Shaylie Muehl is a junior at Western Illinois University, majoring in Professional Writing and minoring in Communications.

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

SM: I think most of the books I own are in the fantasy genre. I recently started branching out and picking up books I wouldn’t normally read, which has been refreshing.

M&L: Which book is your favorite?

SM: The Martian is still fresh in my mind, and I think it’s my new favorite. I’ve never been a huge fan of sci-fi, but Weir made it comprehensible, especially with all the crazy space math that Mark (the main character) had to deal with to stay alive on Mars.

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

SM: I started collecting books in high school, after I got my first job.

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

SM: I think I’ve had Little Women by Louisa May Alcott the longest.

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

SM: I just got The Housemaid by Fredia McFadden because of the recent film adaptation, and I love it so far. I’m almost done with it.

M&L: Which is your favorite fiction book?

SM: I just finished reading The Martian by Andy Weir, and I loved it! It was so interesting and got me out of a slump.

M&L: Which is your favorite nonfiction book?

SM: My favorite non-fiction book is Girlhood by Melissa Febos.

M&L: Which is your favorite poetry book?

SM: I haven’t read all of them, but I like The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson.

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

SM: I like to decorate it with little knick-knacks that I accumulate. I recently had my twenty-first birthday, and my sister got me a Dumbo Funko Pop and knew that it would look perfect on my bookshelf. I have a few old Polaroid cameras as well. The older one is from 1937, and the other camera is probably from the ’90s. I’m not totally sure, but it was my grandparents’.