A Work in Progress

Just a Few Links (& Other Odds and Ends)

I really should be writing about one of the backlog of finished books I have sitting here next to my computer, but it's just so darn warm (it's been hot out all week, my house is old and so it's always really toasty upstairs where my computer 'lives'--someday I am going to have a laptap that is easily transportable rather than a PC--so I can go to the cooler part of my house to work rather than roasting upstairs), so I can't quite motivate myself to think that hard.

Just as a teaser (and maybe if I say it out loud I will feel more 'obligated' to stop being such a procrastinator and get the work done), I plan on writing about Anna Seghers's Transit soon, as well as Thomas Hardy's The Distracted Preacher (an odd little novella by the way).  I've got a few other finished books that need attention and I might just get to them someday, too.

I've also been reading about Dashiell Hammett and Lillian Hellman (are you surprised?) and was going to share what I've been reading, but let's talk about them tomorrow.  As another teaser, and something to think about in the interim, I find it really interesting to read about author's/artist's lives.  I know as a reader I should be focused on the book or work alone and not on the person behind it, but it's hard not to want to know just a little bit more.  The thing is, I sometimes think it's all fiction, in its own way.  Private lives (and justifiably so) can be so carefully guarded and what's presented to the outside world isn't always a true portrait.  Don't you think that their public image is carefully fashioned and presented, an image created?  Take someone like Anne Frank, whose father excised bits of her diary so not to blemish her reputation.  How much as a reader do I have a right to know?  And how much is really real when I do read about the person.

Well, just a few things floating around in my mind today.

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I do have a few links to share with you as well.

A little fanfare please.  Did you know Virago Press is celebrating 40 years this year?  How did I miss that?  There should have been a Virago reading week or something momentous.  Or maybe there was and I missed it? 

Check out Sarah Waters's Reading By the Numbers, and test your knowledge.  How many extracts from Virago books can you get right?  I cheated and went directly to the source list. 

And then take a look at the favorites of ten female authors.  I'd have to think about my own favorite.  I have, however, read five of the ten books, so not a bad showing really.  I feel like I really should be reading something special in celebration!

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Have you wondered exactly what the Great American Novel is?  Nine experts share their opinions here.  Alas, I can't weigh in since I have not read a single one on the list (though I've read a few of the authors).

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Here's a list of ten books based on other books.  A few might surprise you (they did me anyway).

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I like some better than others, and some not very much at all, but you can take a look at these pop art covers for contemporary classics and decide for yourself.

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By the way, I've not forgotten or abandoned my Lost in the Stacks posts.  As summer is a busy time of year and there are always too many things to do (and not enough time to do them in), I've let my posts languish a bit.  I would like to start them back up again in August.  There were a few people who I chatted with and and kindly agreed to share their libraries, and I hope they will contact me and let me know if they are still interested.

Perhaps it's better to open things up a bit.  If you are interested in having your personal library featured here, please send me an email and we can make arrangements!

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Now, back tomorrow with Lillian and Dash.

Lost in the Stacks Home Edition: Margaret

One of the things I love most (aside from being able to take a peek at other readers' book collections) is getting to know another side of them.  I am pretty familiar with those on my blogroll and often feel I can put, if not actual face, then a personality to the name.  Often, though, they share some interesting things here that I hadn't come across previously when reading their blogs.  I've been following Margaret of BooksPlease almost as long as I've been blogging, but I had no idea of several of the things she was kind enough to share about herself:

I'm a lifelong bookaholic and trained and worked for a while as a librarian in a local history library and then as a cataloguer.  Danielle's series 'Lost in the Stacks' brings back happy memories of the time I spent in the stacks working in Manchester Public Libraries years ago, so I'm delighted she asked me to contribute to her 'Lost in the Stacks Home Edition'.

I began my blog after I left my job as a Definitive Map Officer working in the Rights of Way section in local government in the south-east of England.  Part of my job involved meeting and interviewing people about the footpaths and bridleways they used, researching the history of the paths and writing reports.  I wanted to carry on writing and researching after I left work and writing a blog seemed to fill the gap -- and it's meant that I've 'met' lots of people from different parts of the world, all with similar interests to me, as well as adding many books to  my collection.  It's also meant that I've developed an interest in photography.

For the last three years I've lived in Northumberland in the north-east of England, not far from the border with Scotland and I've been enjoying exploring the countryside in the Borders.  When I'm not reading I like walking and finding out about the area and its history.  I've also learned to paint and have joined a local art club, which has helped me enormously.  I've always thought I couldn't paint and I'm still very much a beginner. 

Do click on over and check out BooksPlease, Margaret often has several interesting-sounding mysteries on the go and I am always curious what her current reads happen to be!

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

My bookcases are full to overflowing with some double-shelved.  They are a mix of non-fiction and fiction according to their size.  I've arranged the fiction in two sections -- books that I've read and unread books -- both in A-Z author order.  But my difficulty is that I haven't enough room on the 'read' shelves to fit any more in so the 'unread' bookshelves also hold books that I've read recently.

The non-fiction is randomly placed on the shelves, mainly by size, although I have placed books on the same subject together where possible -- books on history, biography and autobiography, art, cookery, gardening, yoga, religion, philosophy, language, travel and nature books mainly.

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

When I worked in the library I only used to buy books that I thought I'd want to re-read and I borrowed lots of books from the library.  Later on I began buying more books, and those 3 or 2 offers meant that it was usually more than one book at a time and the numbers grew.  In an ideal world I would keep all my books, but as space is limited I try to be firm with myself and week out books that I'm unlikely to want to re-read.  It's very difficult because there have been so many times I've wanted to re-read or just check a particular book only to realise I no longer have it.  So it's a slow process.

