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.