Here is the truthful version and it involves an addiction. One which, every other member of my family, bar one, suffers from.
Books.
The post was to be about the books which are currently on my reading shelf. Even that statement is misleading.
My current selection of books usually live on the old piano stool next to my armchair. With the overspill going on the windowsill, my bedside table. My books only ever live on a shelf when they are not in current use.
Tip of the iceberg.
As always my reading material is heavily weighted towards country life, country recipes, country curiosities.
There is an autobiography of a very interesting woman (Florence White) more about her another time, one about Lincolnshire country churches, more recipe books, and even a book which takes a fascinating look at the French and "Frenchness".
Plenty of local history books and a book about Lincolnshire food balanced by a lovely old WI one filled with old recipes from Goucestershire.
Are you beginning to understand the extent of my addiction? All of these books and more have figured in my reading/research sessions this week...in between weeding, cooking, cleaning, walking the dog and more weeding, shopping, then more weeding.
These are from the windowsill, not in use this week, but they were last week, though the Miss Read, Richard Gordon and Lillian Beckwith Small Party novels were a charity shop find, all three for £1, they are for winter reading and will be put on the shelves this weekend. I like to have a little store of books for the long dark nights, it is the squirrel in me.
I may as well show the final batch...
I have minimised them, but they should enlarge if you click on them.
There you have it, these are all my current books. Seeing them altogether like this is quite shocking, but it is the truth. Each weekend I scoop up an armful or two of the ones which I don't need any more. Take them back to the bookshelves.
Many are from long gone days when I used to frequent book auctions, others have been purchased at car boot sales, charity book sales, etc. A few were purchased brand new, but most have been lucky finds. Novels I read and then take back to the charity shop, but non-fiction quite often finds a permanent place on my selves.
I rarely re-read novels, no matter how good they are. I often feel bad about that, I know many people, including my daughter, enjoy the process of re-reading a story. I prefer to move on to the next good story, but it has to be a 'good' one.
How about you? Do you read a (fiction) book once, or do you go back and enjoy them again and again?
I go back and read again, hate tonguing how many times I have read LOTR or the Hobbit. I not so addicted to books more taking photos with me. It could be worse, you could get addicted to buying Trollbeads
ReplyDeleteI had never heard of them but, after doing a quick look on google, perhaps I could!
DeleteElaine,
ReplyDeleteI can empathize with you. Being a professor, I can "justify" the occasional (or frequent) book purchase. But that doesn't change the fact I am addicted. I, too, keep a pile of books near a chair I usually sit in, but my reading time is very limited, so the pile does not evolve quickly.
I DO read fiction books more than once. As Bill wrote, the LOTR and The Hobbit are ones I have read many, many times -- and I could not begin to guess how many. In fact, I am reading The Two Towers, now.
When we walk through antique stores, I only look at the books that appear old. The new ones, with their shiny dust jackets do not tempt me. But it is often impossible to get a feel for the contents of a book (especially fiction) without a description on a fly leaf while standing in an antique store. So I rarely buy that kind of book, and it has to be cheap!
It appears to me, reading is becoming a lost art. I do not think most of my students would open a book for pleasure reading (and it is only too clear, they do not read their textbooks). Perhaps we are not addicts, but keepers of tradition!
So, from one addict to another, keep reading, and keep blogging about what you're reading!
DeleteBrett,
I often feel as though I am missing out on something wonderful. Maybe I just haven't found the right book, in which case I must continue to read as widely as possible, marvellous excuse to keep browsing book stalls.
Between your technical writing, and professorial duties to your students, I should imagine that escaping to another world would be essential, every now and again.
Cheap is good! Cheap and old is even better and the hunt is to be enjoyed almost as much as securing the book. At charity book sales I often rummage to the bottom of any boxes because the books I most enjoy are usually totally disregarded by the sellers - I have a particular penchant for old soft-covered early 20th century recipe books. They were cheaply printed on poor quality paper, the best ones are well thumbed and may have notes scribbled in the margins. Treasure.
Have a lovely weekend.
How great to see another book addict. It's impossible to cure, I'm afraid, this addiction, and no amount of rehab prevents it. Seriously, I love books, always have. Our study is for non-fiction of all kinds, hardback fiction lives in the bed sitting room, paperback fiction in the dining-end of our sitting/dining room. Collections (such as books by Derek Tangye, Richard Church, Cecil Roberts - not many people will have heard of the latter two - and others live in the sitting end of the sitting/dining room. I currently have piles of books with nowhere for them to go so they simply remain in piles. Soon, those coffee table books will become coffee tables in their own right! I have some country books but not as many, obviously, as yourself, as my main interests are architecture, interior design, social history, etc. But I just love to see piles of books that are so well-loved and used, and not just for show (i.e. books bought 'by the yard' or in a particular colour to go with someone's room.)
