Tuesday and the next lot of books

Welcome to Pixiepoppet, Amber and Diana who are all new followers on Google Friends, and Laura following via Bloglovin'.
Thank you to Karen, Happening on Happiness, Dave in Ireland, The angry parsnip, Simple living, Jan, MendingMakingCrafting, Gill, my friend Mary in Bath and Diana who is overseas somewhere for all the comments about my books and bookshelves. Dave has suggested some more books by Tom Hodgkinson for me to add to my library request list. Gill suggests leaving a tin of polish and a duster laying around so that if anyone calls in it looks as if you were just about to start cleaning, that's a better idea than using candles so you can't see the dust.

 The reason I have  the books tidy is so I know where to find each one and we always used to have them level with the front of the shelf when I worked in libraries. I do the same now to stop the layer of dust that would soon collect in front of the books. Having the books forward means the dust is behind them Out Of Sight!

Right, now the next photo is down on the proper bookshelves and under the Miss Read  we have

 my books about money saving and penny pinching. ( Probably would have saved money by NOT buying them!) I think most of these have come from Amazon over the last 15 years, several are from the States. 'Swimming with Piranha makes you hungry' by Colin Turner is a book that really gets to the heart of the matter.

 On the same shelf are my overflow cookery books. The rest are in the kitchen.

Below the money saving books are the first of my WWII collection, these are the most recent acquisitions, Amazon and charity shops again and some are presents from the last couple of years.

Then, laying down on the other half of that shelf are the Oxford Dictionaries and a few  other recently acquired large books. The dictionaries come from my late Dads house when we cleared it out. These are all sitting waiting for a more permanent shelf. Somewhere?

Standing up at the end are my books about books and reading. Two books by Anne Fadiman are brilliant - At Small and At Large and Ex Libris.
That's another 50 books ( running total 120)
 Then below are the other two shelves of my WWII collection, which have been gathered, mostly secondhand, over the last 20 or so years. There are so many good books here it's hard to pick out favourites.

There are a few amongst these that have not been read, one day I shall get round to them. If I was forced to pick one as a favourite then probably 'Few Eggs and no Oranges' by Vere Hodgson is a really good read.
Add those up and that's another 64 so 184 so far, and I'm not even to the bottom of the first bookcase. Maybe we do have more than 1,000 after all.

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A lovely bright Tuesday morning so two lots of washing were out drying on the line today as the forecast is for colder, nasty weather later in the week.  ( And Who left a tissue in a pocket?!! I blame him for not checking before he puts his clothes in the dirty washing bin, he blames me for not checking before I load the washing machine, Hmmm!) The day turned grey just after lunch and the washing was put to dry over the Rayburn.

Col was out for an hour doing some odd jobs for someone up the road and I was in the kitchen doing a bake of cakes for the freezer to keep him happy over the next few weeks. This afternoon he has been doing more of the conifer hedge. He has got round the  ban ( caused by the hardly-a-heart-attack) on using a hedge-cutter by borrowing a lightweight one that has a strap so it hangs over his shoulder like our strimmer. He says this is much easier to use than something that requires being held up in the air with both hands. I just hope he is right, I really do NOT need him stuck in hospital again. - Or worse!

Back Soon
Sue

First book shelf pictures and Monday diary

Posting pictures of my bookshelves every day is going to be an easy way to fill up my posts, it will make me lazy!

Anyway, here is the first of my book shelf pictures, these are actually right on top of the bookshelves. I have most of the Miss Read series published between the 1950s up to the 1980s. I read  most of these while I was working in libraries between 1971 and 1980 and decided to look out for them from charity shops a few years back when I wanted to re read and found the library hadn't got them all. They were surprisingly easy to find secondhand.

 and on top around the corner are Gervase Phinn's brilliantly funny school inspector stories which are being propped up by some of the Narnia tales by C.S Lewis. Nothing bought new here either.

Then also on top of the shelves are my collection of Christmas books, alongside some Arthur Ransome. Almost all these are from charity shops etc except for Keep Calm at Christmas which was a gift a couple of Christmases ago. To the right and out of the picture beside Mr Ransome  are my only 2 Observer books - Architecture and Glass. I don't know where they came from. That makes a total of 70 books on top of the tall shelves in the alcove under the stairs.

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We cut some wood yesterday and a bit more today, it's frightening just how much we get through. Thank goodness it's free. I like helping with wood cutting, its a very satisfying job, really getting back to basics - apart from the fact that Col is using an electric chainsaw!

 I've been reading a library book by  Tom Hodgkinson called How to be Free.  Here is what is says about the book on Amazon

'How to be Free is Tom Hodgkinson's manifesto for a liberated life.
Modern life is absurd. How can we be free?
If you've ever wondered why you bother to go to work, or why so much consumer culture is crap, then this book is for you. Looking to history, literature and philosophy for inspiration, Tom Hodgkinson provides a joyful blueprint for a simpler and freer way of life. Filled with practical tips as well as inspiring reflections, here you can learn how to throw off the shackles of anxiety, bureaucracy, debt, governments, housework, supermarkets, waste and much else besides.'

So spend less therefore you can work less. Every THING that's bought requires maintaining and later replacing. Gadgets don't really save money or time. All a person needs is food, warmth and shelter and mental stimulation. He forgets to mention the bills that arrive whatever, like the Council Tax! I like his idea of lighting the house by candles so that you can't see the dust......I could go along with that idea.

Welcome to some new followers on the Bloglovin' button, they are Suzanne, Gareth and John Gray - thought that Man From Trelawnyd was already on the Google pictures but maybe not. I think someone has gone from Google-I'm sure there were 251 there the other day.

Back Soon
Sue