Happy "new year" (according to The Book Shelf)

Welcome back, readers!

For all intents and purposes, The Book Shelf is wishing all of you a happy new year after a January pause on the online shop and blogging. I found myself mentally balancing two worlds after the holiday season: wildly grateful for 2024 in helping to bring the beginning vision of The Book Shelf to life AND deeply ready to expand that vision into what might come next. Think of it this way: I wanted to take this small, glistening, freshly made snowball I was holding and roll it down a big old hill, watching which way it would travel and grow.

January was the first hill I sent my snowball of an idea down, and I spent the month in a glorious state of reading, being creative, planning, reflecting, making new connections and intentionally putting myself 'out there' and into new situations.

Like a lot of people, I find an immense amount of comfort in the familiar; call it knowing what makes me happy, call it anxious tendencies, call it fear of failure, call it feeling safe when I know what to expect. I am (mostly) at peace with all of these parts of me. However, when going live with The Book Shelf last year, I promised myself that the only way failure would be defined in this space would be if I didn't follow my creative instincts or allowed myself to get bogged down with what didn't work. Because let's be honest: life is a collection of starts, stops, falls and restarts. None of those stumbles, personally or professionally, define a person unless one stays in the stumble.

So let's look at the early life of The Book Shelf (who will never stay in a stumble, by the way) AND what direction that 'January snowball' has taken!

STARTS! Transforming my vision of a book bundle into something physical has been an act of love, joy and authenticity. I am not a fast reader, I don't get to 100 books read in a year; it is my relationship to reading, to books, that sets me apart with my vision.

Reading IS personal, that personal journey is UNIQUE to each reader and defining what a READER is should never fit in a box. It is my belief (and one that has been communicated in various ways over the last 5 months of The Book Shelf) that we find what we need from stories: whether that is a new perspective, a safe space, inspiration, release or escape.

In all the ways my book bundle offerings do (and will) pivot, grow and evolve -- THIS reading vision is the start to everything.

STOPS! This is such a fantastic, vulnerable and important part of The Book Shelf's journey. Guess what? Every book bundle idea I brought to life simply just didn't translate. And that is more than okay. In the removal or absence of something, new life always grows.

While I personally feel passion personified about middle grade novels, and believe in the power they can have in a younger person's world; they did not belong as the majority of The Book Shelf's collection. As it turns out, a lot of adult readers are not simply looking here to gift a book bundle, but are also deeply looking to love themselves with a new book.

(P.S. You might notice I said 'love themselves' not 'treat themselves' because the act of reading should never feel like something one has to earn. Stories are essential.)

FALLS! Vulnerability, take 2!

I created WAY too many pre-made book bundles for my first online Holiday Shop. I believed in every single story shared, I loved having meaningful reading options for every age group (Adult, Teen, Middle Grade, Young Reader) and creating something visually beautiful gave a lot of love to multiple senses.

However, the overwhelming majority of book bundle holiday purchases were from The Book Shelf's Made To Order forms! In reflection, I think I 'simply' had too much choice to peruse through. My December customers, in telling me about the reader they wanted to build a book bundle for, were often describing storytelling styles and genres of books I already had. I found myself (more often than not) dismantling pre-made bundles to reconfigure with new finds, creating additionally specific bundles.

It is truly a gift to learn from and accept when something does not work. Sure, space could be interpreted as 'empty', but in The Book Shelf world -- it is an invitation for trying something new.

RESTARTS! That something new has blossomed my book bundles into BOOK BOUQUETS for the upcoming Valentine/ Galentine/ Spring season. Goodness, do I love the process, shape and feel of these reading vessels (isn't that a cool term?)

For these book bouquets, I read, researched and was so deeply thoughtful about the chosen stories that I am revolving my bouquets around. I knew I wanted to focus on the depth of 'only' 2 themes: Romance and Galentines. THIS is how I define these subjects here at The Book Shelf:

1️⃣ ROMANCE: The wildly different collection of love stories offered in the bouquets range from offbeat, historical and forbidden, fantastical, later in life connections, and friends to lovers.

Love in all forms is complex and multilayered as anything — THAT is what each of these books has in common. However, writing style, genre, and overall storytelling differs purposefully between each selection.

2️⃣ GALENTINES: The word is playing as an adjective here! The first time I was introduced to the concept of 'Galentine’s Day' was from the incomparable Leslie Knope on Parks and Recreation (IYKYK ♥️) The Book Shelf honors the nature of a galentine as being a fierce, strong, brave, ever-evolving female force; in her own life, in her own relationships, and in her own love journey.

Every novel chosen under this ‘galentine umbrella’ is SO diverse from each other in time period, level of emotion, writing style, storytelling (some fiction, some based on true events), and individual pain and successes.

Be it in the traditional form of a book bundle, or the creative twist of a book bouquet, The Book Shelf forever remains committed to making reading personal; which is undoubtedly the ever constant thread through the starts, stops, falls and restarts of being human (and being professional).

Cheers to the first snowball of 2025 -- and here's to an abundance of new, pivoted and exploratory paths for The Book Shelf this year.

As always -- happy reading!