I take some books to charity shops but I'm lucky that I live within driving distance of one of the biggest second-hand bookshops in the UK -- Barter Books in Alnwick -- and I've taken quite a few there in the last 3 years.  The drawback is though they don't actually buy the books -- they offer you a sum of money for them and then you 'buy' more.  That's a drawback or a bonus depending on how you look at it.

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

My books are spread out over nearly the whole house, with bookcases in most of the rooms.  Four bookcases line one wall of the hallway.  These hold unread fiction and some non-fiction (photo 1).  the fiction is double-shelved, which does make it more difficult to see what I have.

There are more bookcases in the other rooms.  On the top shelf of the one in the lounge (photo 2) are more of the unread novels -- again double shelved.  I have far too many unread books!  The lower shelves hold a mix of fiction and non-fiction. 

Photo 3 shows some of the books in the office.  These are a mix of novels that I've read and non-fiction, mainly art books, cookery books, books on religion and health.

Most of the non-fiction is in a tall bookcase at the end of the inner hallway.  It's a real jumble of books as show in photo 4, with books on history, travel, football (my husband's books), language, gardening, biography, walking and so on sitting side by side.  I see there's even a novel that has infiltrated the non-fiction section!  (photo 5 is a close up of a few of these books)

Photo 6 is of the little bookcase my Dad made me for my bedroom when I was about 8.  It doesn't look anything special -- just a three shelf wooden bookcase he painted white, but I could never part with it.  It's looking a bit the worse for ear now.  On the top are some very old children's books and a pile of brochures from National Trust properties we've visited.  The shelves contain many history books and some philosophy books.

There are very old books in a spare bedroom -- again some children's books from my childhood and my parents' childhoods, too, some history and gardening books and some dictionaries.  I also have a few cookery books that I use regularly on a shelf in the kitchen.

I'd like to have all the books close at hand, but there just isn't enough space so up in the loft there are boxes of books that I've read and want to keep.  Every now and then I have to go up and retrieve a few.

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

I've had to think very hard to answer this question.  It's difficult because I haven't kept a record of when I acquired my books.  I began to list my books on LibraryThing in April 2007 but by that time I already had a number of unread books, and some of those are still unread.  So I started to answer this by trying to remember how long I'd had them --  impossible.  And then I realised I still have a number of reference books that I bought when I was at school, doing my 'A' levels!  One is a biography of King James the Sixth of Scotland and First of England, by David Harris Willson.  I was studying the Stuarts for 'A' Level History and thought I'd read it after the exams were over, but I never got round to it!  I'm not owning up to how many years I've had this book!  It's probably very dated now in terms of historical biographies and it's not in very good condition due to the passage of time and 9 house moves.

5.  What is your most treasured book?

This is another hard question to answer, because many of my books have sentimental value.  I have books that were given to me as Sunday School prizes and as presents from my family and friends and I would be really upset if I lost them.  But the book I'd be most devastated to lose is my Family Bible.  This Bible belonged to my Welsh great grandfather, Isaac.  Inside he recorded that he was born on 7 August 1848 and he married Elizabeth on 10 November 1877.  (Coincidentally my birthday is 7 August and wedding anniversary is 8 November!)  It contains details of births, marriages and deaths in the family from the latter part of the 19th century onwards.

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?

There are so  many I could choose and I've spend some time thinking about this question and taking lots of books off the shelves trying to decide which one to write about.  As I understand the question it should be a book that I've not read for a while/forgotten about. 

In the end I decided upon one of Iris Murdoch's later books, The Green Knight, published in 1993.  It is one of my favourites, but it's a book I haven't read in years, so my memory of it is a little vague.  But I do remember thinking it was really good, if rather strange.  It combines myth, magic and philosophy and some very eccentric characters, including three sisters, a dog called Anax who misses his former owner, a mysterious figure and a professor who unintentionally kills a nocturnal assailant with his umbrella -- or does he?  The blurb on the back from a review in the Independent states that:

"it explores darkness as well as light, the route from sadness through self-knowledge into joy, and how loss and emptiness, if truthfully traversed, can be transformed into fullness and fertility  ...A Romance in the fullest and most positive sense."

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

Lost in the Stacks Home Edition: Belle

Belle at Belle, Book, and Candle has been writing her on-line book journal (she detests the word 'blogger') since January 1, 2012.  She likes her mysteries spiced with humor not violence; adores P.G. Wodehouse, Beverley Nichols, and E.B. White; and, is developing a real fondness for Angela Thirkell, Barbara Pym, and Elizabeth Bowen.  She cherishes her real books but also owns both a Kindle Fire and a Nook for their convenience.  Her first job was as a 'page' shelving books in the public library.  She also worked for some years at a large, independent bookstore which has now gone the way of many.  When it sold to Borders, its death knell sounded.

Do make sure you click on over to Belle, Book and Candle for a few more photos--you can see a few details and see her shelves in situ!  She and I share quite an overlap of bookish favorites as I love or am interested in a number of authors she mentions and I do enjoy a good cozy mystery, too. 

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

I have three bookshelves that hold the majority of my books.  Two are Ikea's Billy shelves and one was made by my uncle and resided in my bedroom when I was growing up.  I cannot bear to part with it.  I recently remodeled my house and opened up two connecting rooms.  Now I have all my books around me which I love.  Eventually, I had an interior designer come in and, among other things, she 'designed' my bookshelves.  The books are in no particular order--maybe by size?  That was about two years ago and I have added to my library since then.  I try to follow her pattern but the shelves have gotten a bit overgrown.

