Plans

Now here's a very enticing idea. Simon from Stuck in a Book & Karen from Kaggsy's Bookish Ramblings are hosting a reading challenge later this month called The 1924 Club.
All you have to do is read a book published in 1924. There's a list of possible titles on Simon's blog. I've read quite a few of them but two that I do have on the tbr shelves are The Matriarch by G B Stern & The Three Hostages by John Buchan. I'm looking forward to exploring the shelves to see what other possibilities I have.

Which brings me to my other plan. Christine Poulson (author of Invisible, one of my Top 10 books last year) has just blogged about her plan to stop buying books for a while. I read this & thought Yes! What's good enough for Christine is good enough for me - until Christmas, anyway! I do have several pre-orders on the way - Alison Weir's biography of Lady Margaret Douglas, The Lost Tudor Princess, Claire Harman's biography of Charlotte Brontë, the British Library's collection of Christmas mysteries, Silent Nights, & Jennifer Henderson's biography of Josephine Tey, so I won't feel too deprived. It's the eBooks that are the real temptation because they're so easy to buy & they're invisible so don't even take up room on the tbr shelves. Let's see how long I last.

I've been able to think about all this because we're having a public holiday today - for a football game. It's not even on until tomorrow but we're having a day off on the eve of the AFL Grand Final anyway. So now we're the city with a holiday before a football game & a holiday for a horse race (Melbourne Cup Day in November). It's also the start of the first run of hot weather we've had since last summer. At least the sun is warming up the veggie garden so I can start planting in the next few weeks.

Now for some completely unrelated cat photos. I don't have any new photos of the girls (I almost got a shot of Lucky with my 1924 books but she was unco-operative) so here are the collages I made last year when I discovered the collage app.
The clocks go forward tomorrow night & summer is almost here. Oh well, only six months until I can change the clocks back again!

A book lovers idea of Heaven

First, some very exciting news. I mentioned in this post on Pushkin the other week that one of my favourite books when I was young was Mara Kay's The Youngest Lady In Waiting (cover photo from here). It was the book that began my lifelong interest in Russian history. It's the sequel to Masha, the story of a young orphan's life in early 19th century Russia. Both books were published around 1970 & are incredibly hard to get hold of. I read the copies in my school library & have always wanted to reread them. Well, Karoline, who commented on the post, asked if I knew that Margin Notes Books were reprinting both books later this year? Well, I didn't but I'm so excited! There's nothing on the website just yet but I'm so looking forward to ordering these. Hooray for another small publisher bringing back beautiful books. I have the Margin Notes Books edition of Five Farthings by Monica Redlich on the tbr shelves & I'm looking forward to reading it while I wait for the Mara Kays. Also, have a look at the publisher's blog, there's a link on the website. I'll be monitoring both blog & website very closely for the next few months.

I'm not sure if I should be mentioning this next fact as it could be evidence of serious derangement when it comes to book buying. I'm closing in on 1000 books on the tbr shelves (maybe I should have written 1000 books, does that make it seem less obvious?). Should I be whispering with shame or shouting with glee? I'll never be short of a book to read, that's for sure. I'm up to 968 (according to Library Thing) with several more books on the way even now. The trouble is, I'm seeing the magic 1000 books as a challenge that I must complete by the end of the year so there's definitely more glee than shame in my unrepentant attitude! I'll just mention quietly that this is only the number of physical books. The ebooks are also out of control but they're also invisible.

One book I bought recently was Summer's Day by Mary Bell. I'd been reading admiring references about it on Scott's blog, Furrowed Middlebrow, for some time now. From the original review to his search for the real identity of the author, to the most recent mention, when my resistance broke & I searched for a second hand copy (the Greyladies edition is out of print). Searching Abebooks sent me to Anglophile Books, where there were several copies of the Greyladies edition. I've been an occasional customer of Anglophile Books for some years now (unfortunately the postage costs from the US to Australia are quite high but I wasn't going to let that stop me on my quest for this book & may I say, it hasn't stopped me in the past).




