Books:- Coming, Going and Reading

Once Upon a Time, just 5 years ago we had nearly 1,500 books between us. Then we moved - Twice - and  many books went out of the house - to charity shops, to car boot sales and to Ziffit - the company that buys books and then re-sells on Amazon under the name of World Of Books.

 

 We downsized from a whole row of bookshelves down the hallway at the smallholding to here where we had 2 tall, 2 short and two wide sets of shelves plus a few cookery books in the kitchen. 

 

I've carried on moving books out ever since Colin died, I don't want to move hundreds whenever it's time for the next move. So far one wide set has become shelves for toys, 1 short has become my bedside table, the other short has children's books in the small spare bedroom, the other wide shelves still house all the books I want within easy reach in the living room and the two tall are still on the landing almost, but not quite full, of books.

 

Lots of the books I use when blogging and other reference books, plus books I need to read and library books - all withing arms reach in the living room

 

On Sunday............when the weather was wet and nasty.......... I went through the upstairs books yet again looking for more to send off to Ziffit or bag up for the charity shop. Books I definitely wouldn't read again or books that I'd probably never read - ever - even if we were locked down for a year! Ziffit took them for £11.42

 

Now I've hit a wall. I really, REALLY don't know what other books to be rid of. In reality looking at the shelves.........of those I've read how many will I read again? but on the other hand it would be really silly not to keep some of the books I've yet to read and know I will read .............given time.

Collections are a problem. For instance...........I have all of the Miss Read books, a whole shelf full of lovely Persephone books, nearly all of the Barsetshire series by Angela Thirkell and quite a lot of diaries and memoirs  in my WWII Home Front Collection. Many of the Miss Read and the Angela Thirkell books are old and unwanted on Ziffit..........will I want to re-read them all?

 

Anyway, I'll put off anymore decisions for a while.

 

And in the meantime I've already read  4 library books from  those I picked up at the end of September.

Mick Finlay - Arrowood............London in 1895 is a hard place to live for the poor and while the rich rely on Sherlock Holmes to sort the crimes that the police are too hard pressed to solve,  the poor turn to Arrowood - private investigator. This is a new to me author but a good story although rough and gory at times. It's the first of 3 in the series the library have in stock.

 

Jan Morris - Thinking Again.....................Heading towards her century this book is a diary of her life as it is now in North Wales with memories of her 50 years of past travels and travel writing.  She is an excellent writer and I enjoyed this small book.  It reminded me very much of the books written by Ronald Blythe which is ironic as he is a Christian Lay Preacher and she is non-believer but they are both about the same age and both love where they live. She has written two books about Wales that I want to read - annoyingly the library has neither.
 
And then a book I knew I would love and race through..............Elly Griffiths -The Lantern Men. Another in the brilliant series featuring  Dr Ruth Galloway, a Forensic Archaeologist and set mainly in Norfolk. Things have moved on by 2 years since the last book and Ruth is now lecturing at a University in Cambridge. However she returns to Norfolk to help solve a murder on the request of a man imprisoned for 4 murders and of course meets up with DCI Harry Nelson.

One evening and one afternoon and it was finished. The 13th in this series is due out in February and I must remember to keep checking the library website ready to add myself to the reservation list.

And just finished Saplings by Noel Streatfield. This is a Persephone reprint of one of her books for adults but is about a family of four children and the changes forced upon the family due to WWII. It isn't a happy book, the death of the childrens father and their mothers inability to cope means they are sent to boarding school and spend some holidays with relatives who are busy with their own problems. Each of the four children react in different ways and I was left wondering - what next?

 

So that's the Books Going and the Books Reading but what about the Books Coming? My permission to buy myself one book a month will bring me a secondhand copy of the recent book by Kate Humble - A Year of Living Simply. Hope it's a good read - from the description it should be right up my street.

Back Tomorrow

Sue