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

I have a difficult time of letting go of my books!  I did a major, major weeding right before the remodel.  I gave away boxes and boxes to friends who wanted them--mostly paperbacks.  I do use the library a lot.  I prefer to buy older, used books.  I usually pass books on to friends or donate them to the library for its book sale. 

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

I try and keep my collection corralled in the three bookcases.  But, there are maverick stacks--bedside table reading, a pile of watercolor instruction books that live on a footstool, a couple of books I dip into now and again by my reading chair, a few located on the top shelf of my secretary desk . . . you know how it goes.  There is never really enough space.

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

Oh dear.  I have books that belonged to my grandmother that I have not read.  There is a small set of Eclectic English Classics inscribed with her maiden name which must be from her school days.  She was married sometime during World War I.  The copyright dates range from 1892 to 1894 and include Silas Marner by George Eliot The Life and Writings of Addison, The Roger de Coverley Papers from The Spectator, a volume of poems by Milton, and The Life of Samuel Johnson by Lord Macaulay.

5.  What is your most treasured book?

I have three.  One is Laird & Lee's Vest Pocket Webster Dictionary for Constant Use that was my grandfather's and has his name written in it in his hand; copyright 1906.  Another is a small New Testament that was my father's and has his name written by his hand in it.  It was printed in England by the Oxford University Press.  No date; perhaps the late 1920s.  The last one is a copy of Little Women that was my mother's and is inscribed to her by her mother on 'Christmas 1932'.  It has illustrations by Frances Brundage and a copyright date of MCMXXIX.

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?

The Once and Future King by T.H. White; copyright 1939.  This is a book I have had since I read it in high school.  It was the basis for the play and movie Camelot.  I loved the story of King Arthur, Merlin, Guenever and Lancelot.  I have seen both the play and the movie many times.  The copy I have is a mass market paperback and the print is too small for a woman-of-a-certain-age eyes.  I really must either find a hardcover copy of this and hope that the print is larger or else I will buy the Kindle version so I can adjust the font size. 

I actually met Richard Harris backstage at the theater when he was here playing King Arthur in the stage play of Camelot.  One of my best memories ever!

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

Lost in the Stacks Home Edition: Sam

I think I've been following Sam's blog, Book Chase, almost since I started blogging.  He, like me, is a fan of Elizabeth George's Inspector Lynley novels, and I admire his (complete I think?) collection of Joyce Carol Oates books (an author I've read far too little of), which you can see in the third photo below.  Sam is a recently retired Oil & Gas professional who, with the exception of a few years spent in North Africa, London, and China, has lived in Houston for more than forty years.  He finally has time for some of the finer things in life: books, baseball, and bluegrass music.  He greatly looks forward to attending book festivals and music events around the country--if the weather ever warms  up.

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

For years, my shelves were a mixture of randomness and little groupings of favorite topics or authors.  But it got so difficult for me to locate that one book I could picture so clearly in my m ind that I finally decided to bring some order to the shelves by alphabetizing all the fiction by author.

My main shelves have three sections, with the middle section reserved primarily for nonfiction (by subject), old books, and my growing Library of American collection (up to 62 volumes now).  It includes a shelf for books about authors that is a mix of nonfiction and novels, one on country music  history, and one that holds my favorite books about baseball and travel memoirs, including several favorites about long-distance walking treks.

I also have a separate bookshelf for my collection of Civil War books.  The books are mostly nonfiction, but I house my smaller collection of Civil War novels on one of the shelves.  As a Southerner, and descendent of at least one Confederate soldier, I tend to collect books about Southern officers, but I am also a big admirer of Grant and Lincoln, so I have numerous volumes on both men, as well as books about a few Union generals.

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

Other than my closets (in several rooms) Imentioned, my books are pretty much confined to my study.  I do have a few strays that end up in places I last read them, and I always keep a book in the car for those times I end up stuck in traffic or in some long, boring line or doctor's office.  Now, I do have to admit that my wife if the "book policeman," not me.  As long as I keep them shelves or out of sight, she is happy enough to see me bring new ones into the house at a continuing rate of three or four a week.  That seems a small enough price to pay.

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

I bought a whole lots of books in 1989 for some reason--so many that I have still not read all of them, meaning I have a lot of twenty-three-year-old books to choose from when it comes to the oldest unread book on my shelves.  Let's go with Amy Tan's first novel, The Joy Luck Club, as representative of that period.  1989 was the first year I could afford to indulge my reading habit, and I really overdid it.  So I have a pristine (and I mean never opened) first edition copy of the novel that, from what I understand, has become a collector's item.  In fact, modern first edition collectors consider several of those 1989 books very desirable, so I guess I had good instincts back then.

5. What is your most treasured book?

My collection includes some fairly valuable books--and some early Charles Dickens volumes that I treasure.  But my most treasured book is worth about 30 cents: a Signet paperback of Planet of the Apes that I bought in a Nashville bus station in May of 1968.  I treasure the book because of the memories associated with it.  I bought the book while in Nashville on a three-day pass I had earned during Army Basic Training in nearby Ft. Campbell, Kentucky.  We were allowed no reading material during basic and I knew that I would have to somehow hide the book from my Drill instructors for the final three weeks of training or I would lose it.  Well, it's still with me, and every time I pick it up, I feel nineteen-years-old again--and then I notice how old and yellow the pages are.

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?

