Lost in the Stacks Home Edition: Hayley

As with Simon and Lyn, I first met Hayley via an online reading group that began when a number of like-minded readers decided to share their interest in and love for Persephone Books.  They eventually branched out and now read a variety of books (I joined much later), though mainly with an emphasis on 19th and early to mid-20th century fiction.  Hayley is a British blogger living in Leicester and shares her bookish passion at Desperate Reader.  Along with a love of books she also writes about about food and her cooking/baking adventures.  Do click on over and if you prefer books of the sort Persephone publishes, have a good look through her archives and be sure you have paper and pen handy to jot down reading suggestions.  (It was through Hayley that I first discovered Molly Keane by the way).

1. Describe your library/bookshelves. Are the books randomly placed or do you have them organized in a special way?

When I first moved here I had more shelf space than books and there was a system - roughly chronological for the fiction, and also split into genres.  As the years have gone by the books have overtaken the space (I dream of a bigger flat with yard and yards more shelving) so the system has basically broken down but there's a kind of order . . .  My Virago books and Scottish island books are in my bedroom, cookbooks in the kitchen, Persephone books sort of fit on one shelf, Georgette Heyer still has a shelf of her own, non fiction has managed to hang onto most of a bookcase, new books 'rest' on the edge of a particular shelf, and when I next have a sort out classics will hopefully end up together.  Otherwise there are books everywhere and I rely on memory to work out where I last saw something . . .

2. Do you like to weed and recycle as you read or do you prefer to hold on to all your books?

I keep most of the books I read.  Growing up we always had lots of books around and I've has books as long as I can remember (my dad built extra shelves above my bed and fixed a reading light there for me when I moved onto books that didn't have pictures and I've never looked back).  I do weed out books every now and again, I don't get very many unsolicited review copies but I have had a few and most of those have gone off to charity shops because I know I'll never read them.  I try and only buy books I think I'll want to keep so big clear outs are rare, though with space becoming an ever bigger issue I'm having to get a bit more ruthless - at the moment I'm sorting out books for my youngest sister and stepmother - that way they stay in the family.

3. Are your books confined to one area or are they spread out over your house?

Books are everywhere in my home and I go everywhere with them.  I like them as objects and love them en mass.  Most of them are in my sitting room where the shelves are beginning to get double stacked which I don't actually like as it  makes things harder to find.  The kitchen has cookbooks as well as a few of my wine books, the bath has quarterlies and letter collections, and my bedroom has mostly Virago books as well as a few boxes of fairly random bedside books which don't quite fit anywhere else (my father's holiday place has an increasing collection of books I'm on the fence about, happily he's still seeing these in the light of thoughtful gifts).  Unfortunately for my book buying habit that's all the space I have.  For a long time I held out against books in the bathroom, now that just seems foolish.

4. How long has your oldest unread book sat on your shelves?

A long, long time, the oldest unread book I have is a copy of The Wind in the Willows which I've had for about 35 years.  The one I am most ashamed of is Fanny Burney's Cecilia that I started reading on holiday 20 years ago and never got around to finishing - I'll need to start at the beginning again now.  Otherwise unread books don't bother me, I've probably read about half of mine but I buy them to lay down - they're what I'm looking forward to and there are lots of things I don't imagine having the time, or will, to read for maybe another 20 years (Dante and Milton are top of that list).  There's something very satisfactory to me in having a good browse amongst my books and pulling out something to read that I bought years ago - I like the idea that it's been patiently waiting for the right moment.

5. What is your most treasured book?

This is the hardest question to answer.  I'm very sentimental about my books as a collection - they've been presents, mark milestones, they chart  my life and enthusiasms.  The Virago books represent days hunting for them with a dear friend, and the Persephones led me to w while group of lovely people.  However I don't collection special editions, I don't like hardbacks (they take up too much space and cost too much), don't have many signed books - basically almost all of them are replaceable and if there was a fire it wouldn't be a book that I grabbed.  I think it has to be the memoires that my grandfather wrote for his family when he realised his memory was going because it's not something I could track down again and because I really miss him and wish I'd had the chance to spend more time with him as an adult.  He had some wonderful stories - as children we loved the one about a shipwreck and an almost plane crash but I learned from the book that he stayed in the Paris Ritz in 1926 and who wouldn't want to know more about that?

6. If you could pick one "lost in the stacks/on your bookshelves" book to rediscover and share with other readers, which would it be?

