Books are so important to me - I guess most of you feel the same - somehow 'book-loving' and 'blogging' seem to be bed-fellows I think. Do you agree? I have bookshelves in my sitting-room and they were until recently absolutely crammed with books - some shelves so tightly packed that it was nigh on impossible to get a book out and impossible totally to get it back in.
Then a couple of weeks ago (as you will know if you are a regular reader of my posts) I had a really good 'clear out' - mainly of books of reference. These are often large and too heavy for me to lift with one hand now. And much of the content is easily looked up quickly on good old Google.
The first book I ever bought for myself - I mean without anyone with me to 'advise' - was 'Kurun around the world' by Maurice le Toumelin. He sailed single-handed around the world in his boat Kurun - I think it was published in 1955 - and believe me I sailed round the world many times with him over the years until the book fell apart. I have just looked on Amazon - I can buy a second-hand copy for six pounds or a collectable one for £72!
But I do have favourites. Do you?
If I am feeling 'under the weather' then it is often 'Anne of Green Gables' (and I have never forgiven Jeremy Paxman for calling her 'insufferable' once on University Challenge!) I have been to the house somewhere in the U.S. where the author was born. It is a lovely house and reading the book always brings back such fond memories of our visit there.
But my all-time favourite travel book and the one I turn to time and time again - I have just pulled it out of the shelves this morning as I have nothing in particular to read- is John Steinbeck's 'Travels with Charley' 'In Search of America'. If you are a Steinbeck fan ( writers like Hemingway and Steinbeck seem to have fallen a bit out of favour these days) and you have never come across it - please do search it out and give it a go. It is light-hearted and easy to read - and bliss.
The sun is shining, the sky is - well - sky blue and at the moment the floating clouds are white and puffy, but the weather man suggests it will be a 'deteriorating day' and already there is quite a strong wind (Priscilla's enemy). Shepherd's pie with a medley of vegetables for lunch (my carer makes a good shepherd's pie and has gone through a lot of shepherds in the four years she has been bringing my lunches, so if you read that Wensleydale Shepherds are getting thin on the ground you will be able to guess why.
The door bell just rang - E a friend and neighbour has called with my drugs from the Pharmacy (E my usual drugs-collector is away) and we stood on the doorstep and had a chat. So back to the Sherpherd's Pie. Thank goodness for the micro wave - lunch in five minutes.
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32 comments:
Yes, I think you're right about bloggers and book lovers. A few days ago a blogger said it was book lovers day (isn't every one?) So yesterday I met 2 friends for coffee and we supposedly talked books...which we swap between us then review our opinions of them. You had a good idea, keeping track of where you purchase your books! A double pleasure.
I have devoured books since I was about five, firstly via the town library and then, as now, by buying them - haven't been near a library for many years. As a result I have hundreds of books crammed onto my shelving units and read every day.
At a guess I would imagine that the first book that I ever bought was "Wind in the Willows" by Kenneth Graham, my always "go to" book whenever I feel down or melancholic.I also have the full set of 21 "Famous Five" books and they are often "go to" books as well.
Like you I enjoy reading. My return to books are anything by Paul Theroux, Riding the Iron Rooster being my favourite. Similarly any travel book by Dervla Murphy.
Yes, Travels with Charley is a big favorite of mine - I started reading it at an aunt's house on a short visit and she sent it home with me because I was trying so frantically to finish it. My parents were shocked because that aunt was famous in the family for being meticulous with her belongings and I was...not. But that book yes, I was very careful. I sent it back and she gave me my own copy later because it is a good to re-read.
Thanks for reminding me!
Ceci
I've been a reader since I first learned to read and remember my mother coming to shake my book a bit as I hadn't heard her talking to me and she needed my attention!
My favorite book since childhood is "The Secret Garden" by Francis Hodgson Burnett. The edition I have now was illustrated by the delightful Tasha Tudor.
We probably have well more than 1,000 books. Bliss!
Hugs!
I love Travels with Charlie too, even though I am from New Orleans and it highlights one of the city's worst times.
I love to read and am a member of three book clubs. The good thing about book clubs, I find, is that I end up reading books I wouldn’t have chosen for myself. I am currently working my way through the Booker long list. Last year I managed to read all of the long list before the short list was announced. Not sure I will manage that this year as I rely on the library for books - sometimes electronically.
I am also a member of NetGallery (hopeless plug) - you can request Advanced Reader Copies - ie books that haven’t been published yet. In return you need to review the book. It doesn’t matter if you don’t like the book.