I would choose MacKinlay Kantor's Andersonville 1955 novel about the infamous Georgia prisoner-of-war camp in which so many Union soldiers died horrible deaths during the Civil War.  When I first read the novel, I knew very little about Andersonville and what really happened there.  I expected that Kantor had greatly exaggerated the truth or created some incidents just to make this story more dramatic.  And I was wrong.  Truth, in this instance is every bit as strange as fiction, and this is the one book that I recommend to people when they ask me why I am so fascinated by Civil War history.  This 760-page chunkster has led more than one person I know to share that passion with me.  It's a little intimidating at first glance but this book is a wonderful read.

Had to share these two photos not least for the Poe, Woolf and Twain figurines, but I also spot a shelf full of Modern Library editions (I've toyed with collecting them myself . . .).

This brick paperweight, which you can just glimpse in the top photo sitting on the library stairs on the right side of Sam's bookcase has an interesting provenance.  It was salvaged by Sam from William Faulkner's flowerbeds years ago when the gardener was redoing the beds.  A very cool piece of literary history, don't you think?

Many thanks to Sam for sharing photos of his bookshelves with us.  Check back next Friday for a peek into another reader's library.

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.

Lost in the Stacks Home Edition: Michelle

Although half a world separates us, Michelle and I share a birthday and a love of books.  In her per-blogging days she would often drop by (virtually that is) to leave comments here and when she decided to start blogging, too, I was thrilled.  Do please visit her at A Reader's Footprints.  She is a book lover who was born and bred in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and is now living just 25km away from the city centre with a mum, a sister and a dog.

She works with figures to make a living, but her real passion lies with words.  Other passions: travelling and animals.

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

I am not a very organized person by nature, and I think my books and shelves do reflect that. Even my reading is usually on whim, unless I happen to be  participating in any of the specific reading  events on the blogosphere. I do not belong to any reading groups and don't think I ever will because of my need to be able to read on whim and not under compulsion. Besides, I think I am much too slow a reader to be able to follow closely to the datelines/ schedules anyway. But having said that, I think it will be good in helping me become a more disciplined and efficient reader, and curb the bad habit of diving into new books before finishing any of the on-going ones.

My personal library is still fairly young, as I only started to seriously buy books (in more and more alarming numbers and frequency) about 5-6 years ago. My love for books go way back further, though. It's just that when I was young, I grew up feeding on my sister's rather comprehensive collection of Enid Blytons, and I had not much of a need to get books of my own. The source of her impressive loot was the result of my grandfather's lavish display of affection for his then, only grandchild. And so, when I (finally!) arrived onto the scene 8 years later, frugality had probably set in and the excitement of grandkids had probably phased out. Of course there were the occasional books acquired here and there over the years, but it was not until I got myself a proper solid bookshelf  about 5 years ago that I started filling it up ( to the point of overdoing it, I think!). It was also a time when books were starting to be made available at much more affordable prices through the various book sales events and online sellers.  

The first photo (at top of the page) shows the early days when the shelves were still new and not overrun with books yet. The second photo is the current state of things. Notice how the poor animals are now peeping rather apprehensively from the corner they have been relegated to.  By the way, this happens to be the bookshelf that is beside my bed and so it acts as the 'nightstand'  as well. Not all the books on it are my on-going/ current reads, in case you might be wondering. I just like to have them close by and just looking at them gives me much pleasure in itself.

Photo no.3 shows the upper half of the shelf as well as the wall shelf that was added later on to help out with the load. But I need to be careful how much I load on it as I don't wish to have it all come crashing down on my head while I sleep!

Photo no.4 shows yet another wall shelf in my room (it's a small room, so I do try to maximize what available space there is!). My books are not really placed in any particular way or system. There are some that are placed together by the same author or subject matter, others may be thrown together by the same publisher or, even by their size perhaps. Generally, I do like to have a mixture of these assortments all thrown together on the shelves (or floor), as they tend to provide a better visual effect on the whole, I think. I also don't think I can quite bear to see whole rows of books that are of uniform colours or sizes all placed neatly together. Too uninteresting, I feel. One rather strange tendency I do have though, is in trying to keep the books that have been acquired together, to stay together as far as possible. A bit weird, I know.

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

I used to be a hoarder, and it's not just with books. I generally find it hard to discard things. But as I grow older, somehow it seems to have gotten easier to do so. I realise that there really is a time and a season for everything. And when the time has come, it just feels right to let it go. Of course space constraint plays a huge part too. Nowadays, I find it easier to part with books I know I no longer have the interest/ time to read anytime in the foreseeable future. Although I have not been doing any aggressive weeding yet, I have in small parts, been trying to free up shelf space by 'sending off' a book or two here and there to friends whom I think might appreciate them. Planning to also look into charitable organisations where I can send them to in the future. As for now, I think there's still a bit of room around the house.

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

Although having said that there are still available space in some parts of the house, I still prefer to keep my books as close by to me as possible and that is why I try to keep as many of them as possible, in my bedroom. The ones that can't be squeezed into the room are spread out over the house. You can find books in every room except the kitchen and the bathrooms. Photos 5 - 8 are of the shelves in my bedroom as well. And there's also some that are kept in plastic storage containers under my bed.

Photo no. 9 and its close up are of the bookshelf in the living room, which has more of the coffee table-like books, some travel related books, photography & garden books etc.. There are also some Henry James and a Wilkie Collins in there and the occasional book or two that my mum stuffs in. By the way, those figurines sitting on the top most shelf are my mum's. Me, I prefer furry ones, like the panda on the second lower shelf.

Photo no.10 is the bookshelf located at the dining area. If you look closely, there's actually another set of shorter shelves beside this one (where the bottles of cookies are sitting on now). I got them with the intention of using them to hold books actually (not so much cookie jars) but since I am still trying to stuff my room to the max, my mum had other more practical plans for the shelves in the meantime. But a time will come when they will have to be 'reclaimed' back for their original purpose, I suppose.