Anglophile Books has the most wonderful selection of books for lovers of the middlebrow novel. Lots of my favourite authors - D E Stevenson, Dorothy L Sayers, Barbara Pym, Josephine Tey, Vera Brittain, E M Delafield - & many more. The owner, Laura, is also the convener of the D E Stevenson Yahoo group I've recently joined & she has very kindly linked to my blog on the website. If you have a look here, there are links to any books by my favourite authors that Laura has in stock. I'm not making any money out of the link, I'm just happy to point potential customers in the direction of a great secondhand bookshop.

Edited to add: Laura from Anglophile Books has created that little button which I am thrilled to say I have just successfully added to the post (thanks for the instructions, Laura). So, I'll add the button to my post if Anglophile Books has a copy of a book I'm reviewing (& gradually go back through the archive) & you'll be taken straight to the homepage if you're interested in buying a copy. I feel quite technologically competent all of a sudden!

Two themed reading weeks are coming up in the next few months that I'm very excited about. Anbolyn at Gudrun's Tights is hosting a Mary Stewart reading week from September 14th to 21st in honour of the novelist who died earlier this year. I've been planning to reread Mary Stewart ever since the last lot of reprints were published but I haven't gotten very far. However, I have lots of her novels on my shelves (no excuse there for buying more books), & I plan to read at least one for that week.

Margaret Kennedy is an author who has been on the periphery of my reading world for quite some time. I've only read The Constant Nymph but I have a couple of others on the tbr shelves & I've ordered a few of the Vintage reprints that are to be published soon. Fleur Fisher is hosting the reading week from October 6th to 12th. You'll find a comprehensive reading list on her blog. I'm leaning towards Lucy Carmichael, which seems to be a universal favourite but there are several others that look interesting. Kennedy was one of the group of novelists who went to Somerville College, Oxford in the 1920s. Vera Brittain, Winifred Holtby & Dorothy L Sayers are the most famous names but maybe Margaret Kennedy is about to join them? It won't be for want of trying if Fleur has anything to do with it.

I'm a big fan of Delphi Classics who produce complete collections of the work of out of copyright authors as very reasonably priced ebooks. They're beautifully formatted & always include some rare gems or additional material about the author. Series Five has just been announced. These titles will be published in coming months & I'm especially excited about Margaret Oliphant & Frances Hodgson Burnett. As I said above, at least they're invisible...

The joy & the curse of the tbr shelves

I love my tbr shelves. I'm a very lucky woman, as well as a very undisciplined one when it comes to buying books. I blame the internet & ebooks for the explosion of my tbr shelves over the last few years - it couldn't possibly be my fault. I'm also very easily led when it comes to ideas for what to read next &, as my mother would have said, my eyes are bigger than my stomach (or whatever the bookish equivalent is). So, the curse of the tbr shelves is that I often have a copy of whatever book has been reviewed in the blog post I just read or podcast I just listened to, especially as I read blogs that often focus on older books, & I want to read that book right now. Or as soon as I finish the three books I'm reading at the moment. But then, definitely, before the next inspiration strikes. So, the book moves from the shelves to the pile on my desk & sometimes sits there so long that I've forgotten what the original inspiration was. These are the books I've pulled off the shelves in the last few weeks & the reasons why they're there.

I read a list of the best WWI novels. I can't find the website now but it was on my Facebook timeline. It was an interesting list & I'd read several of the books already. One that I hadn't read but do own is Rose Macaulay's Non-Combatants and Others. Another book was Mrs Humphry Ward's Missing. This was free to download to my Kindle so I did that, knowing that I will never remember why I downloaded it when I finally get around to reading it. However, I was also reminded of John Sutherland's biography of Mary Ward. My Oxford paperback edition has some of the most laudatory quotes from respected biographers that I've ever read. "A major biography... it deserves a fanfare" Claire Tomalin, "John Sutherland's... account of her life is clearly the best yet." Julia Briggs, "gripping... a story that unfolds with the fascination of high tragedy." Margaret Drabble. So, why has it been on the tbr shelves since 1995? Maybe it's the very small print...

