Monday, May 24, 2010

Excuses, excuses




I won’t have much time to post this week. I’ve just finished reading Barbara Pym’s Less than Angels which I loved. I read it years ago but I treated myself to the new Virago edition & I enjoyed meeting Catherine again – one of my favourite Pym heroines. I’ll review it properly at the weekend but here’s Desperate Reader’s enthusiastic review to whet your appetite.

Tomorrow night I’m helping out at an annual Library Week event we hold in partnership with our local Borders store. It’s called Bag A Book. Our patrons come along to Borders & choose 2 books for their local library’s collection. It’s a very successful event. This year we’ve had to cap the numbers at 225. People love choosing books with someone else’s money (I know, I do it for a living) & they take it very seriously. I find it amazing that there are rarely any duplicates – apart from the year we ended up with 5 copies of Gordon Ramsay’s latest cookbook - & everyone takes a lot of care in their choice. We offer to put a bookplate in the books so they can go along to the library & visit “their” book.

Then, on Wednesday I’m going to Sydney for the day to visit a new supplier. That will be a long day. I’ll have to leave home at about 6.30 & won’t be home until after 8. At least I can read on the plane. I’m not sure what to take. A favourite comfort read like Josephine Tey’s Daughter of Time? Or something new from my tbr table like Allan Quatermain? But what if big game hunting in Africa doesn’t grab my attention? Maybe I’ll take both, the Tey is very slim, I should be able to fit both in my bag.

I’ll leave you with a couple of photos of my tbr shelves in the late afternoon light. You can see my Folio Society books, OUP classics, books about Jane Austen, some history & literary biographies. There’s also a photo of the tbr table. Enjoy your week, whatever you’re doing.

6 comments:

  1. Wow - I love the idea of being able to spend other people's money on books and buying books for the library is great.

    I am a big Pym fan - hurrah for Virago republishing them :)

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  2. The Daughter of Time is lovely. And I see you have the letters of Jessica Mitford on your shelf, what do you think of them? I just read Hons & Rebels and really liked her.

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  3. Sounds like you have a packed week!

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  4. I order books at my library but I don't get to select them--the faculty librarians do. Just as well since it isn't a public library and we don't get much in the way of 'popular' type fiction (though I often put in requests that I think we should have and they are often ordered, which is fun). Have a great week, too. And I really need to read more Pym (I've only ever read Excellent Women, which I loved).

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  5. I only took Allan Quatermain with me in the end & I'm about halfway through. It was a very long, tiring day but I did enjoy reading AQ - it's a great adventure story. Carolyn, I've read DOT at least 20 times, it's one of my favourite books. I haven't read Decca's letters yet but I loved Hons & Rebels so I'm looking forward to it.

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  6. I love having a peek at people's bookshelves - yours look to be filled with many wonderful books!

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