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

I think it's a copy of Richard Bach's Jonathon Livingston Seagull which was given to me by a friend whom I've known since my primary schooldays. It was a birthday gift for my 19th year. Let's see.... so that makes it close to 17 years of sitting unread, yellowing (& collecting dust) on the shelf now. The inscription by my friend on the book's flyleaf says ".... this is the second best gift that I could ever give to you. The first one, of course, was given through our wonderful years together! A Toast to our Friendship!".  I think I should be feeling really guilty now.

5. What is your most treasured book?

This is a tough one to answer, as I do treasure many for various reasons. There's the two Folio Society volumes of 'Dickens' London' and 'A Treasury of Mark Twain' that are simply exquisite to hold and behold. There's also the two beautiful Vitalis edition of Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet and Two Prague Stories that were acquired in Prague (and at such an unbelievably good discounted price too!).

But if it's a book that I treasure most in terms of how close I  hold it to heart, I think I will pick Alison Smith's memoir Name all the Animals.  It was one of those books that I knew nothing about prior to pulling it out from the shelves while browsing in the (then) first ever Borders outlet in Malaysia back in 2005.  The title had caught my attention even though the author was new to me.  And I have a feeling that both the book and the writer are still relatively unfamiliar to many, today.  Maybe this one could qualify as a 'lost in the stacks' as well.

Anyway, I read the blurb on the back cover of the book and decided that it was going home with me.  And I am glad it did.  The book is a poignant account of the writer's struggle with repressed grief (at the loss of her brother), with the loss of faith in her religion, with the discovery of forbidden love, and ultimately with learning to love life itself.  The writing is tender and beautiful, even though the subject matters are difficult and painful.  Simply put, Alison's story somehow resonated with me.  The book also closely associated with some rather cherished memories of having had the reading experience shared at that time, with someone dear.

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?

I think I would like to pick more than one, if you don't mind (sorry!). I'd like to put a plug in for H.V. Morton's travel writings. My first encounter with Morton was his In Search of England and I have since gone on to acquiring most of his other books as well. I love the tone of his writing and the sense of time and place that they manage to evoke. There's a very romantic 'old world' feel to his travel writings that just adds to the pleasure and appeal of travelling. I feel this is one of those 'lost in the stacks' writers because I have so far only come across one blogger (Alex in Leeds) who has had any mention of Morton at all on their blogs. Or it could be that I don't read enough blogs to make that assumption. Anyway, no harm putting in a plug for him here, I guess.  The other writer I would also like to make mention here is Alice Steinbach. Not sure how 'lost in the stacks' she might be, but just wanted to share that her Without Reservations: Travels of an Independent Woman was one of the first travel memoirs that I read, and probably the one that got me in love with the genre, and with travelling. In fact, I made my acquaintance with Steinbach even much earlier than with Morton. I found her book to be truly inspiring and reading it was a rather liberating experience for me. I have since loved to write postcards while on my travels (as did Steinbach).

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

Lost in the Stacks Home Edition: Vicki

I hope you are enjoying reading these Lost in the Stacks posts as much as I am, though I feel a bit of a fraud since my 'work' only consists of putting the posts together.  How sad is it that I've taken to organizing these the Q&As and photos with pen and paper in hand.  I scan bookshelves looking for interesting titles to jot down for later perusal.  Photos are (almost) the next best thing to actually visiting and being able to browse bookshelves in person!  If you've not yet met Vicki who blogs at Bibliolathas, please do click through!  I've been following her almost since she began Bibliolathas, and she has wonderfully eclectic tastes and yet another case of having an enviable reading space.  It's lovely matching library to book blogger, as it rounds out my mental picture.  Now over to Vicki:

My name is Vicki and I live in Adelaide, South Australia. I've been blogging since 2008 about my other interests retro cook-books and random pretty stuff I like, but only started book-blogging in 2010. I started off anonymously and in hindsight I wish I'd not been so darned clever with my unspellable pseudonyms. They both relate to a huge love in my life, the ancient world. I studied classical studies at uni here, then did a PhD in ancient Greek literature in the U.K. Nowadays my day job is in health administration and the classics are a hobby, though I have edited a book and published a few bits and pieces to keep my hand in.

Bibliolathas? This was the nickname ('book-forgetting') given to Didymus, a scholar at Alexandria in the first century BC. Allegedly he'd written so many books (3500 to 4000!) that he couldn't remember what he'd written, and contradicted his own writings. He was also, less happily for him, nicknamed 'brazen-bowels' for his, um, massive industry. I liked the 'book-forgetter' nickname because I see my book blog as a way to keep track of what I'm reading and thinking. And 'skiourophile'? This is an invented word based on Greek skiouros (squirrel) and philos (loved) - so, squirrel-lover. I LOVE squirrels. Woe is me: we don't have any in South Australia. The name also suits me since I am a squirrel in my hoarding habits, as we will see.

Danielle's blog was one of the very first I started following, and I've always thought it a model of its kind, with her diverse reading tastes and gorgeous needlework. I would give a kidney to be able to sew, knit and crochet. Or I'd even give up eating French cakes. Actually, that's stretching my willpower. Anyway, it was a total delight to be invited to show off my shelves, and here goes…

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

Here is a picture to blight a book-lover's day.

Yes, books. In boxes. Books no longer free to roam about the house, no more to be randomly picked-up and lovingly re-read. When I go out to the shed and look inside these boxes, it feels akin to keeping cute piglets in inhumane cages.

How did this happen? There I was, a few years ago, in a room entirely walled in by books. Windowed in, even. Hell, doorwayed in. What was natural light? It invited death to swing a cat.