Continuing the WWI theme, I listened to a fascinating podcast from BBC Women's Hour the other day. It was an interview from the 1960s with Baroness de T'Serclaes, who began life as Elsie Knocker, one of the courageous women who set up ambulance posts & nursed during WWI, usually with very little help or encouragement from the establishment. I remember telling my self to order the paperback because I was never going to have time to read the hardback. Well, I did, & that was four years ago.

Simon Savidge recently reviewed Kate Colquhoun's new book about the Maybrick murder case, Did She Kill Him? Simon also interviewed Kate on his podcast, You Wrote The Book! I've read other books about Florence Maybrick & I love a good Victorian poisoning murder so I'm keen to read this soon. At least this is from the library so it's in the library tbr pile instead of my own personal tbr pile. Is there a difference, except that the library books have to go back eventually?

Then, I read Desperate Reader's review of Somerset Maugham's The Painted Veil. I have this lovely Vintage edition & I seem to be collecting Vintage editions of Maugham but not actually reading any of them.

I've also just read an interview at Nerdalicious with Elizabeth Norton, author of many historical biographies, including The Anne Boleyn Papers. This is a bit different though, as it's a biography told almost entirely through the contemporary sources for Anne's life. However, it reminded me that I have this beautiful Folio edition of one of the major sources for Anne's life, George Cavendish's Thomas Wolsey : His Life and Death. Somehow, I've also managed to order Elizabeth Norton's book as well... How does that happen?

Then, there was Heavenali's review of Sheridan Le Fanu's Uncle Silas & Cosy Books' purchase of the Virago edition of Charlotte Yonge's The Daisy Chain, which reminded me that I still haven't read the sequel, The Trial, which I downloaded a long time ago. I could also mention the new Persephones & the Slightly Foxed editions that I'm determined to read as they arrive & not let them be overtaken by other books - but I won't because this post is long enough as it is.
There you have it, my latest list of good reading intentions. Only time will tell how many of them I actually read. I have no idea what's coming up next because my brain is hurting.

What to read next? - A few reasons why I'm indecisive

I sometimes wonder why my head spins & I find myself paralysed with indecision when I finish a book. How on earth do I decide what to read next? Mostly, I blame bloggers & the members of my online book group. Sometimes the next book is obvious. It leads on from the book I've just finished. Or it's a brand new book just arrived at work & I know there's a reservation queue a mile long & my conscience says I should read it next eg The Soldier's Wife by Joanna Trollope. Sometimes it's a mention or a reminder of a book from one of the members of my online book group. That's why I picked up the latest Slightly Foxed edition of Look Back with Love by Dodie Smith which I've just finished reading.

Then, there are all the other blogs I read. I try to catch up with them all once a week, usually on a Sunday. I may dip in during the week but I spend all day on a computer at work so I don't do much more than read emails at night. Last Sunday, I moved from Martin Edwards's post on the reprints of Ethel Lina White's Some Must Watch (& his own Harry Devlin novel, All the Lonely People) to Dovegreyreader's post on Orkney & Kathleen Jamie's new book, Sightlines, which reminded me that I haven't read her earlier book, Findings (fortunately I could reserve both of these at the library) to Desperate Reader's post on Scottish islands. This led me to add Island Years, Island Farms by Frank Fraser Darling & a couple of books by Mairi Hedderwick to my Book Depository wishlist. I've always loved Scotland & I collect books on Scottish history, the islands especially fascinate me. Sian's blog, Life on a Small Island, is a favourite. The adventures of her cat, Button, the chickens & her life on Graemsay make delightful reading. It's a bit of a reality check to my more romantic ideas about island life.

