"Woman Reading by Candlelight" by Peter Vilhelm Ilsted (Danish, 1861-1933), 1908, Connaught Brown, London
Isn't this a wonderful painting? It's very fitting somehow for this time of year. And it's going to be me later as I finish reading Jojo Moyes's Last Letter from Your Lover, which I can't put down--being at the point of no return storywise. Just as well, that, as it is now officially two days overdue at the library and I am determined to return it tomorrow morning before work. Racking up library fines once again!
I might not have had to burn the midnight oil had I not spent a fruitless hour last night looking for Muriel Sparks's The Girls of Slender Means. I really hate it when I know I own a book, but I can't find it anywhere. My little book room has gotten completely out of control. I am usually pretty good at knowing roughly where a book is--which pile or bookcase, but my room (and it really is small) has gotten so full of stuff (unfortunately it has become a space for my niece's cast off items--doesn't she know it's only for my books?....) that I can barely navigate it and am constantly tipping over piles or having to move bins around to get to a shelf. I'm in dire need of some reorganization, and more space for more bookshelves would be nice, too. And I don't know about you, but when I decide I want a book (and I know it's is just within my reach...somewhere) I have to have it now. Piles were shifted, books were moved, but it is now MIA, I guess. Not that I'm necessarily going to start reading right at this particular moment, but I'll obsess about it until I have it safely in my hand.
Maybe it wasn't a totally wasted hour of searching. I brought with me to my bedside pile Katherine Anne Porter's Pale Horse, Pale Rider and Anne Tyler's The Amateur Wedding. Not that I'm going to read those either right now, but I can at least contemplate doing so before they get shuffled back downstairs to my book room. It's a little game I play with my books. Some might call it a sickness, but I prefer to think of it as an intellectual hobby with the added benefit of a short cardio workout.
Happy reading everyone.