Happy Sunday, friends! I have been asked by several people to share the essays I wrote for my Eng 101 class. Now that class is over (and I made a 98%!) I feel comfortable in sharing my work. So here is the first one.

The assignment for our first essay was easy!

Choose from the topics and compose an essay of between 400-500 words. The topic I chose was: Write an essay about your favorite possession, describing it in detail and explaining why it is your favorite possession.
The essay was to be graded upon its idea development, organization, and mechanics.  My score was 50/50. Whoot!

Pages, Printings, and Adventures Galore

a diagnostic essay by: Bunny Cates
copyright: January 24, 2014
Plagiarism is shitty, do your own work!

It’s a hard thing to do, narrowing down one’s possessions from “the many” to “the thing” you’re proudest to own. Deciding which thing, if you had to choose, you’d rather not live without. Or at least, it should be. For me, it was easy. What other thing, when you see it is like seeing an old friend? Or like going home again? What other thing, no matter the time of day or the season, can whisk you off to some far away magical place, in mere seconds? I had no problems choosing what to list as my favorite possession. With over 1500 titles in my home library and over 2000 of them currently sitting on my wish list, my book collection earns the right to be listed as my “thing”, my favorite possession.

Even though my collection contains books from all genres, everything from bios to splatterpunk, one general theme is clearly predominant. Whether it be in truth, in intellectual thrills, or in flat out horror – the scarier the better. I have always been a huge fan of horror. Some of my favorite childhood memories are of drive-in scary movies with my father. When I got older, and could read, I can remember curling up in bed and reading scary books for hours. What kid gets in trouble for reading too much? This kid, that’s who.

My first real scare was with Stephen King’s IT. I thought it was amazing, and IT led to me to wanting to read more of Stephen King’s work. I started finding them at the local library, but returning them was hard. I wanted to keep them. Eventually, I stopped using the library all together, opting to purchase what I could afford instead. Not only did I find myself purchasing Stephen King books, but something amazing was happening. I was discovering new authors, as well. Like the author who was nearly always on the shelf beside Stephen King – Dean Koontz. I also found a new author, named Joe Hill. I loved his story HORNS. Imagine my surprise when I found out he was actually Stephen King’s son!

My Stephen King collection, was growing into a full on home library. As it grew, I began replacing the previously purchased cheaper paperbacks with better editions and hardbacks when possible. I began to catalog my acquisitions, and seeking out new authors. My wish list grew, and I began keeping a running inventory in a tablet in my purse. Since I was spending all this money on my books, I wanted to make sure I was caring for them properly. So, I educated myself on the proper care of books. I began cleaning them regularly and rotating titles out of direct sunlight to protect their covers from fading. As I would dust, I would reorganize trying to keep them categorized by genre. More importantly I began to do a yearly inventory and photograph every book as it was acquired, for insurance purposes. That is when I realized I wasn’t just a reader or a Stephen King fan. I had become a collector.

I love my books, more than any other “thing” in my home. Over the years, my love of the works of Stephen King has grown into my love of literature in general. This love of storytelling is showcased proudly in my collection of books. I can’t help but smile every time I stand back and see my book shelves, bursting with stories from every possible nook and cranny. If I had to choose any one possession to claim as my favorite to tell you about, I would have to tell you a story…about my collection of stories.