ReplyDeleteMargaret P
Margaret, You have the most wonderful selection of books. No day is ever dull if you have a good book, or three, to read! Summer days are busy around here, but long winter days and nights are made for reading, although I can imagine that your summer house is a great place to sit and read very comfortably. I haven't heard of Richard Church or Cecil Roberts, I shall look them up later.
DeleteEnjoy the rest of your weekend.
I feel a blog about Richard Church and Cecil Roberts coming up soon, Elaine (on my blog, I mean!) They are writers from the 1940s/1950s, prolific in their day but have almost disappeared without trace.
DeleteMargaret P
I am no longer the person to respond to this post, dear Elaine, but I would like to throw out a tickler--tell me if old John still tends the horse. I think it can no longer be, and one or both have joined the universe. Thanks! :-)
ReplyDeleteJoanne, Sad to say that they are no longer with us. Old John lived to celebrate his 100th birthday, but by then he had moved into a nursing home. He got a day release for his birthday, when he was taken to a motorbike garage where he got to sit on the very same model of motorbike which he had owned in his youth. Fair to say that he had a wonderful time. Several months later, he passed away.
DeleteAs to old Arnold, the horse, he was taken to a farm a little further south in Lincolnshire, back to his previous owner. The last I heard he was fit and well.
Two marvellous characters, the village is the poorer without them.
x
My books are too tidy, I want them to be haphazard and piled up in crazy heaps around the house but then I get into library assistant mode and have the Persephones all together and the Angela Thirkell shelf and cookery books in the kitchen and the WWII stuff as a collection........I'm so boring!
ReplyDelete( I rarely read fiction more than once unless there is a huge time gap between books in a series - like CJ Sansoms Shardlake but have read Miss Read a few times. Too many books - too little time as always)
If that is boring, Sue, then so am I!!! I have my books 'organized'. Not quite Dewey, but at they are in sections … British topography, Foreign Topography, garden, country, architecture (including church and cathedral architecture); animals, birds, fish; décor and interior design; social history; general history; letter & diaries; art; antiques, etc, etc. Fiction A-Z, hardback and paperback; collections (Joanna Trollope, Mary Wesley, Bernard Levin, Dirk Bogarde, etc); Persephones; Viragos … yes, I must be truly boring! The only whimsical piles are on my bedside table. Oh, and of course, local history, and then there are the Shire Books collection (well over 300 of those alone); then leather-bound pocket books; children's books … oh dear, I must've left something out! And then all the guide books and so forth to country houses and gardens … this is why I need bookshelves in every room in the house. And I weed my books regularly, too; I must've parted with easily as many books as I have kept.
DeleteMargaret P
I can't do haphazard heaps around the house, much as I like the image, but give me time - and even more books and I could give it a go, Sue! I would like to have a very organised system like yours, but I doubt I would maintain it for long. My books are grouped according to subject (sometimes a dilemma when subjects overlap) though size and frequency of use also come into play. I do keep my Persephones together, I only have about a dozen of them, but that jars a little with me. Some are fiction but most are not. I live with the irritation - and add to it whenever I find a real bargain.
DeleteMargaret, Sue, you are among the most interesting women I know, you just happen to have tidier bookshelves, better behaved books. My books clamour to be picked up and carried around and about the house with me, they insist upon excursions. xx
Sadly, I do not read fast enough, to be in league with your commenters. But I'm working on it. :-)
ReplyDeleteMy current library books sit on the little stool, beside my chair, or on the old wooden kitchen table, not far away, in the hearth room. Waiting for me to sit down there, and pick them up.
With my husband's eyesight being so bad, he only reads books on Kindle, so his are not in a pile. Sad but necessary. We are just very happy, that there is Kindle.
Thank goodness for Kindles, if they enable your husband to still enjoy reading, Luna. I don't think speed reading is necessary, amble through your book and enjoy it at your own pace, the great thing is that you enjoy it. How lovely to think that the old wooden table, with so much family history, is one of the places you read, that conjures up a very nice image.
DeleteI hope you enjoy the rest of the weekend.
