This post was originally published at Novelicious.com and is now at WritingTipsOasis.com. WritingTipsOasis.com acquired Novelicious.com in June 2022.
Pass the tanning lotion, we’re in sunny Tenerife visiting the lovely Leah of popular book blog Chick Lit Reviews and News, to see what she keeps on her bedside table. Take it away, Leah. We'll be outside catching some rays.
When I was asked to take part in Novelicious’ My Bedside Table feature I couldn't wait, but now that I'm writing my post, I feel like a bit of a fraud because I don't actually have books on my bedside table. I fear I may be about to be struck down for being a bad book lover. In my defence, my bookshelf is right next to the bedside table (you can see it overflowing with books and trying to squeeze into the corner of the photo), so I see no reason to have my books on my bedside table when I can have them on my bookshelf. Am I forgiven? In the second picture of my room (below), you'll get a sneak peek of my to be read bookshelf. It has fairy lights around it and you'll see just a small fraction of the books I have to read. The second shelf down is all my must-read books, starting with the fascinating-sounding Ruby Slippers by Keir Alexander.
What I do have on my nightstand is an assortment of things. There are two pictures of my beautiful cousins – Jack and Molly. I love those kids to death, along with my other two cousins Ben and Maddie – though I don't yet have a picture of them. I also have my lava lamp. I LOVE lava lamps. I brought this one back from England in March last year and was super excited about it. I love putting it on and watching the lava move up and down. (I'm a bit sad, aren't I?) 
I've also got three little teddy bears – one is a Manchester United teddy, one I got when I went to see Diversity live last year, and the third is an Afghan Heroes teddy bear. There's also my alarm clock, which I got for Christmas one year to use as an iPod dock, but since I got the new iPod touch with the new charger point, I haven't actually used it. It's now just a clock.
The most important item on my bedside table is the picture of Scruffy, our dog. He passed away in September and it was devastating. We'd had him for four years, having inherited him from the owners of our house, along with Suki, our little Westie. It's such a good picture of him, taken by my Mam, and it just sums him up. I love looking at it and talking to him; losing him was really hard and it's nice to have the picture there to look at.
I really love my bedroom. It's my favourite place to read, to watch TV, to do everything, basically. I love being surrounded by my books and I just love to pick them up and look at them, and even smell them (some books smell really lovely). Because I live with my parents, my bedroom is my safe haven.
To prove that I'm not a total failure for not having books on my bedside table, I do have bookmarks instead. Most are from BookDepository.com, which sporadically sends bookmarks out with its books. I wish ALL booksellers did that; apart from collecting books, collecting bookmarks is my second favourite thing.
Oh, and if you're wondering what that weird thing is behind my bedside table with a t-shirt on, it's a lifesize image of Fernando Alonso of course!
Thanks, Leah!
If you would like to be featured in the My Bedside Table feature, you can email kerry@writingtipsoasis.com