(George: not into swinging, but his literary instincts are good).

Then, I started to think about moving. I packed. I dismantled bookshelves. I put them all in the shed. I discovered I had windows. I left myself a couple of categories of books: (1) books I was reading; (2) books I wanted to read; (3) books I couldn't live without ('friends'); (4) books on my research; and (5) books so heavy I couldn't face shifting them. That left about 1000. At that point I gave up on ever moving. But I never put those 2000 boxed books back. And you know what? Sometimes it's nice to see out the windows. But they creep in, books. It sometimes seems like a territorial war with one's best friends. I now have a strict policy of using my Kindle for 'disposable' books and only buying physical books if I can't resist. OK, that's not very strict. The physical presence of a book is a wonderful, seductive, intoxicating thing. (And, yes, if I can't find a book I own, I buy another copy on the Kindle. Shoot me.)

To answer Danielle's question, these are not organized books, but they are not wholly random. The glass cabinet has the big heavy stuff - art, archaeology, classics, dictionaries. The open shelves are dynamic. Organization depends primarily on whether something fits.

Thematically, there is a lot of cultural theory buried at the bottom. A row of stuff on my research topic. Some poetry (most is elsewhere). A goodly collection of books on and from the 1900s-1940s. Higher up we hit bits of the TBR. Far up top, some ancient texts, an emergency grammar or two. A few shelves of favourite books that I can't put into boxes. The thin bookshelf in the middle holds vintage cook-books. We then turn anti-clockwise. On top of the filing cabinets: a disorder of TBRs; a sprinkling of library books. Keep turning… the mantelpiece holds cookbooks and a mini-mountain of Persephones.

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

Well, I think we've answered that. HOARDER!

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

And now we come to the crux. I live with a book-collector, my father, and an avid reader, my mother. They've had a combined 140 years to collect books. Almost every wall in the house is covered in the results of their bibliomania. We have a bookshelf in the loo. I never read in bed, but my bedroom has shelves. On those I have three shelves of poetry books and nine shelves of… Oh dear, this may be a deal-breaker… OK, it's my collection of Biggles books (see below). Confession time: my wardrobe is full of Enid Blytons. I can't own many clothes.

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

The honest answer is that I have absolutely no idea. I'm totally cool with unread books. Someone who gets this is Walter Benjamin (1892-1940):

"Suffice it to quote the answer which Anatole France gave to a philistine who admired his library and then finished with the standard question, 'And you have read all these books, Monsieur France?'

'Not one-tenth of them. I don't suppose you use your Sèvres china every day?'"

Obviously, 'philistine' is harsh! But I like the attitude. Many of my books are treasuries and treasures, things that a humanist has to possess. I have no expectation of ever reading everything I own now, let alone what I might obtain in the next 40 years. (The quotation is from Benjamin's 'Unpacking My Library: A Talk About Book Collecting' (1931), published in the collected volume Illuminations [1973].)

5. What is your most treasured book?

My father gave me his Biggles' books when I was about 10 years old. Each book had been lovingly covered in brown paper by him as a child (as a child!) to protect the dust-wrappers. They were in perfect condition. When I was young we would go to book-shops almost every weekend and I could pick a book or two (or three or four) that I wanted. The love of books runs deep in my veins because my reading was nourished as a child. So, those ordinary-looking brown paper-covered books are among my most treasured possessions. I've put another unwrapped one in, as it is interesting to consider what sort of child would wrap a glorious technicolour cover.

If you don't know Biggles, he is the creation of 'Captain' W. E. Johns (1893-1968). Biggles was a pioneer aviator and WW1 flying ace, then inter-war adventurer, then WW2 squadron leader, then post-war Scotland Yard detective. He upholds all the great manly British values of the time, such as honour, closeted homosexuality, and racism. I started collecting when I was about 12 (early 1980s). I finished about a decade later when they became absurdly expensive. I don't know how many I have stashed about the place.

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?

Well, you're all now racing off to read Biggles... However, I don't see this one mentioned very much, yet it is wonderfully witty, screw-ball funny and gorgeously written: Auntie Mame by Patrick Dennis (1955).

This is my lovely copy, circa 1958. Auntie Mame is the story of the best aunt ever for a poor little orphan boy to inherit. She is irreverent, amoral, flighty, and quite crackers, and exposes the young Patrick to such indignities as a nudist private school, her entirely successful endeavours to marry a millionaire, and a multitude of crazy adventures in which it is by the slenderest margin that aunt and nephew emerge unscathed. Auntie Mame is a gorgeous character. And who doesn't love an orphan novel?

I have to mention that I loved Auntie Mame when I read it a number of years ago, too.  She is all that Vicki says--it's a delightful book, as is the sequel, Around the World with Auntie Mame.  Both are definite reread material! 

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

Lost in the Stacks: Lyn

I'm sure I've mentioned here an online Yahoo Group that I belong to (discovered via Simon as a matter of fact) that began as a way for fans of Persephone Books to share their interest.  The group has since branched out and they read widely books that are often (though not always) similar in nature to Persephone titles.  Lyn is one of many readers I've come to know through the group, and I was thrilled when she announced she had started blogging.  She is amazingly well read, as are the others who belong to the group, and I can't count the number of times I've added titles to my wishlist thanks to discussions in the group.  Lyn, who lives in Australia, blogs at I Prefer Reading.  And now, over to Lyn:

I'm a librarian who has lived in Melbourne all my life. I've been blogging for the last three years & I've enjoyed the chance to write about the books I'm reading & have a conversation with other bloggers & the people who visit the blog. I love reading classic & middlebrow fiction, detective stories, history & biography. When I'm not reading, I'm cooking, learning how to grow vegies & making life comfortable for my cats, Lucky & Phoebe.

