Karissa Geisinger is a senior at Western Illinois University (WIU). She’s an English major, creative writing minor, and a writer and editor for The Mirror & the Lamp.

M&L: What genre makes up most of your collection?

KG: General fiction definitely makes up most of my collection, at a glance. If you zoom in a bit, you’ll find a decent amount of science fiction, fantasy, and graphic novels/comic books.

M&L: Which book is your favorite?

KG: As of right now, my favorite book is Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel. I had to read it for one of my classes, and I did a major group project with it, which I think helped me really get into that novel. I don’t annotate books super extensively when I read (even if it’s for class), but my copy of Station Eleven is covered in pen and highlighter. I could go on forever and ever about how much I enjoy it, so I’ll spare everyone the essay, but I will say that I very dearly love the character Miranda in this book. She’s a lost artist, who made her life into science fiction comic books that only three people ever really cared about, including herself. That really speaks to me. What you create doesn’t necessarily need to be seen by the masses; if you made it and you care about it, that’s art.

M&L: How long have you been building this collection?

KG: I suppose I’ve technically been collecting books since I was a child. I’ve cycled through them, of course. I no longer own all of the Diary of Wimpy Kid books, for example, which I had collected all of in my late elementary/early junior high days; they’ve long since been donated to the school library (my favorite was the ninth book, The Long Haul, and I still stand by that). I still have plenty of books from when I was young, though, that have naturally accumulated over the years. I’d say I didn’t start considering it a collection until my junior year of high school. That year, my school’s library was purging piles upon piles of books that hadn’t been checked out in years to make room for new ones and, before they were donated somewhere, the students and staff could take as many as we wanted. I came home one day with a giant stack, plus some extras in my bookbag. I think that day drew the line between enjoyer of books and collector of books.

M&L: Which book have you had the longest?

KG: I honestly don’t remember. If we’re considering my books, my money is on the Percy Jackson series, which I still love. My family and I share the big bookshelf in the living room, and the books that have been in the house the longest are probably The Hunger Games series, courtesy of my mother, or some of The Walking Dead comics, courtesy of my father.

M&L: Which book have you gotten most recently?

KG: The most recent books I’ve gotten have all been for my classes this semester! I won’t list them all here, but the ones I am currently reading for class right now are The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë and A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan.

M&L: Which is your favorite fiction book?

KG: Disregarding my favorite book, which is also fiction, the next thing that comes to mind is Where Things Come Back by John Corey Whaley. The aforementioned high school library free-for-all is where I first got this book, though it wasn’t one of the ones I took home – not in the traditional sense, anyway. I was taking a creative writing class at the time and free books were a perfect canvas for our brief black-out poetry project. We went up to the library during class and each chose a couple of books that seemed like they would have good words. Then, over the next few days, we tore them apart and covered them in Sharpie. One of the books I chose was Where Things Come Back, and while I was in the process of destroying it, I accidentally read it, which made its annihilation all the more devastating. I got great poetry out of it (I still have the pages, to this day), which I think speaks positively about this book, in its own strange way, and I liked it so much that I went out and bought another copy during the following winter break. I’ve been much gentler with this one.

M&L: Which is your favorite nonfiction book?

KG: I don’t own tons of nonfiction, as it’s a genre I’ve only recently gotten into, but my favorite is probably James Tiptree, Jr.: The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon by Julie Phillips, purely because it was such a great help for when I was researching Alice last summer. It’s another one of the few books I own that is heavily annotated. I lugged that thing around for a year and a half, and it shows.

M&L: Which is your favorite poetry book?

KG: It’s not strictly a poetry book, but the first thing that comes to mind is Gentle Chaos by Tyler Gaca. I’d say the book is mostly comprised of poetry – it has one of my favorite poems ever within it – but it also contains nonfiction stories, vignettes, and photography.

M&L: What makes your library/bookshelf unique to you?

KG: My house is very small and I share my bedroom with my younger sister, so everything is very compact. I always say that it looks like I have way too much stuff, but really, my whole life is shoved into half of a room. My bookshelf also houses plants and Legos, and my giant copy of Hamilton: The Revolution that I got in junior high is used to press and dry flowers. I can’t fit all the books I own onto this bookshelf, so some of them are housed in the living room. The living room bookshelf is also not just for books, but for storage: for headphones, chargers, extra candles, bookmarks, USBs, photos, etc., etc. The books I own but haven’t read yet are stashed into boxes under my bed. I think having other items on your bookshelves adds a bit of character to them. It makes them look well-used and well-loved – like the shelves and the books on them aren’t just decorative, but really, truly part of the house.