A Case of Books.

A new beautiful carpet has just been fitted in our front room and a man has been and put a protective coating on it. While he was here I thought it might be a good idea to get the stair carpet cleaned.
So now I wait for the fumes to die down and the stairs to dry, and thought I would inflict some thoughts on you.

Aren't bookshelves a good idea?
I had to empty one set and look at the piles of books that it held.


I became re acquainted with some old friends.
I thought I'd share.

I bought this on the same day that I bought the newly released Beatles White Album.
I'd saved £8 from my saturday job in C&A and went out for a spend. I think I also bought some art materials that day too.


Here's the date. I was 17. Later that year, I went to college, caught glandular fever at the end of my first term and this was what I read while I was in isolation hospital for two weeks.

Here are some much earlier treasures. I was a big fan of Toby Twirl when I was very young and still have a couple of books.

'The Chestry Oak' is by Kate Seredy I bought the books for myself fairly recently but read them all when I was about 13 and 14. 'The Good Master', 'The Singing Tree', 'The Open Gate' .

She was a Hungarian who went to live in the USA and wrote stories about her Hungarian childhood. I loved them.

Here are possibly two of my favourite books of all time. Both set in Greece. It was reading Fugitive Pieces that really gave me the extra push to want to go to Greece again.
Its a very moving book.

I read Capatain Corelli on a Eurocamp Holiday to Brittany about 10 years ago. I lay reading it on a sunbed on the campsite, blubbing, and wouldn't do anything else until I'd finished it.

Anne Tyler is one of my favourites too. The first line of this book is great.

'Once upon a time there was a woman who discovered she had turned into the wrong person'.

How could you not read on?

I like the Patchwork Planet too and the Accidental Tourist.

Doesn't everyone have this old sewing book?

This gives real insight into life in Afghanistan, very enjoyable.

A Thousand Acres contains a real shocker..based on King Lear, and I put the other one in because it describes my condition!

The Gormenghast Trilogy was a 21st Birthday present and I read them with a dictionary next to me. I loved them at the time and used to imagine 'The Movie' I had all the characters played by appropriate actors in my imagination, but when the TV series came out not so long ago I was a bit disappointed.

If you ever come across 'Mr Pye' also by Mervyn Peake, read it! (But only if no one has told you about it first)

The 'Clayhanger trilogy' by Arnold Bennet kept me occupied when I had to go to work on a long bus journey. It was so restrained. I remember gasping when they at last held hands for a second.

Looking at all these books makes me realise how little I seem to read now. I think I've replaced books with blogs.

I sit up till all hours with my laptop until its too late to read in bed.

Must change.

Have you read any of these?