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

I'm lucky enough to have four walls of bookshelves made from Tasmanian hardwood. I paid for them with part of a legacy from my Dad who I imagined looking down, completely unsurprised at my choice.  When the bookshelves went in about 6 years ago, I thought they'd last me forever but, of course, they're almost full & I've started looking at the other walls in my house, planning for more shelves.  The books I've read are in alphabetical order but my tbr shelves are organised by subject or imprint. So, my Viragos, Penguin & OUPs are together & books on WWI, literary biographies, crime fiction, Scotland & English history are also together.  Maybe I shouldn't confess to this but now that my books are on Library Thing (all 2551 of them), I know exactly how many are unread - 850 which doesn't include nearly 200 on my ereader.

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

I tend to weed when I'm running out of space but I really think I'm down to the core collection of books I can't live without so I'll probably just get more bookshelves!

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

I'm pretty good about keeping the books on the shelves but I'm a neat person so it's not a struggle. I keep the books I plan to read soon, as well as the books I've borrowed from work, on my desk & the books I'm actually reading on the table next to my reading chair.

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

I have some books that have been here so long that it was actually before I started writing the dates in them. I think the books that have been here the longest would be some OUP World's Classics I bought when they were phasing out the cover design so they were quite cheap. They're mid 1980s editions so I probably bought them around 1988-90. They are Felix Holt, the Radical by Eliot, Caleb Williams by Godwin & Sybil by Disraeli & I will read them one day when the mood strikes!

5. What is your most treasured book?

My most treasured book would be my first copy of Antonia Fraser's Mary, Queen of Scots. I have three copies ( the others are an abridged, illustrated edition & a Folio Society edition) but there's no need to enquirre too deeply into why I need multiple copies of my favourite books. The special copy is a 1978 paperback edition in a slipcase but I can still remember buying it at Collins Bookshop at Northland shopping centre. It cost $7.95 & I sat in the back seat of the car while Dad drove home, just gloating over it. The spine is very cracked now as I read it so many times. It was one of the books that nspired my love of history & a fascination with Mary that has persisted ever since.

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?

This is a really difficult question. So many of the books I love have been reprinted in recent years or I've discovered them through blogs & reprints by publishers like Persephone, Virago & Greyladies. One book that I don't own a copy of & seems to be almost impossible to get hold of secondhand is a young adult novel I read in the mid 70s. The Youngest Lady-in-waiting by Mara Kay. It's the story of Masha, a young orphan who is sponsored by Grand Duchess Alexandra, wife of the future Nicholas I. She goes to the Smolny Institute, a posh girls school for the Russian aristocracy (this is told in the first book, Masha) & then, when she leaves school, she goes to Court as the Grand Duchess's lady-in-waiting. The book takes place at the time of the mysterious death of Tsar Alexander I & Masha falls in love with a young man who gets involved in the Decembrist Revolution of 1825. I loved the romance & the history. I knew nothing about Russian history & this was the book that began another lifelong passion. I read my school library's copy over & over but I've never seen a copy since I left school. So, I don't actually have a copy on my bookshelves but I would love someone to reprint it so I could read it again.

So, if you've been following this series of posts, are you like me and scan the shelves and stacks in the photos for titles on spines to see if you recognize the books (or like me, note down titles you don't recognize to look up later and maybe add to your wishlist?)?  It's quite dangerous to browse in other reader's personal libraries I'm finding!  (Though entirely a pleasure, too).

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

Lost in the Stacks Home Edition: Tiina

I've been following Tiina's blog almost since she began it.  What I love about blogging and the virtual reading community is getting to know other readers from all over the world.  Time zones my separate us, we may speak different languages but books and our love for reading brings us all together.  I always think it's so amazing that however huge the world is, it seems a little bit smaller when we get together to talk about books.  Tiina kindly shared a few things about herself (and you can read a bit more here).

I'm a librarian from Helsinki, Finland. I work as the chief librarian in our main library. I'm also a dancer. I compete in dance competitions in standard dances (=waltz, tango, Wiennese waltz, foxtrot and quickstep). I've been dancing with the same partner for over 20 years (that IS a long time!! :)). Just last weekend we danced in the Finnish Standard Championships and finished 3rd in the senior 1 age group (both parthers have to be 35 or older). I first came to blogging in 2008 through food blogging. In 2009 I started my book blog A Book Blog of One's Own, named after Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own. For a while I tried to manage two blogs, but then decided to give up food blogging and to concentrate on blogging mostly about books and reading. In addition to books and dancing I also like tennis, writing, making bead jewellery and travelling. This far I've only travelled in Europe, but one of my dreams is to some day visit Australia and New Zealand.

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

I have four smallish bookshelves spread around the apartment. My books are not organized in any particular way, though I do try to keep books by the same writer together. For example I have a whole shelf of books by Elizabeth Peters and also all my books by Virginia Woolf are together on one shelf. And in all my bookshelves the front row of books hides another row behind it. :) Strangely enough most of my books are in English (my mother tongue is Finnish) as I get all the Finnish books I read from the library and also books in English are cheaper. I own lots of fiction and books about history, especially women's history, as that was my speciality at the university. When I first started working in the library I organized my books alphabetically, but that did not last long. :) I much prefer my books to be in no particular order.

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

I used to keep all my books, but that just became unpractical. Nowadays I do a fair amount of weeding. If I know that I'm not going to reread the book or it did not make any special impression on me I will recycle it. In our library we have a special shelf for recycling books and I use it quite often..