I'm listening to Simon King's Shetland Diaries on audio at the moment & now, suddenly, everywhere I go there are mention of otters, here & here, for example. And I have this lovely Folio Society edition of Henry Williamson's Tarka the Otter & suddenly I need to know more about otters. I listened to David Rintoul reading Ring of Bright Water years ago & I loved it but haven't got back to any more Gavin Maxwell, even though I have another of his books, The House of Elrig, on the tbr shelves.

Daphne, who blogs at a life in books and music, reviewed Rodney Bolt's book on the life of Mary Benson, As Good as God, as Clever as the Devil, mother of the famous writing Benson brothers. As the book had also been recommended by a member of my online book group, I had to have it immediately & it was only $5 to download at the Book Depository... Of course, I haven't read it yet! That's another thing. My e-reader is a great temptation. E-books can be so cheap & they're invisible, neatly tucked away on my e-reader, not adding to the groaning tbr shelves. I also bought the e-book of Jill Mansell's latest novel, A Walk in the Park, after reading an enthusiastic review from a blogger in The Bookseller. However, I started this straight away & I'm loving it. I'd known of Jill Mansell for ages but have never read any of her books. I think the covers always looked a bit too much like light, fluffy romances for twenty-somethings. I won't start the whole debate about book covers again, we had a good discussion about that here, in reference to Katie Fforde's covers. Which is a case in point. I don't think I'd have started reading Katie Fforde if I'd only come across her books with the stick figure girls on them. It was because I'd already discovered her books with the beautiful painterly covers that I've gone on reading her no matter what the publishers put on the cover. I'd have missed the pleasures of Jill Mansell if I hadn't taken a chance based on a review. But, I'm enjoying the adventures of Lara, Evie, Flynn & Gigi & I'm pleased to see she's written lots more.

I also keep discovering terrific new blogs. This means not only more time reading about books instead of reading books but also endless possibilities for adding to the wishlist & the tbr shelves. Google Alerts can be a dangerous thing. I have Google Alerts for lots of my favourite novelists, past & present. Just the other day, I had an Alert for Vera Brittain which led me to Novel Readings, a blog by Rohan Maitzen, an academic at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia. Rohan is working on a project about the Somerville novelists - Vera Brittain, Winifred Holtby, Dorothy L Sayers & Margaret Kennedy. I spent a lovely half-hour browsing her blog last night & I have lots more reading to do there.

I've also recently discovered Rosie's blog, Corners of my Mind, after she left a comment here. Have a look at this post. Isn't her Chloe very much like my Phoebe? Rosie & I have many reading tastes in common but she's currently reading Margery Allingham's The Oaken Heart - & I haven't read it & it's on my tbr shelves!

So, there you have it. A recipe for indecision. And, of course, I fully intend to read all the books listed over there>>>> On My Reading Table. But, I'm so lucky to have such choice. Imagine finishing a book & not having at least half a dozen choices for the next read? That would be a disaster.

How do you choose your next book?

How do you choose your next book? How do you choose your next book? How do you choose your next book? I was thinking about this question the other day (& what word to emphasize when I ask it) as I read another enticing review on a blog & realised I had the book on my tbr shelves. The review was of Clerical Errors by D M Greenwood & the blog was Geranium Cat's Bookshelf. You might ask why I was reading a 5 month old review? Well, I have a Google Alert set up for D E Stevenson & Geranium Cat has just reviewed Miss Buncle's Book so with one click I was there & I started exploring. That's how I came across the review of the D M Greenwood, working my way through her old posts. It's not a new title as I read all the D M Greenwoods when they were first published but they've recently been reprinted by Ostara Publishing, who specialize in reprinting clerical mysteries (as well as Oxbridge & medieval mysteries) & I'd bought myself a copy of Clerical Errors some time ago, planning a reread.

Having read Miss Buncle's Book some time ago, I really should read the sequel, Miss Buncle Married, both books reprinted by Persephone. I've read the third book in the series, The Two Mrs Abbotts, by accident as I listened to it on audio & didn't realise it was part of the series until Mrs Abbott (née Buncle) turned up.

