This post was originally published at Novelicious.com and is now at WritingTipsOasis.com. WritingTipsOasis.com acquired Novelicious.com in June 2022.
We're in Salisbury today snooping around Sharon's mammoth book collection. Working for an insurance company by day, Sharon devours books by night and runs the popular Shaz's Book Blog. Over to you, Sharon.
Living alone, I have the advantage of not one but two bedside tables to take over with my stuff, and it’s amazing how much you can fit into a small double room…
Although I live alone and don’t have to worry about disappearing for a bit of me time, sanctuary, peace and quiet (cross out whichever one applies to you), I still love nothing more than curling up in bed under my duvet and losing myself in a good book. It’s my favourite place to read. The hours just seem to fly by when I’m there and, before I know it, it’s time to get back to real life! 
I don’t have bookcases, mainly because I would need loads of them and, sadly, I just don’t have the space so my bedside table is full with the review books that are in my current TBR pile. At first, only the bedside table on the right side of the bed had books on it, but as my review pile has grown out of control, books are starting to pile up on the other one too.
My main bedside table has my digital radio alarm clock to wake me up (although generally I’m wide wake long before it goes off), my mobile phone – even though I’m not a massive user of it for calls or texts, I do use it regularly for the internet (what did we ever do before smart phones?), and then there are the books. Currently, there are two different sets of books on there; the backlog of 2013 review books that I’m working my way through and the pile of books that I’ve chosen for my Christmas Reading Challenge this month (I won’t get through them all but I’ll give it a good try). There's The Midnight Rose by Lucinda Riley, The Unpredictable Consequences of Love by Jill Mansell, Bad Angels by Rebecca Chance and A Winter Flame by Milly Johnson to name just a few.
Because I was feeling overwhelmed with the volume of books on my main bedside table, I moved the review books I’ve already received for 2014 onto the other one. As well as these titles, my left hand bedside table has my most prized possession…a rolodex photo album, which has photos of my nearest and dearest. The current photo is one of the last pictures I have of my mum, which was taken on her 50th birthday, a couple of years before she died. She’d never had a flower delivery before so she was pleased as punch to receive two that day; this photo brings back happy memories of mum, as this period of time was when she was at her happiest.
The review books are not the only books in my flat; I could open a mini library with the volume of titles I own, but sadly, I don’t have the room to display them as they so lovingly deserve. When I win the lottery and buy my dream house, the first criteria has to be the perfect room to house my mammoth book collection.
At the moment the books at the top of my TBR pile – for when I clear my reviews backlog – are in the drawers of the bedside table on my left, but the rest are piled up along the left hand side of the bed so it’s just as well I don’t have a partner as he wouldn’t be able to get to bed! There are big, plastic storage crates full of books too, and multiple piles sat on top. At a guess, I would have to say there are 300+ books in total. I do regularly try to have a clear out, giving books to friends or to charity shops, but when I’m continually buying new books, the piles seem to be increasing rather than decreasing. I already know I’m getting more Amazon vouchers for Christmas so these books will have new bedmates soon!
Thanks, Sharon!
If you would like to be featured in the My Bedside Table feature, you can email kerry@writingtipsoasis.com