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

My books have pretty much invaded every room in my apartment. No books in the bathroom, though. :) I have two bookselves full of books in the living room, plus a third one which contains my dvd-collection. I have one bookself in the bedroom and my cook books are in the kitchen.

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

That's a tough question. I honestly don't know! I probably have a book or two I bought in the early 90s or even late 80s that are still unread.

5. What is your most treasured book?

My most treasured books are signed copies by some of my favorite authors:
Purge by Sofi Oksanen, The Hours by Michael Cunningham and The Fingersmith by Sarah Waters.

I also treasure my battered, second-hand copy of Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf and my equally well-used collection of Sylvia Plath's poetry. And why? Mrs Dalloway is my favorite novel and I especially love the idea that my copy has been read and -hopefully- enjoyed by others before me. Sylvia Plath is my favorite poet and over the years I have enjoyed reading her Collected Poems many, many times.

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?

This one might be difficult to find, but I would like to recommend Letters from Finland by Rosalind Travers. Travers spent about eight months in Finland in 1908-1909. Her book about her time here is a fascinating read.

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

Lost in the Stacks Home Edition: Simon

If, like me, you are a fan of early twentieth century literature, and you've not yet had a chance to meet Simon, let me direct your attention to Stuck in a Book now.  Simon is a graduate of Oxford where he studied Literature focusing on this era in particular.  He's working on his dissertation which is on middlebrow novels and the fantastic between the world wars.  On many an occasion I've taken up reading suggestions from Simon, and there is lots to explore on his blog including a list of "fifty books you must read but may not have heard about" (links to the books are on his sidebar).  While you're there make sure, too, you check out his series of My Life in Books posts, where he pairs readers and their answers about books.  The twist is each reader doesn't know the identity of their opposite pair until the answers have been posted!  Simon recently began working for Oxford University Press where he quite fittingly manages their blog, OxfordWords.

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

Firstly, I should tell you that most (maybe three-quarters?) of my books are at my parents' house in Somerset, while the rest are with me in Oxford.  That makes things a wee bit complicated... Ok, noted?  On with the show.  My books have a sort of order, loosely based around the alphabet... well, they are alphabetical by author (in both Somerset and Oxford), but in Oxford I've divided them into 'old' and 'new', which is very subjective and subject to change.  Basically, the bookcases are 'pretty' and 'less pretty', so reprints of old books might go in 'new', depending on how nicely the edition has been produced... scientific, no?  And then of course there are lots of exceptions, like all my Persephone books together...

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

I'm definitely a hoarder by nature, but space has been running out... so about once every two years I spend hours in my room in Somerset, being ruthless with myself.  And usually it's surprisingly easy, as I realise I don't *really* need two identical copies of Barbara Comyns' Our Spoons Came From Woolworths, however much I love her writing.  The books I cull usually go to the church bookstall my Mum runs from our garage on Saturdays, but last time I sold quite a few through my blog - since I knew they'd be even more likely to go to good homes (and I was penniless!).

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

Ah, this one we've addressed a little already!  Mine are spread across counties... but in both houses, I only really have one room that's mine.  I don't think my parents (or, in Oxford, my housemates) would appreciate it if I left piles of books in the living room.  Once I have my own house, in the dim and distant future, I can't imagine anywhere being safe from books.  As it is, every surface of my bedroom (including the floor - oh, very definitely including the floor) is covered with piles of books.

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

If we're not counting unread children's books, then it's probably A Name To Conjure With by G.B. Stern, which I bought when I was 16 (just over a decade ago).  So, not enormously long, but about as long as it could possibly be with my caveat of discounting children's books!  I've still not read any fiction by G.B. Stern, but I have enjoyed her co-authored books on Jane Austen.

5. What is your most treasured book?

Probably Gay Life by E.M. Delafield, because she's one of my very favourite authors and it is signed by her.  I did know, when I bought it online, that it was (I've had lovely surprises with books by Dorothy Whipple and Owen Seaman, only discovering they were signed once I got home) but it gives me such a thrill to think she once held it.  Oddly, I can't think of any books which have deep personal attachments... my friends and family need to give me more heartfelt books!  Having said that, the Alice's Adventures in Wonderland which my parents gave me last Christmas, illustrated by my beloved Tove Jansson, is one of my most precious books - half because it's so beautiful, half because of the givers.

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?

This is my forte, so it's so difficult to pick one!  I was so thrilled when Frank Baker's brilliant Miss Hargreaves came back into print - that used to be the one I forced onto everyone.  And last year I did manage to spread the word on Guard Your Daughters pretty successfully - causing a rush on copies online.  So, which book do I love which *hasn't* caused much of a stir in the blogosphere... I think it might be Economy Must Be Our Watchword by Joyce Dennys.  I never blogged about it properly, since it's impossible to find copies of it, but it's a hilarious take on a rich woman who has bizarre ideas about economising (and zero self-awareness) during the Second World War.  I treasure my copy, which I was lucky to find on Charing Cross Road.

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**Must note that Guard Your Daughters was one of the first books I read this year, and that Simon and I read Gay Life in tandem a couple of years ago (alas I read a library copy,  not one I own, but was happy to have found it on my library's shelves).  I have grabbed my copy of Miss Hargreaves from my TBR pile (shamefully have owned it for years and have decided this is the year I finally must read it).  Oh, and have checked Worldcat for the Joyce Dennys book, but as a mere four libraries own it, my chances are less than slim that I'll be able to borrow a copy.  See what I mean by those reading suggestions? 

I must also say that like so many other flat dwellers who have limited space for their books, Simon's arrangement is very pleasing (love that top photo). 

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