I love books.
I love the quiet comfort of reading them, savouring them, getting lost in them, and learning from them. I love the look and feel of them. I love the smell of the paper.
There was a time when I was unable to keep many books. My way of life was such that there was never enough space, and what books I did have tended to get damp and damaged anyway. So when I finally moved into a house with lots of room and central heating, I went a bit mad. I’d go on day trips to Hay-on-Wye and spend hours browsing around poky little cellar rooms, the paperbacks that stood floor to ceiling selling for as little as a pound each. I’d come back with armfuls and then spend happy evenings lovingly sorting through them, separating them into categories, and putting them onto brand new shelves I’d either bought or built myself.
Now I have a house full of books, which is something I always wanted. Friends and family tease me mercilessly because I haven’t read them all, but I don’t care. I am slowly making my way through my collection and I love that there is always something new to read, an array of choice, right there in my own home. There is absolutely no question in my mind as to which possessions I would fight my way through smoke and flames to rescue.
The inspiration for this post actually came from two others I have read recently. First Babyrambles and her post What’s Your Favourite Book? And then Charlotte’s Web and her post Summer Wish List. Reading those made me want to write my own post about books, to share my favourites and to fish for recommendations. I have even taken some photos:
These shelves are in my living room. The ones on the left house fiction, autobiographies and cook books. My favourites there are the novels written by Thomas Keneally (Schindler’s Ark, The Playmaker) and Maya Angelous six volumes of autobiography (I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings probably being the most well known.) I first read Angelou for my English G.C.S.E. and she was the first writer to actually leave me speechless with awe at just how powerful someones words on paper could really be. I also very much enjoy slumping on my rather regal looking blue sofa after a hectic day and reading cookbooks for pleasure. Elizabeth David, Nigella Lawson and Claudia Roden are all talented writers as well as great cooks. The cookbook I like best is Claudia Roden’s, The Book of Jewish Food: An Odyssey from Samarkand and Vilna to the Present Day. With beautiful rich text full of social and cultural history as well as recipes, this book is a treasure chest of information that will only become more precious as time goes on.
The bookcase in the middle is devoted to classics, politics and history. It has some of my favourite books of all: Bronte’s Wuthering Heights which I love unashamedly, The Great Gatsby, and Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, which may quite possibly be my favourite book of all time. It also has a penguin copy of One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez; a book which try as I might, I simply cannot get on with. The furthest I have ever got is about half way through. The truth is, I actually can’t stand magical realism. Perhaps it’s a failure of imagination on my part, but I can’t bear to be just starting to get my teeth into a character, only to have them float away on a bloody leaf. Where’s the sense in that?
The shelves on the right are dedicated to fiction as well, but also provide a home for all my hardbacks. My treasured hardback copy of David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas lives there. If you have never read Cloud Atlas then I urge you to do so. It left me open mouthed and marveling at Mitchells vision and imagination. It also has one of the most beautiful covers in my whole collection.
These are the shelves at the top of my stairs that I built myself. You can tell they’re slightly bodgy if you look closely – the shelves are not quite flush with the struts – but they do the job well enough. It’s all fiction here too, and at the very bottom is my series of Janet Evanovich crime novels, do you know the ones? One for the money, Two for the dough e.c.t….. Every woman needs a bit of light entertainment from time to time, and bounty hunter Stephanie Plum and her trusty sidekick – former hooker Lula – are definitely my heroines of choice.
Books on my “To Read” list for this summer include:
The Dolphin People by Torsten Kroll – a present from my mother.
Me Cheeta by James Lever - nominated for a Booker and recommended by a friend.
and The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown – I know it’s supposed to be awful but I want to see what all the fuss is about.
How about you? What is your favourite novel or novels of all time? And what are you going to be reading this summer?
Books, books, books. You’re like me…can’t get enough of them…can’t get rid of the them. Very envious of your lovely shelves and the sofa – what a great colour (and the white lamp is nice too). Anyway, enough about your room…back to the books. Quite a few you mention – The Great Gatsby Wuthering Heights and Nigella and Elizabeth David are my favourites too. Never really got on with Marquez either.