I too am an addict - in fact I have just given away and rearranged some dishes and glassware so that I have more shelf space for books! My bedroom holds fashion and decor books. My dining room has a wall of shelving for my cookbooks and history of food books - classics like Austen, reference books, non-fiction etc. The living room shelves hold my travel books and another shelf has a few collections. One very large cabinet holds mystery & fantasy books and the one I've just made room in will hold some of the pile of "to be reads". The hallway has a cabinet holding my British history & Gaelic books. My "to be read" pile will still overflow into 3 large boxes that sit alongside the tv and the coffee table currently holds 6 library books!
ReplyDeleteYes, I do re-read books - I have favourites like Austen and LOTR and Islandia. But besides novels and cookbooks I also love non fiction and read a lot of that as well. I try to use the library more often now as finances are a bit more restricted with retirement and really appreciate all the services they provide. I don't think it's an addiction I'm ever going to recover from and really "Why Would I Want To" :-)
Margie, that is a real addiction, wonderful. When can I visit! Great to hear of your wonderful collections (I didn't dare reveal the full extent of mine) and goodness would I like to explore your history of food and cookbooks. You have your priorities right, sacrifice dishes and glassware, give the shelves over to books. Practically the only room in my house which doesn't have any books in it is the pantry, which actually, now I think of it, would make a very fine library. There must be at least 72 feet of stout shelving in there...
DeleteDon't even think of trying to go into recovery, it is one of the nicest addictions it is possible to have. ;)
Sitting here reading a new book from Amazon that arrived yesterday...and looking at several piles of books that can't fit on the shelves....." non- book people have no understanding of the addiction! I ALWAYS need books in waiting..if not I resort to reading cereal boxes!
ReplyDeleteLynda, you are a fellow addict. Brilliant! You truly understand that feeling, the need to have a stash of books waiting to be read, just in case. Amazon can be a happy hunting ground, especially if you vary your search criteria, I have found some great bargains that way.
DeleteIn the quest to acquire more books, I just haven’t the time to read the books I already have.
ReplyDeleteLX
You are fully occupied with thoughts of filling that wonderful new pantry, Lettice. Very exciting!
DeleteOh dear, I think I may be responsible for a couple in that stack!!
ReplyDeleteWe are very alike - my reading tastes are similar to yours - anything with countryside, farmhouse, village, cottage all lure me in. I have a magpie mind, so interested in so many different things and aspects of the countryside and living in it, and its history, folklore, cookery, people. I think we would be very much at home in each other's libraries!
I read novels too though - the murder and mayhem type are in favour at the moment - and they keep me out of mischief.
There are piles of books all around the house, waiting to be read, and as my new high dose of steroids have just kicked in, and I can't get to sleep, I am about to go down and read a bit more!
Mine are largely arranged in big chunks in different bookcases - mainly archaeology in here (and a bit of history), antiques downstairs, classics and literature in the blue bedroom, along with (double stacked in another bookcase), folklore, overspill of literature and Thomas Hardy, countryside books, horse books. Cookery books downstairs, and the Junk Room has 3 bookcases in it - sewing and crafts, countryside, West Country books, history, social history. . . . oh I could go on, but I do have a wee bit of a problem with collecting books. I was good, in Hay today, I only bought two!
A shame we're not neighbours, we could have a wonderful time swopping books!
You are indeed responsible for the odd volume, or three, Jennie. If I were ever to browse your bookshelves, I fear that my list of 'books to search for' would be a great deal longer than it is today. They sound very much to my taste, including the archaeology and horse books. You went to Hay and only bought two books? How is that possible? ;)
DeleteMagpie mind, I like that. It perfectly describes that need to follow threads of interest, investigate things a little further. Murder and mayhem features large in my monthly armload of library books, and I will admit to having a collection of Susan Hill's Simon Serailler novels.
I hope those steroids do the trick this time, bring you some relief so that you are able to enjoy the rest of the weekend. There are some very nice properties for sale in this area - just saying...
I would hope in years to come, to be found one day buried under my mountains of books eaten by my cats ...teach the kids not to visit...lol
ReplyDeleteYou'll be too valuable an asset to ignore. Free babysitting, childcare and errand-runner, no time for reading, or for being eaten by cats...
DeleteI have a sought out once a year and take to the charity table at our local Tesco, others I keep and may re-read at some point. Some I will down load to my kindle but others I like to have the actual book. Its funny how we make our choices isn't it.
ReplyDeleteMitzi
Hello Mitzi, It is great to have a bit of a clear out, some books are only ever going to be read once. I have a kindle but, although I can see the advantages, especially if going on holiday, I am like you, I prefer to have a book in my hands. What I haven't mentioned in this post is the big stash of library books which I also get each month...
Delete