Normally at this point I choose a Gavin Maxwell* but I'm in a Victorian mood at the moment so would put in a plea for Margaret Oliphant's Miss Marjoribanks, it's part of the Carlingford Chronicles which were Miss Oliphant's response to Trollope's Barchester Chronicles.  She takes him on, and I'm pretty sure she thinks she's doing a better job of it than he did - I might even agree with her.  Miss Marjoribanks is the easiest one to find - it was certainly in print a couple of years ago and hopefully still is.  It follows the heroine through her twenties - she's a very determined young woman who has come home to look after her father and improve the society of Carlingford.  Over the years there are a number of suitors but somehow it never quite comes off and things are looking bad for our heroine but she's not the woman to be disheartened by a setback or to think of herself when she can help others.  It's a gently funny book but it's also full of details about Victorian society and the role women played in it.  Miss Marjoribanks has something of Jane Austen's Emma about her -- she is wonderful, and sadly overlooked.  All the chronicles are excellent and worth reading but this one also works brilliantly as a stand alone read (writing that now makes me want to get it off the shelf again).

*Gavin Maxwell's Ring of Bright Water was another book I loved and discovered thanks to Hayley.

Many thanks to Hayley for sharing photos of her bookshelves and piles with us.  Check back next Friday for a peek into another reader's library.

Comments

[Kathleen]

I love this feature on your blog and always enjoy a peak into other people's book cases!

[Stefanie]

Such lovely shelves. I like the blue shelf with all those Viragos on it! And at last,a lost in the stack book I know! I've had Miss Marjoribanks on my TBR list for ages. Perhaps this is incentive for it to move up the list.

[Margaret Powling]

I have so enjoyed looking at your books, Hayley, and seeing not only books but intriguing objects on the shelves. And how tidy your books are, especially the lovely green Viragos (I had a weed recently and parted with almost 200 books, which was very hard to do, but space is finite ... even as they were going out, being collected by a man-with-a-van from a charity, more books were arriving by post!)
I have just had a look at your blog and have ordered Warpaint! Now, that sounds my kind of book!

[cath]

Is it Robert Macfarlane's The Old Ways in that applegreen jacket on your very attractive blue shelves filled with Viragos, and have you read it? I have a hardback copy in the same colour, and have started his Mountains Of the Mind a little while ago.

[Simon T]

Lovely to see the shelves of a friend! I've met Hayley a few times, which has been lovely, but I don't feel you ENTIRELY know a bibliophile until you've seen their books, and these are wonderfully arranged - by which I mean, they are everywhere, and obviously a living, thriving collection!

How funny about filling up your dad's shelves, and conning him into being grateful... ;)

[Kathy]

It's always good to have family members you can pass books onto! Makes parting with them a little easier. I love how neatly your shelves are arranged. I'm sure browsing through them would produce a whole list of books I want to read.

[vicki (bibliolathas / skiourophile)]

Another set of fascinating shelves - I love the juxtaposition of Duff Cooper and Jilly Cooper - a perfect summation of someone who loves books in all their many manifestations! I feel very at home here (I am now lusting after a cornishware biscuit jar too!). Thank you for sharing your library, Hayley.

[Danielle]

I'm so glad you are enjoying it--I am too, actually. Isn't if fun seeing so many lovely books?!

[Danielle]

I must say I am very envious of those Viragos. I wonder if Hayley has a list (or maybe she has them in Library Thing--I am curious of which titles she owns). I also have Miss Marjoribanks--I was tempted to go and grab it from my own shelves, and might still this weekend...

[Danielle]

I had a good look through her archives, too, and added a few books to my own wishlist. I love it when shelves contain more than just books--it's great to see a reader's personality come through not just with books, but all the other little things they have collected, too.

[Danielle]

Isn't it funny how some book jackets are so distinct that you can spot what they are (or by whom they are written) even in a photograph! I must give Robert Macfarlane a try.

[Danielle]

Lucky you to have met Hayley. Someday I am going to be able to attend a Dove meet up--well, fingers crossed that I can anyway. It is nice to see books all over the house. Mine tend to stay in just a few places unfortunately.

[Danielle]

I think it would be very dangerous to browse her shelves. All those beautiful Viragos. Only a pity I can't manage to zoom in on the spines to read titles! :)

[Danielle]

I saw the Jilly Cooper, too. It's a nice eclectic collection--a book for every mood (just like mine). Oh, I missed the biscuit jar--it is cool!

[Desperate Reader]

I love this feature too so think the first thing I should say is thank you very much for having me. I love talking about my books so this has been a treat. I'm sitting in the sun with coffee and a croissant looking at a bookshelf and feeling very proud of the books this morning.

[Desperate Reader]

This weekend might be the one where I properly do Library Thing. I used to have a list but have rather let it go. There are somewhere between 300 -400 Viragos, they are my pride and joy. I have a very good friend who shares my obsession (we met when I worked for her in a bookshop many years ago) so we go out in search of 2nd hand bookshops together. They used to be very easy to find but are becoming increasingly scarce which is a shame. There are still a few on my wish list.

