A boy, a girl and three bookcases...

Halbastram and I are nerds. Proud nerds. I am a book nerd. He's a comic book nerd/collector. It's more than a hobby for us; it's a lifestyle. Novels and comic books play such a huge part in our lives that we require two separate bookcases in our tiny condo to accomodate our respective collections.

This is my bookcase (as evidenced by the many spots of pink throughout). The disorganization is mostly due to the fact that at one point most of those items were packed up in storage last year. When we stopped using our storage facility, everything that wasn't dropped off at my mother's house made its way onto our bookcases.

These are my few Nintendo DS games. Halbastram bought the system for me about four years ago for Valentines Day. In four years, I've only amassed about 10 titles. It has become the one constant in my purse. I may forget my debit card every now and then, but I always have my DS.

In addition to being a comic collector, Halbastram also collects Hot Wheels, something he's been doing since he was about 8. So he has a pretty large collection. And many of his latest acquisitions end up on my bookcase. Luckily, since I don't read too many books twice, I don't mind them sitting there. Those Spree candy canes in the top photo are from two Christmases ago. Why we hold on to them is a mystery.
And this is Halbastram's bookcase. The first two shelves are his many years of comic collecting; the last two shelves are his many years of baseball card collecting. When I tell people that Halbastram is a dude, I truly mean it: comics, cars and sports. And my yellow Dyson in the corner that he never seems to use.

The astounishing thing about Halbastram's comic collection is that this bookcase just scratches the surface of it. There are still boxes of comics we haven't unpacked from storage, mostly because there's no more room. Funny, we actually bought the second bookcase for his collection, but due to my increasing book collection, I ended up taking over the space right away. As small as our condo is, having two bookcases certainly does take up a lot of space. But, oh, it doesn't end there...

Our third, and oldest, bookcase which houses our dvd collection. We have a relatively small collection of movies; most of the space is taken up by tv show sets, such as Seinfeld, The West Wing and Family Guy. The bottom of the bookcase, not visible here, is filled with records given to me by my mother-in-law. And finally, resting atop the bookcase is one of my most treasured possessions:

My Tarina Tarantino Barbie doll. Originally $65, I found this at a closeout store for only $15. I am a huge Barbie fan, but I just hate the idea of paying so much money for molded plastic. This is my second Barbie collectible. My first was a present given to me for my 16th birthday by a high school friend: Scary Spice of the Spice Girls. I mentioned in passing once that I liked her, and suddenly I was the proud owner of a doll bearing her likeness. That doll, having survived the rest of high school and four years of college, is buried somewhere in my mother's basement.

I can't even begin to imagine the number of bookcases we'll be compelled to purchase if and when we move into bigger digs.