How I See My Ideal Bookshelf

When it comes to books, fantasy has always been my favorite genre. I love coming home after a long day to open a book that just sweeps me off my feet and carries me off to a fantasy land of dragons, elves, magical story books, annoying little sisters, and scary headmistresses who can throw little girls by their pigtails. On my ideal bookshelf, seven out of the eight books I chose fall into the fantasy genre: Tales, Poems, and Essays of Edgar Allan Poe, The Penderwicks, Eragon, Matilda, Frindle, Beezus and Ramona, and The Land of Stories: The Wishing Spell.

As much as I enjoy fantasy books, every once in a while, I come across a nonfiction, an autobiography, or a biography in which the main character’s life is so much like my own, that it zaps me, almost like a taser, right in the heart. Fresh Off the Boat: A Memoir, an autobiography and the eighth book on my ideal bookshelf, is certainly one of them. Even though the vast majority of the novels I read can only be true in a made-up utopian world, I have learned an immense amount ofvital life lessons from those fantasy books. When I read Matilda for the first time, I hated it. Ms. Trunchbull frightened the life out of me. When I got a few years older, I reread the book and started to find some of Roald Dahl’s slightly dark humor extremely hilarious. However, it wasn’t until two years ago, when I went back with a lot of new knowledge and analyzed the book did I realize that the book might not have been meant to be completely humorous. Dahl uses the utter ridiculousness of characters such as Ms. Trunchbull to cover up the fact that Matilda’s parents are borderline abusive to her. I have probably overanalyzed this book far too much, and Roald Dahl might have meant it as nothing more than a funny children’s book, but it really opened my eyes to many social issues such as neglect and abuse that is way more common than I’d like to believe.

I remember reading The Land of Stories: The Wishing Spell in fourth grade. Back then, I strived to be a logical and fact-based person who always listens to her head. In novel, one of the main characters, Alex, was exactly the type of person I aimed to become. However, throughout the book, she made so many mistakes. About halfway through the book, she drastically misinterprets a letter and ended up leading herself and her twin brother Conner into a dangerous trap. Had she not been listening to her head and so reliant on logic, but had been listening to her gut instead, she would have been safe. Alex made me realize that life isn’t always logical, it isn’t always based on facts, and my head was definitely not always right.

Fresh off the Boat: A Memoir, is one of the most relatable books I have ever read in my entire life. The book is an autobiography of Eddie Huang, a Taiwanese American foodie, that focuses on his Asian immigrant background. When I was seven years old and in the second grade, I immigrated to the United States from China with my family. I was an antisocial Chinese girl who spoke broken English. It really shouldn’t come as any surprise that none of my fellow peers wanted to be friends with me. Eddie Huang went through pretty much everything I did when I first moved to Portland. The novel talks about his Asian family, and a handful of their customs, superstitions, and strict rules. That part of the book is still something I like to reread whenever my parents try to enforce their superstitions of waving pomelo leaves in front of my face when I have a bad day. This book gives me a sense of comfort knowing that I’m not alone; it also makes me laugh at how utterly ridiculous his family can be.

In a very weird yet comical way, my books on my ideal bookshelf reflect my social life. I’m not a very adventurous person that hates venturing out of my social circle. This reflects on my book choice because in a way, fantasy books are my social circle, or my comfort zone. I very rarely give other books the light of day. But when I do, just like when I find the courage to venture out of my social circle, I always end up with a new friend, just like I always end up with a new favorite book. The eight books on my ideal bookshelf not only taught me so much about life, they also reflect my personality in an abnormal, yet hilarious way.