This week’s Top 5 Wednesday topic made me realize I really need to dust my bookshelves. Here are a few non-literary items I discovered between sneezes:

Speakers and a Beep

What happens when two bibliophiles move in together? Shelf space becomes prime real estate. I sacrificed my CD collection (yeah, I still had a CD player; I’m a 90s child, okay?) to free up shelf space for our combined libraries, but I missed having music from “real” speakers, not just tinny laptop sound.  So for Christmas my Laddie got me this wondrous little contraption called a Beep that links to our Spotify account and blasts any song my dancing feet fancy. I love music. Almost minored in it at university, but it didn’t fit with the journalism theme. I rarely write without an appropriate soundtrack!

Seashells

Because I’ve been obsessed with the ocean—with water in general, but especially the ocean—for as long as I can remember. You did read the premise of my novel, right?

Race medals

If I had as many  awards for writing as I do finisher’s medals, race coins, and cute plexiglass plaques, I’d be writing my Pulitzer prize acceptance speech right now instead of a blog post.

Baseball memorabilia

Running isn’t our only sport—my Laddie and I are also huge baseball nerds. (And of course our teams are rivals, because love is just weird like that.) Instead of proper bookends, our paperbacks lean against a Hall of Famer statue, a framed  commemorative baseball card, a jersey-clad garden gnome…and yes, we own several baseball history books as well.

Family photos

It’s motivating to look at the smiling faces of people you love and think “damn…I’ll have to dedicate a book to each of them.” I’d better get writing!

Top 5 Wednesday is the creation of Lainey over at Goodreads. Check out the group and join the other “Wednesday-ers“!