Hello!

I love books and am in the process of building a fairly significant personal library. My primary collection consists of children's picture books, where I endeavor to find the perfect combination of text and art. I can be extremely picky in choosing these books and buy first-edition hard-covers whenever I can. I also enjoy literature and fiction and have more novels than is probably necessary in my permanent collection. If I love a book I will revisit it every few years and would never be able to let go of MY copies of books.

My bookcrossing bookshelf is entirely separate to my permanent collection - I could never mark (with BCID or anything else) a book from my own shelf - and is generally stocked with books that I have enjoyed reading in the past or would like to read in the future. I source these books from second hand (generally charity) shops with the sole idea in mind that they will eventually be released and are quite often second (or third) copies of books that belong in my permanent collection.

I like to read a fairly diverse selection of books, though I am really not keen on crime, thriller, horror or historical/ autobiographical works. I don't mind the odd bit of chick-lit, but not to the point where I would keep any in my permanent collection. I also quite like teen fiction, though not the werewolf/ vampire ones that are so popular at the moment.

Authors I enjoy include:

Peter Carey, Tim Winton, Margaret Atwood, JK Rowling, DM Cornish, JR Tolkien, Shaun Tan, Graeme Base, Craig Silvey, Jane Austen, Roger Zelazny, Audrey Niffenegger, CS Lewis, Jonathon Safran Foer, Brian Selznick, Jon Scieszka, Lemony Snicket, Jonathon Franzen, Joseph Heller, Douglas Adams, Margaret Wild.

This list only includes authors for whom I've read more than one of their books (and often multiple times). It's a bit all over the shop, but could be a lot longer with a bit more thinking (and if I had my library in front of me, which (sadly) I don't).