If you have a look at what's on my tbr table (which is one step closer to actually being read), you'll see H E Bates's Fair Stood The Wind For France. I read a review at Reading Matters & was inspired to take it down from its spot on the top tbr shelf where it sits with the other silver spined Penguin Modern Classics. That's a question for another day. How do you organise the tbr shelves? Alphabetical by author? By subject? By imprint? In the order they came into the house?

Then, a little while ago, Elaine at Random Jottings was rereading Anthony Trollope & she enthused about his Autobiography so down it came too.

Charlotte Brontё's Shirley is there because I loved rereading Villette so much recently that I want to read Shirley again too.

Sense & Sensibility is there because I've just finished rereading it to celebrate the 200th anniversary of its publication. I'll be posting about it later in the week. Sir Walter Scott's The Talisman is the latest choice of my 19th century bookgroup. Catherine Carswell's The Camomile was downloaded (free from Open Library) back in April when I read Desperate Reader's review here & there's another enticing review at 20th Century Vox here.

I've been reading lots of Scottish history & fiction lately & Mary Stewart's Stormy Petrel was one of the reprints I bought earlier this year. I downloaded George Orwell's Homage to Catalonia from my library's catalogue of e-books so I only have it for a fortnight. I also downloaded David Kynaston's massive Austerity Britain on the principle that the e-book is easier to read than the 700pp hardback. What was I thinking? I only have two weeks to read both.

I missed reading short stories after reading so many of them last year so I borrowed the new collected stories of Margaret Drabble, A Day in the Life of a Smiling Woman, & I've been reading a story a day. I've read a few chapters of Margaret Kennedy's Together & Apart but I'm not sure I'm really in the mood so it may disappear from the tbr table, relegated to the tbr shelves.

So, how do you choose your next book? I love having so many unread books because it often means I have a copy of that book I've just read about on one of my favourite blogs & I can get it down straight away & have a look at it. Maybe it goes back to the tbr shelves & maybe it makes it to the tbr table. Of course, my next book might be none of these but something that I haven't even considered yet. It might be one of the new Stella Gibbons reprints on the way to me from The Book Depository right now. There's a lovely article on Stella Gibbons here & a review of Westwood here. It might be a book that someone in my online bookgroup raves about. That's how I discovered The Unbearable Bassington by Saki. Now I think of it, I have Saki's short stories on the tbr shelves...  Maybe I'll start the Saki stories after the Drabble. At least I will never be in the heart-stopping position of having nothing to read next. Serendipity is a wonderful thing!

My Life in Books

I feel very flattered to be a part of Simon's week of interviews with bloggers & blog readers, My Life in Books, at his blog, Stuck In A Book. He's modelled it on the recent UK TV series which featured celebrities talking about their favourite books. Every day two bloggers or readers are featured & I'm honoured to have been paired with Simon's mother, Anne, affectionately known as Our Vicar's Wife. If you would like to read about our literary influences, just pop over here. Yesterday's blogger was Cornflower, whose gorgeous blogs on books, food, flowers & Edinburgh I've read for ages & Karen in TX, a blog reader who is an enthusiastic commenter on many of the blogs I read. I can't wait to see who pops up tomorrow!

Getting the time straight

I'm still learning about Blogger & fiddling with the elements of the blog to make it more attractive. I just discovered the time zone gadget so Abby's Saturday & Sunday mornings & afternoons will now reflect the right day & time. For an orderly librarian, this is a great relief. I've also put a photo of my bookshelves at the top of the page. I'll change this from time to time, maybe a series of photos of my books? I love the effect of sunlight in the late afternoon coming through my blinds.

Welcome

Welcome to my blog. I've been a keen follower of literary blogs for a few years now & thought I would try a little blogging myself. I want to have a record of my reading, more than just a list of books read, & reviewing here will hopefully make me think more closely about what I read.
The adventures of my cat, Abby, will also make an appearance although, as she's 15, her adventures consist mostly of moving from one cosy spot for sleeping to another & demanding food & attention several times a day.