Let's Play the Shelf Game!

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Close your eyes. Pick a shelf number and a book number — say, the third shelf and the second book. Now go to your bookcase. Find the third shelf and pull out the second book. You’re a winner!

Everyone’s a winner in the Shelf Game. Because everyone has a book in hand. It’s a book you might have forgotten about. Or a book you never got a chance to read. Or a book you loved and now’s your chance to read it and love it again.

And even if you grab a book that you didn’t completely dig, no worries. You’re still a winner! Just close your eyes and pick another book.

photo(1)It’s fun for the whole family. And we’re playing the Shelf Game every week here in our office. One lucky Algonkian gets to choose a shelf number and book number and grab that book from the shelves of our Editorial department – where we have a copy of every book Algonquin has ever published in order. (Yes, really. Every book. All the books. It’s a book dream.) Then we’ll share it with you as we rediscover some of our Algonquin favorites from days gone by.

Our first contestant is Algonquin publicist extraordinaire Emma Boyer, who picked Shelf 14 Book 7 — Lucky Us by Joan Silber. Winner!

Which book did you pick from your shelf? Tell us in the Comments section.

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20 comments on “Let's Play the Shelf Game!

  1. A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN! One of my top five books of all time. (By the way, in the late eighties and nineties, while I was raising five children, I used to go to the library and choose books for myself based on size and how the covers looked — in other words, if it was an Algonquin Press of Chapel Hill book, I was SURE to like it.) You got me through many wonderful (and sometimes trying) years of childrearing. 🙂

  2. A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN! One of my top five books of all time. (By the way, in the late eighties and nineties, while I was raising five children, I used to go to the library and choose books for myself based on size and how the covers looked — in other words, if it was an Algonquin Press of Chapel Hill book, I was SURE to like it.) You got me through many wonderful (and sometimes trying) years of childrearing. 🙂

  3. I picked Descent by Tim Johnston. I loved that book and loaned it to so many friends that I forgot that I had it back again. Think it’s time for a re-read.

  4. I picked Ladies Night by Mary Kay Andrews. Believe it or not, as much as I love Andrews’ writing, I’ve not read this one yet. Looking forward to it!!! By the way, what a great idea!!!!

  5. I ended up with Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck. Its’ one of my favorite reads.

  6. I did this a little differently because I wanted to be sure to pull an Algonquin book, in keeping with the spirit of the website, so I decided I’d pick the fifth book on the list of books that popped up when I put “Algonquin” into the search term box for my collection at LibraryThing. I got The Transcriptionist by Amy Rowland. It’s one of those books that came in the door, got shelved, and hasn’t yet been read — but it sounds wonderful and I’m looking forward to reading it now.

  7. “Crossing to safety” By Wallace Stegner …….#1 in my author pantheon.
    Having just finished David Gessner’s new book about about Stegner and Abbey, would like to read his wife’s latest.

  8. Dragonfly in Amber by Diana Gabaldon! Great book! 🙂

  9. I chose Shelf 2, Book 3 which was…..

  10. Surprise! I actually pulled an Algonquin title at Shelf 4 book 10. Raney by Clyde Edgerton! A favorite of mine from long ago. I think this might have been my introduction to Algonquin and the Marching and Chowder Society. I will really enjoy re-reading this one!

  11. The Messenger by Daniel Silva. Several years ago I discovered Daniel Silva and became a fan. I purchased as many of his thrillers as I could. Then I started another author and some of the older books sat on my shelf. This is one which I now shall read, having just finished The English Spy, and I will read The Messenger as soon as I finish the final book of Peter May’s Lewis Trilogy, set in the Outer Hebrides off the coast of Scotland. I travel vicariously in the books I read 🙂

  12. WIT’S END by Karen Joy Fowler, yet another delightful book in her collection. First loved her SARAH CANARY and haven’t been disappointed yet. I call my house Wit’s End.

  13. WIT’S END by Karen Joy Fowler, yet another delightful book in her collection. First loved her SARAH CANARY and haven’t been disappointed yet. I call my house Wit’s End.

  14. WIT’S END by Karen Joy Fowler, yet another delightful book in her collection. First loved her SARAH CANARY and haven’t been disappointed yet. I call my house Wit’s End.

  15. I Picked Crow Lake by Mary Lawson, I had it on my slelf for a long time, I haven’t read it, but I think I will now it looks good.

  16. I Picked Crow Lake by Mary Lawson, I had it on my slelf for a long time, I haven’t read it, but I think I will now it looks good.

  17. LOL, my first try was Shelf 4, Book 7 and it turned out to be one of my favorite books of all time. “My Sister’s Keeper” by Jodi Picoult so I went to a different shelf did the same and got “Tell No One” by Harlan Coben. One I’ve been wanting to read for just about forever. I was hoping to get to “Descent” or “The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry” but they weren’t the chosen ones. This is so much fun. What I wouldn’t give to be able to work with all of you. A dream it would be. I can’t wait to see more fun stuff that you always have here and on Instagram. Seriously awesome! Thank you for the wonderful idea. Maybe someday I can get my girls back to reading again. Teen years. 🙂

  18. LOL, my first try was Shelf 4, Book 7 and it turned out to be one of my favorite books of all time. “My Sister’s Keeper” by Jodi Picoult so I went to a different shelf did the same and got “Tell No One” by Harlan Coben. One I’ve been wanting to read for just about forever. I was hoping to get to “Descent” or “The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry” but they weren’t the chosen ones. This is so much fun. What I wouldn’t give to be able to work with all of you. A dream it would be. I can’t wait to see more fun stuff that you always have here and on Instagram. Seriously awesome! Thank you for the wonderful idea. Maybe someday I can get my girls back to reading again. Teen years. 🙂

  19. I’m in tech services, at the Newton County Library in Covington, GA. I picked 2nd shelf, # 7, and came up with a new copy of Misty of Chincoteague. I STUDIED Marguerite Henry’s books, in my elementary school years, knowing that I had to have the special abilities to have my own horse, sometime in my growing up years. (I didn’t.) Now I read books I classify as “Hard South,” where the child never gets the horse, unless, they’re stuck fighting a war for some Southern Cause, or they grow up and need a horse to get to the Meth Lab on the Mountain Side. Oh, yes, the wife runs off, the dog dies, and the house is rigged to explode.

  20. I picked shelf 9 and book 9.

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