Project Bookshelf: Jahmayla Pointer

Have you ever loved something so deeply that you’d learn a new skill just to protect it?

That’s how I’ve always felt about my small collection of books and journals. I’ve always fantasized about the worst possible scenario coming true. Maybe an apocalypse by fire or ice. Maybe someday, I’ll just have to jam and leave everything behind. Not everything. Not my beloved books. I’ve dreamt that someday I’m going to get into welding, and I’m going to create the world’s most efficient, titanium, disaster-proof, portable bookshelf, so I’ll never have to worry about what’ll happen to my precious babies. While that is such a lovely thought, we all know I won’t be dedicating my life to welding, so I keep my book collection relatively small. Then, if anything should go wrong, I can save most of them.

I got my first bookshelf at sixteen, built it alone, and felt very proud. Most people have had a bookshelf in their house growing up, but how many have had bookshelves that are completely their own? Untouchable, sacred, an old-fashioned kind of server with many worlds tucked neatly into its slots.

Back then, I filled mine with all the right classics and things I knew I had to read if I wanted to be a serious writer. The only survivors from the collection are two Shakespeare plays, and The Alchemist lost a lot of the books from my first bookshelf during a big move. My favorites then were Anne Rice, Stephen King, some Greek tragedies, and more. It was seriously tragic. If I listed every title, you’d be reading all day.

Today, my shelves reflect my quest for some sort of wisdom. I love things that inspire deep thought, or even simple thought. I suppose it’s really easy to forget to analyze certain things less. You may notice I have a guilty pleasure for self-help, but there are a few fiction stories on my shelf that could be labeled “self-help”, so it’s all balanced out. Speaking of which! My plays and poetry are my most prized possessions. My comfort reads, believe it or not. There is nothing like quietly reading William Shakespeare’s plays so intensely and with such a serious face, only to be knocked out of it by a Shakespearean insult. Genuinely, it’ll make you laugh every time. The photo above is of the bookshelf in my office.

The photos below are of the bookshelf in my bedroom. It also contains a few things that mean a lot to me at the moment: (1) my current read, 2001, A Space Odyssey by Arthur C Clark. (2) My pending read, ‘Wuthering Heights’ by Emily Brontë, and (3) The most incredible Christmas gift I’ve ever gotten: a collection of introductory essays by Coretta Scott King on influential black figures. I hope to use them for a literacy workshop or pass them on someday, but I’m just reading them myself for now, and it adds a bit of substance to my day.

The bookshelf I keep in my bedroom is for the books that I want to give my immediate or partial attention, while the bookshelf in my office is for books that I know will inspire me if I’m having writer’s block or an all-out identity crisis, ha! It sounds odd as I write it out, but that’s my system, and I love it! Honorable mention to The Emerald City of Oz. Reading that has been part of my nighttime routine recently.

There’s also Dune by Frank Herbert: that’s my husband’s. He’s read it maybe five times, excluding the other books in the series. He’s told me it’s a lot to get into, and I want to take his word. I’m sure I’ll end up reading it and its sequels by the end of this summer. I have honestly taken a liking to science fiction lately, which is strange. I never thought I would.

Jahmayla Pointer is a three-time National Goofing Around Award winner and specializes in consuming gothic literature and horror films. Jahmayla’s playful and observant nature, and deep love of horror, magic, and literary thrills led her to pursue an English and Creative writing degree four years ago. She began taking creative writing workshops in her senior year of high school and fell in love with working with others on various projects. During her sophomore and Junior years at Southern New Hampshire University, she’s also done Men-tee and beta reading work for authors local to Cincinnati, most notably Victor Velez, author of A Triduum of All Hallows. Jahmayla was an ACES member briefly through which she received several beneficial developmental opportunities including courses through the Poynter Institute. During her downtime, she likes to spend time with friends and family, dance, write short stories, and of course, read in copious amounts. Something that means a lot to Jahmayla is grassroots work and helping people directly through mutual aid and acts of service, she puts this passion into action by working with a group of good friends to develop education tools and encourage high literacy in her local neighborhoods.