Scene of the Blog Featuring Meike of From My Mental Library!

I happened to stumble across this week's featured blogger by reading a comment she left on another blog. When I tracked Meike down to her own blog, From My Mental Library, I lost track of time as I wandered through the posts of this talented writer from Germany.

Here are the categories listed just below the header: Book and film reviews, Daily Life, Family, Fashion for the shallow-minded, Inside My Mind, Recipes, Short Stories, Special Occasions, Travelling. I think it's easy to see that this is a special blog just from the categories!

If you've never visited From My Mental Library before, I certainly hope you take the time to do so, and please remember to say hello while you're there. If you're visiting from Meike's blog-- Welcome! If you'd like to see any of the photos in a larger size, all you have to do is click on them and they will open in a new window. Of course, you're also welcome to click on the Scene of the Blog tab at the very top of my header to take a look at the creative spaces of other book bloggers from around the world!

Meike is ready to give us a tour, so let's not keep her waiting!

Still relatively new in Blogland (I started in March 2009), I soon realized that I had found THE literary genre for myself.

Lacking the stamina for a novel (a draft has been in my head for at least 20 years) and the necessary time and funding for a non-fiction work, but feeling an essential need for writing, there is nothing that fits the bill as well as blogging. Here, I can go on about whatever I have in mind, for as long or as short as I want to. I can show my readers pictures, share recipes, voice my opinion about any subject under the sun, write book reviews and publish my own short stories, all of which I have done in the past and hopefully will keep doing.

My readers are very important to me, and I appreciate each and every comment. At currently 60 followers (one of which is I - something I don't think should be technically possible, but there you go!), I know that there are huge numbers of other bloggers out there with a really impressive list of followers, but what counts to me is that I am able to keep in touch with those select few who seem to like returning to my blog, and have something interesting, funny or encouraging to say.

Where does it all happen?

Meike's desk

My personal computer is in my bedroom, and it is here where I mostly read other blogs and write my own, and also where I play my favourite computer games, The Sims 2 and The Sims 3.

Click on the photo to read some spines!

Originally, I was trained as a library assistant many moons ago. My love of books is not quite as evident in my flat as it could be; I have downsized considerably, and nowadays mainly get my reading from the library, lacking both the money and the space for buying books as much as I'd like. To the right is a closer look at the book shelf next to my computer.

On the lowest level are old childhood friends such as the Narnia books, and several photo albums.

The second level from the bottom contains my collection of space and space-travel related books, as well as some works about and by Wernher von Braun.

Then comes a shelf filled with the "Insel" (German for island) series, which I used to collect when I was younger. A lot of those are ex-library books that were about to be thrown away. Above those, another level full of childhood friends, namely by Edith Nesbit and Astrid Lindgren, two authors whose influence on children's literature in general and my childhood in particular was and still is tangible.

Next is my M.C. Beaton shelf. Yes, I know - this is not for the high-brow literature lover, but these are books I enjoy, and I keep getting more and more from my mum, and also from my mother-in-law in the birthday and Christmas parcels she sends from England.

Most of you will instantly recognize the colourful backs of the Harry Potter books on the top shelf, and above that, all the large-format books which you sometimes find classified as coffee table books.

An armchair for reading

A lot of my reading happens here.
This old armchair was part of my grandparents' living room furniture, and it is so comfortable that I spend many of my lunch breaks there, when I am not going out for lunch. The armchair even has its own blog entry!

Working from home

In May of last year, I changed jobs and now work from home. When my personal computer needed a new HDD the other day, I was glad to have the corporate laptop there to keep me connected to Blogland! This is my home office.

Where Meike's recipes are tested

The recipes you will occasionally find on my blog have been tried, tested and photographed here!

The subject of one of Meike's first posts

And one of the very first blog entries I ever published was about this little old lady.

Thank you, Cathy, for offering me the opportunity to appear on "Scene of the Blog"!

You're very welcome, Meike. Thank you so much for the tour. I think I speak for everyone when I say that I enjoyed it very much! I love all the light coming in the windows and all the greenery outside. (Can you tell I live in the desert?) That lovely "little old lady" looks as though she's waiting to help you with your next blog post!

I hope you all have enjoyed this week's Scene of the Blog-- and please don't forget to check out From My Mental Library! Stop by next Wednesday when I'll be featuring another book blogger from our worldwide community.