I find it amazing I can sit out on my patio, request a book that hasn’t been released yet and then download it - all for free!
BTW you are mixing up the beautiful province of PEI for the US. Montgomery is Canadian.
I love books too and have a wall length of 18 feet (floor to ceiling) book shelving to house my collections. What would we do without our books?
Hardly surprising (just look at the name I have given myself and my blog on this platform), I love books. My sister, being a year older than me, taught me to read when she started school and I was jealous for her being allowed to learn all those wonderful things while I was still at kindergarden. I have not stopped reading since! Anything from the back of the ceral box to the history of my hometown in three big volumes (that's a lot, considering that it was founded only in 1704).
As a librarian, I advocate the use of libraries. Good for the planet, too, as it means less books need to be printed (less trees felled for paper) and shipped around the world - plus some librarian or other will be able to keep a library going, and their job!
PS: I can not remember which book I first bought for myself. To this day, much of the books I own are birthday or Christmas or "just so" presents.
Books I keep returning to are the Narnia series and a few others which are probably not known outside Germany and which therefore I won't mention here.
When I went up to my upper school I amazed everyone, including myself, by being made my year's intake's 'Classics Scholar'. The scholarship consisted of an annual bursary of 13 Guineas which was to be spent on books, with a short annual resumé of why they were bought to be presented to the board. I bought dozens of Thames and Hudson paperback Art books; most of which I still have. I think these were the first books I bought by myself.
My first book that I remember was Little Black Sambo. I still have it some 75 years later. It was also a favourite of my daughters but sadly it has been classed as racist. I can’t see why. When I could pick my books at the library, I read all the “sailing around the world type books. I did become a sailor and crossed oceans in very small boats. I like all travel books. Gigi
Aaahh books... Pat i have hundreds of hard back books on my own personal library shelves... A nightmare for sure for my daughter once i'am gone... but thats the way it will be as i love them all dearly and could not part with them unless forced.. My plan is to go back and reread them.. And i think i'am at that moment to start as the books of today so often do not appeal to me.. I only kept the books i LOVED so they should all be good reads again.. I will go back and reread The Lord of the Rings books every few years and i enjoy the 'Outlander' series.. Hugs! deb
I will have to find Travels with Charley. On my shelves always is Cross Creek by Marjorie Kennan Rawlings, and Return of the Native by Hardy. Tben there is Ted Kooser's Winter Morning Walks, poems i reread every winter, and...oh my, just a whole slew of others!
I am just back from a lovely retreat which was very inspiring and most enjoyable. However, having just unpacked and settled back into my little flat I am just about exhausted, and my brain is in no state to make any intelligent comments, but did have to spend a little time catching up on all your wonderful posts. An early night should do the trick.
Rachel - Dervla Murphy, Paul Theroux - both among my favourites Also Patrick Leigh Fermor.
Derek - I love Wind in the Willows too - I always think it is more of an adult book than a childrens.
While I love books, when I want to get away, I write a story about places and friends I don't have. After a few years, I blend the stories into one because the characters have become friends-in-writing.
A favorite book, one that makes me feel smart when I read it because I understand more than not, is the title by Hans Christian Von Baeyer, Rainbows, Quarks and Snowflakes: Physics and the World Around Us. Fascinating book
Green Gables is in PEI. My daughter was there while visiting a friend on the island about three weeks ago. We have never read the book so maybe we should do so..
As an adult, I don't think I have loved books with such intensity as I did when a child. I received books as prizes and treasured them and cut my teeth on Beatrix Potter and the little Golden Books, and then devoured everything from childrens' Bible stories to the Narnia and Ann of Green Gables series. Hans Christian Andersen's Thumbelina, The Ugly Duckling, The Princess and the Pea, and The Little Match Girl all left me enthralled and enchanted. The Emporer's New Clothes is still my favourite of all time. I relate so much to that child!- Pam.
...Tasha Tudor is one of my favourite people. I'm sure she would have seen through him too.- Pam.
When I need a "comforting" book, I turn to the series of books about Fairacre and Thrush Green by Miss Read. These books are like old friends and I can pick any of them up at any time and enjoy the warm, village atmosphere. I never tire of these books.
Kay
Books are of tip top importance to me. Reading, what a pleasure. I read many books of single handed sailing around the world when my hubby and I had our sailboats. What adventures the authors had and we got to share them while safe at home. I am currently enjoying all the Mapp and Lucia books by E.F. Benson, quite a bit of humor in them. My favorite author is Anthony Trollope, what worlds he created. Enjoy your day.