[Desperate Reader]

I hope you like Warpaint - I thought it was really interesting (as well as enjoyable). I have distinctly magpie tendencies so collect all sorts of stuff - space is always a challenge. I'm afraid those shelves don't look as neat in real life and are quite dusty. Nature didn't mean me to be a tidy person.

[Desperate Reader]

It is Macfarlane and I'm quite ashamed to say I haven't read it - I met him (this is my star blogging moment) at a Penguin event last year where he was talking about that it book, it's a proof copy and I should have read it straight away but everyone was talking about it and I found myself wanting to wait. We had a great conversation about Gavin Maxwell - it turns out that both of us particularly love 'Harpoon at a Venture' (I was reading for about the tenth time and had it with me). I envy his students - my chat was maybe 15 minutes long and I cam away utterly inspired to go and look for all sorts of things (and maybe a little bit starstruck). I have read 'The Wild Places' and liked it very much. Apparently there will be a new book about subterranean spaces in 2017 which is something to look forward to!

[Desperate Reader]

Dad might work it out after this (oops). Simon showed me around his favourite Oxford bookshops once which was every bit as much fun as it sounds (it was great). The books are certainly thriving!

[Desperate Reader]

It's lovely sharing books with my youngest sister as well. She's a voracious reader and much less set in her ways than I am so I can introduce her to almost anything and she'll read it.

[Desperate Reader]

The biscuit jar is full at the moment as well - ready for passing booklovers to come in for a cup of tea and a chat ;). Duff and Jilly were acquired on the same day and haven't found a proper home yet but so far seem quite happy in each others company.

[Margaret Powling]

I'm ashamed to say I parted with a green Virago in my recent cull! What an admission. It was a very good copy of South Riding, which I'd read, enjoyed, but didn't think it merited a second read, so it had to go! My weakness is a series of books not as easily distinguishable as the green VMCs, but is a really super series - Shire Books (but they are non-fiction) I have getting on for 260 of those.
By the way, love that huge Fortnum tin/box! Very stylish! I was once sent a small F&M hamper and have that on my desk for stationery and bits and pieces.

[ted]

Thanks for the tour Hayley (and Danielle). I'm adding Ring of Bright Water to the list!

[litlove]

That is the most amazing Virago collection I have ever seen! I'm green with envy (or maybe it's just the reflection from the spines....) And I will also put in a vote for Miss Marjoribanks which I loved when I read it. A really wonderful, entertaining story.

[anothercookiecrumbles]

That is an insane collection of VMCs and Persephones and the old Penguin books! I'm so envious. I mean, seriously. I could sit here, drooling over those for hours unending.

[Danielle]

I'm so glad you are enjoying it, and thank you for allowing us a peek at your books--we love seeing them! You should indeed feel proud of your collection--it's enviable! :)

[Danielle]

I loved Ring of Bright Water--there is a sequel but I can't bring myself to read it as I don't think it could possibly be as good!

[Danielle]

Yes, Miss Marjoribanks is definitely coming off the shelf! :) Isn't that bookcase of Viragos totally amazing. I could spend hours looking through those books! Literally!

[Danielle]

I know! They make me want to go book shopping immediately to add to my own very small collection!

[Lyn]

What a lovely collection, especially the Viragos. I also envy Hayley her Scottish islands books, an interest we share although I haven't read nearly as much about them as she has.

[Helen]

I hope I've mentioned this before, Danielle, but I love this series, thank you so much for running it!

Hayley's books look fab and I do love the idea of keeping them in the family even if you don't have room for them all yourself. And I too love Miss Marjoriebanks, although I didn't realise that it was in a series of sorts. More books on the horizon?

[Desperate Reader]

The rest of the series is well worth tracking down. Virago reprinted them years ago and although no longer in print they can still be picked up cheaply on amazon. I think some are free for kindles too.

[Desperate Reader]

Thanks Lyn, I do love my books! Th Scottish collection is growing - partly because it's an interest of my partners as well so we encourage each other to new excesses...

[Desperate Reader]

I was working in a discount/seconds bookshop when Littlebrown bought Virago back in the '90's so we had loads of them and I bought quite a few, then about 6 years ago I started hunting for Virago's in second hand shops with a friend. We've been lucky in the past when people have obviously weeded out a whole pile of them but they're getting harder to find, tattier, and more expensive which is a shame.

[Desperate Reader]

Miss M is a wonderful book - it's been lovely seeing loads more people know and love it. I'm actually really proud of that Virago collection. It's been a lot of fun putting it together and reading my way through it (still a long way to go) they publish some amazing books.