this series enough I can envision rereading it over the years and it would be nice to have my own copies.)
7. I’m not sure if I finally procured a personal copy of The Polar Express or not (Christmas books are stored in the closet during the year), but if I haven’t, it’s one of my favorite picture books — and one I was originally introduced to in French.
8. Grace Lin’s beautifully illustrated middle-grade folklore books — Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, Starry River of the Sky, and When the Sea Turned to Silver
9. Erin Morgenstern’s upcoming The Starless Sea
10. Rebecca Stead’s When You Reach Me (I don’t think I own a copy of this book, but there is a possibility that I picked it up because I liked it so much after reading a library copy.)

Whoops. I didn’t read this carefully enough and apparently I was only supposed to include books I’ve already read, which reduces my list significantly. Oh well, I’m just going to hit publish anyway.

It wasn’t until earlier this week, when Rudi and I were sitting on the patio of our local coffeehouse, that I realized my shawl matches our summer sunsets. I wanted to try to capture that, so I apologize for the wrongly focused image, but it does catch the glint of the sparkles in the purple yarn better than other shots I’ve taken.

This week’s reading has included portions of a mystery set in wintry 1920s Vermont; a contemporary mystery set in India; a detective novel set in New Jersey in 1914; a feminist guide to linguistics; a graphic novel about Black Panther‘s kick-ass hero, Shuri; and a feminist y.a. novel set in the early 18th century. So mysteries, history, and feminism, basically.

Check out what other folks are reading and working on at As Kat Knits’ Unraveled Wednesday roundup.

Today’s Top Ten Tuesday topic from That Artsy Reader Girl is favorite tropes in our reading material.

Mine include:

1. Found families (if you’re surprised to find this at the top, you haven’t been paying attention)
2. Heists
3. Cozies (People who are not professional law officers solve crimes that stump aforementioned pros!)
4. Bequests that let you change your life
5. Nerdy girl/guy saves the day (Hermione forever)
6. Bad guy isn’t really a bad guy
7. Booklovers love books
8. Sisters are doin’ it for themselves (be they literal sisters or BFFs, they’ve got each other’s back)
9. Definitely not love at first sight (or even like, really)
10. Crossovers (I feel like this is getting more common as ways for authors to write sequels without writing sequels. Or when they have enough series where a character from one can show up in another.)

What are some of your favorite tropes/themes to discover in books?

Monday marks the start of the weeklong reading event called Bout of Books. I’m signing up once again.

The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda Shofner and Kelly Rubidoux Apple. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01 am Monday, August 19th, and runs through Sunday, August 25th, in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure. There are challenges, Twitter chats, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 26 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. – From the Bout of Books team

My goals for the event are simple:

1. Read at least 5 of the 7 days.
2. Take part in at least three of the non-reading events, such as Twitter chats, challenges, or commenting on someone else’s progress.
3. Blog here at least once more about my progress.

I admit that there’s been a lot going on around here behind the scenes recently, which hasn’t left me as focused as I’d like for knitting and reading. Half of my train travel this week was spent sleeping or drowsing and much of the other half mentally puttering, although I did pick up my knitting at each station we stopped at, offering passengers boarding the train the option of picking a seat next to me and my needles or next to someone else with less pointy occupations. (It worked to my advantage.)

I’m into the second set of mosaic knitting of the pattern, which puts me in the final third of the shawl. I love the color combination and the copper sparkle in the purple yarn (which never shows up in the photos I take) and the pattern itself. Were it not for my choosing to include a yarn that has both been munched on by moths and nicked by my ball winder’s gear (meaning I need to spit splice yarn back together with surprising frequency), I do believe I’d be done already. I recommend it to anyone who might want to work on a mosaic shawl, and I can see myself making a second one in the future (but with unnicked yarn next time).

I also thought I’d finish A Covert Affair, the second book in the Librarian and the Spy series), but I didn’t do that either. The first part of the book was set locally, but the characters are now off to India, so I’m hoping the change of scenery will interest me more. I started Hope Rides Again on the train (it seemed appropriate), but the opening chapters annoyed me. As I said to my book group today, probably what most annoys me is that real life Joe Biden continues to participate in the presidential bid, so I have very little sympathy for the fictional counterpart also engaged in that activity (as well as amateur sleuthing. But I’m also questioning some authorial choices, including having the fictional Joe reading a fictional version of the real first book in the series. It feels a little too on the nose and a little too self-congratulatory and a lot lazy, which is disappointing. I’m going to give it 50 pages, but there is a possibility it will go back to the library.

The audiobook du jour is Mackenzi Lee’s A Lady’s Guide to Petticoats and Piracy, which expired the last time I had it out before I had a chance to get very far into it. Our heroine is about to set forth for the Continent and a future in medicine and although I believe this means we will have to say farewell to Percy and Monty, I’m excited for Felicity’s prospects of getting to practice medicine again.

Head over to As Kat Knits to see what other people are reading and crafting.

I’ve got to catch a train in a few hours and would like a little sleep before then, so instead of knitting and the books I’m reading, I’m sharing this banner the Latvian Embassy is currently displaying. They’ve also added a Little Free Library to their property.