Our kids loved visiting the Anne of Green Gables house on Prince Edward Island where Montgomery was born. (It's in Canada not the U.S.)
I agree with you on Books and bloggers. Most bloggers are here to write and attract an audience. It's fun just like a good book. My reading has really slacked off in the last few years. I get my books from the library.
Oh,I love to read and always, always have one in progress. I sometimes read two at the same time, but of course they have to be fairly different so that I don't get confused with what is happening in one with the other, or switch characters from one book to the other. One favorite is The Secret Garden. I've probably read it 5 or 6 times since the first time when I was about 10 or 12. It's a book that I usually give as a present to my nieces and when they when they get to that age. I have another convert coming up, Hazel, my great niece, is only 4 so it will be awhile before she gets indoctrinated. I'm hoping to turn them into gardeners thereby.
FRom the moment I could read I started reading everything I could get my hands on. When invited to a birthday party, I usually gave a book as a present and read it before wrapping it up. Of course I was very careful while reading it, so I hope nobody realized that it had already been read. I always had read the new "Lesebuch" (reader?) a few days after the return to school after the holidays. Our small town only had a very small library so I read some books over and over again. Now I buy a lot of e-books just because they take no space on the shelves.
I read a lot of books by Steinbeck in German about 40 years ago and loved them. I think I will get his "Travels with Charly" now, but this time in English.
Love that one of your books was bought in Phoenix. So glad you are not here now. Even thought I live about 2 hours away I dislike the city so much and it is so hot burning hot right now. You can't even breathe.
The gud dugs send woofs !
I suppose my parents and teachers tried to get me interested in reading fiction, with little success. Then one day I was ill and off school for a week. My mother was visited by an elderly woman who lived nearby. Later that day the lady reappeared clutching three books, "These might be suitable for the young man to read", she said and handed them over. Three books by Hammond Innes - "The Doomed Oasis", "The Lonely Skier" and "Atlantic Fury". I read them all and that started a lifelong habit which even A-Level English did not extinguish. They are not the kind of books that I usually read today, but maybe I should revisit them.
I’ve always loved books; my mum and my grandma were avid readers and my son is a bookworm. He once said to me something that I’ve never forgotten.,,’ Reading is a gift that we’ve been given and I’m going to make the most of that gift.’
I have so many favourites, both non fiction and fiction and I’m currently reading, ‘ Roman Britain, a new history’ by Guy de la Bedoyere and I also have three books from Persephone books: ‘Miss Buncle’s book’; ‘Miss Buncle Married’ and ‘The Two Mrs Abbotts’, to read soonish. I think that the book I enjoyed most, in recent times, was Alan Johnson’s ‘This Boy’…a superbly written story of his childhood. The other I’d recommend is, ‘ Books, Baguettes and Bedbugs’ by Jeremy Mercer; it’s all about the ‘goings ons’ at a famous and unique Paris bookshop, ‘Shakespeare and Company’.
Little Women…my favorite. I have donated my books. Favorites have been given to my kids and grands. Favorite copies of Austen, Little Women, and Shakespeare. I started reading before school…newspapers and cereal boxes. Magazines and comics. Books loaned to me. Finally, school library and later, the bookmobile. Love your blog.
Sal - I have them both and read them often.
John - I used to read Hammond Innes a lot and enjoyed them all.
Furry Gnome - It is indeed and I remember Prince Edward Island well. Lovely house and it really brings the book to life
Thanks everyone.
My parents and auntie were all teachers. They read to me a lot but tried not to teach me to read before school so I’d have something interesting to learn when I started at 6. I came home the first day crying that I hadn’t learnt!
I did honours in American literature and my past as a literature teacher means I read a lot of memorable classics but came to associate serious literature with work. For years I’ve read a lot of Crime where there is an interesting sense of character and place and often a sense of gritty reality (Donna Leon, Peter Robinson, Ian Rankin, Ann Cleeves, Peter Temple, Gary Disher’s South Australian series.
But comfort reading has come to the fore to balance reading on serious issues during the climate emergency, the lockdowns, perhaps with ageing.
So - five times through the Moomintroll series by Tove Jansson. The Milly Molly Mandy books (it’s the drawings). Twice through the Miss Read books. I’ve just returned to the Anne books, having loved them so much as a kid that I wasn’t sure I wanted to reread them (but found I liked different things now)
There are some great ideas here. I’ll go back to the Secret Garden (my first prize) and Wind in the Willows. And I’ll acquire Travels with my Aunt.
Thanks all!
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