Mine are taking over. I have a bad Waterstone’s habit. If you ever come to the one here, there is a very nice man in there. I was actually going to write a post about summer reading too (will link to this). I was happy the other day when I tweeted about a great book of short stories I’m reading – ‘If I Loved You I would tell you this’ – tweeted me back and I’m now following her.
I really couldn’t say just one novel I don’t think.
I love my blue sofa too. It was ex-display so I got it for a fraction of the original price – I would never have been able to afford it otherwise. And it’s true, I can’t get rid of books. There are very very few that I’ve ever packed off to Oxfam – which incidentally can be a fantastic place to find good second hand books.
Glad it’s not just me that doesn’t get on with Marquez. You hear so many people say that Solitude is their favourite book, and I always feel really stupid saying that I didn’t get it and didn’t they find it really annoying that all the characters had the same name..
I love houses that are full of books. At the last count we have a total of 9 books shelves stuffed to the gills with books – sci-fi, world fiction, classics, history, cooking, comedy, graphic novels, movie tie-ins, music, factual. All higgledy-piggledy and all over the place. We haven’t read them all but are never at a loss for something to read. I like the fact my kids will grow up surrounded by every subject of book they can think of – already that have pretty good collections themselves.
Yes, I think it’s nice for kids to grow up surrounded by lots of books too. My eldest is already an avid reader and really getting into stuff like Phillip Pullman’s Northern Lights trilogy, which I think is great.
Wuthering Heights is one of my all time favourites too:) I also LOVE books and used to love spending hours in second hand bookshops, I was a very uncool teenager!! Jen
If you love second hand bookshops, then make sure you visit Hay on Wye if you ever come to Wales. It’s on the Welsh/English border and is the most amazing place you can imagine. Even the old castle has been turned into a bookshop.
Thanks for the mention and great to see your bookcases. Our house is vey similar! We had some bookcases built on an entire wall to put ours. I hate ever getting rid of books so keep everything just in case I want to read it again. Some more books for my reading list here too!
Yes, I’m going to check out a couple on your list that I haven’t read seeing as we appear to have such similar taste!
Books books books….of all the things I missed when we moved house it was my books. 20 removal cartons of books were put into storage and remain stored – 3 years later until the building work / extension is completed
Of course I couldnt do without books during that time so in the meantime I appear to have managed to purchase another 5 crates of books – now all stacked up underneath the window in my bedroom.
I’m told the office (where the books will be finally stored) will be ready before Christmas…. I’m wondering if by then, the room will be big enough even with wall to wall shelving.
Such a job to chose favourites though. But of the ones packed away I’m most looking forward to re-reading:
Lord of the Rings, Tolkien- love it love it love it – must have read it about 2 dozen times
Brideshead revisited, Evelyn Waugh- another long term favourite, always makes me cry at the beginning when Charles is wandering through the house remembering
Sarum – Edward Rutherfurd – amazing saga set round Salisbury, my two favourite chapters are the ones about the building of Stonehenge and the building of the Cathedral
Who have I never got on with….Charles Dickens despite trying several times!
I feel for you, I’d be pretty bereft without my books. Still, it will be lovely to have a whole room dedicated to them when it’s ready eh.
I spent about $5k moving my ‘stuff’ over here from NZ. Only two beds and a table was actually furniture. The rest was housewares, mainly books. I have 2 huge wall to ceiling Ikea bookshelves downstairs and another one on the landing. I never give away my books, but I do lovingly lend them to friends. Was just thinking this morning that I haven’t had a change to just sit down and read a book for ages. Books are definately my friends, sometimes even my refuge..
Well I don’t know about you, but I have definitely been reading less since I started blogging. Have been trying to make sure that I set proper time aside for reading books again lately. It’s so easy to let the blogosphere suck up all your time!