A bit of a bookworm

I love reading. It is one of my most favourite things to do. I love the way that a book can take you into another world, inside someone else's head, inside someone else's life and to places that you have never been or will never be likely to go. I like the way that they can make you happy, sad, excited, scared, intrigued and fascinated. You will never be bored if you can read and if you have access to a book. You can read for pleasure, to escape, for formal education, to learn something for yourself or to inspire. Sometimes, I get worried about how I will have to time to read all the books in the world that I want to read!

I have enjoyed reading ever since I was a little girl. I remember being in Class 5 and being able to choose my own book from the harder books on the shelf. I can remember standing by the side of my dad's chair reading my school books to him. I remember my mum choosing books to read as bedtime stories to my sister and I. I remember the day that I could choose books that weren't from the children's corner in my local library. I remember going to the library before our summer holiday and carefully picking six books to last me through the week away. I remember getting a bedside light for Christmas so that I could read in bed without disturbing my sister with whom I shared a room. I remember going round to my neighbours and choosing the next one in the complete Nancy Drew series that she had. I remember as a teenager working my way through my auntie's Thomas Hardy collection of which I was allowed any except Jude the Obscure. I remember reading Jilly Cooper's books all the way through studying for my Masters for some light relief. I remember collecting my boxes of childhood books from my parent's loft when they moved house.

My bookcase on the upstairs landing. Each shelf is double stacked.
This is the waiting to be read bookcase.

When I was nine or ten I started a list of books that I read, writing them down each time I finished one on lined paper in my red with white polka dots file. I know that 60-90 books a month was not unusual for me. I wish I still had that list so that I could see what kind of books I was reading. I no longer read that many books a month, too many other things get in the way when you are grown up. In 2008 I did start my reading list back up, I write it in an A5 hardback notebook and I enjoy flicking back through it every so often.

One of the sets of shelves in the living room.
A number of these shelves are double stacked with
my books from my childhood behind.

A few weeks ago Jessica from the fabulous Chronically Vintage wrote this post about her reading habits and answered a set of questions about them. I so enjoyed reading about Jessica's joy of reading and it inspired me to write this post of my own and to answer the set of questions.

My bookcase in our spare room. This has all my
vintage craft books, vintage fiction books and
my modern knitting and sewing  and fashion
history books.

Do you snack while you read? If so, what is your favourite reading snack? 

I tend to read and eat all the time, especially if I am on my own. I eat and read at breakfast and at lunchtime. I don't necessarily snack and read but if I was going to, my preferred snack would be some chocolate. 

What is your favourite drink while reading? 

My favourite drink while reading, indeed my favourite drink is a good cup of tea, in my favourite mug.

Do you tend to mark your books as you read, or does the idea of writing in books horrify you? 

The idea of doing anything to my books except for keeping them pristine horrifies me! I don't really even like the spine getting creased unless the book is so large that it is unavoidable. When I am buying a book I go through the whole pile in the bookshop and choose the one with as near perfect a cover as possible. I caused great hilarity at one of my book groups, which runs as a book swap, by buying a copy of the book I wanted to swap from a charity shop so that I didn't have to risk my copy going out into the world and getting wrinkled!

That said, I did do A level English Literature and had to write in my books then. So my copies of Middlemarch by George Elliot, The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne and To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf do have written notes in them. But only in pencil!

How do you keep your place while reading a book? Bookmark? Dog-ears? Laying the book flat open? 

As you can probably gather from the above answer dog ears or laying a book open flat are big no no's for me. A bookmark every time. Not always the same bookmark though, I like to vary them with the books I read. I think somewhere I probably have my childhood bookmark collection, I always used to get a new one from historic houses and museums that we visited.

Fiction, non-fiction, or both? 

Both! I like many different genres of fiction and tend to give most books a try if someone has recommended them to me. My least favourite are science fiction and fantasy. I always keep an eye on what new titles are coming out, I like reading the book charts and reviews in the Sunday papers and just browsing in book shops. I read lots of social history books, particularly Second World War diaries and books about women's experiences and changing roles. I also enjoy books which cover the 1920's-1950's and I like to read about fashion history.

Are you the kind of person who tends to read to the end of a chapter, or can you stop anywhere? 

I can stop anywhere but I prefer to stop at the end of a chapter. It is rare that I don't do that, it probably only happens if I am reading in bed and am too tired to get to the chapter's end.

Are you the type of person to throw a book across the room or on the floor if the author irritates you? 

I wouldn't do anything which would damage a book but I have chucked one across the sofa or to the bottom of my bed if I am irritated. This is most likely to occur when I find the ending of a book unsatisfactory. I don't like to be left hanging, I like a proper ending!

If you come across an unfamiliar word, do you stop and look it up right away? 

I would like to say yes as it is always good to expand your vocabulary but actually, no I don't. If I can guess or it doesn't detract from the sense of the story then I probably wouldn't stop to look it up.

What are you currently reading? 

I am currently reading a non fiction book A Home Front Diary 1914-1918 by Lillie Scales. The last few books I have read are The Return of Captain John Emmett by Elizabeth Speller, When I Lived in Modern Times by Linda Grant, Ravenscliffe by Jane Sanderson, Last Chance Saloon by Marion Keyes and Poor Cow by Nell Dunn.

What is the last book you bought? 

It wasn't just one book! I had a couple of gift vouchers for Waterstones so I went and had a lovely happy time looking at everything and then making my selection. I love being in a book shop, I find it so relaxing and I love gift vouchers because they are completely guilt free shopping! I only bought one fiction book, the rest are social history.

Are you the type of person that reads one book at a time, or can you read more than one? 

When I was younger I would often have two or three books on the go at once. Now though I only really read one book at a time. I might have a fiction book that I am reading and a non fiction book that I am dipping into now and again.

Do you have a favourite time/place to read? 

I read all the time, whenever possible so I don't really have a favourite time to read. I like to read in the bath, in bed, on the sofa and on an old leather chair of my parents that we have in our spare room. My other favourite place to read is in my parent's cosy little summer house in their garden.

Do you prefer series books or stand-alones? 

I would say that I read more stand alone books but I am not against a series if I find one that I enjoy. For example; Philippa Gregory's books on the Wars of the Roses are a series but can be read and enjoyed as individual books. I really enjoyed Philip Pullman's Northern Lights series.

Is there a specific book or author you find yourself recommending over and over? 

This is a really difficult one. I think if someone was to tell me the kind of book that they liked to read I would have no problem recommending one but I don't have a particular favourite that I would always recommend. Some authors whose books I would always read include Sarah Waters, Margaret Forster, Penelope Lively, Andrea Levy, Pat Barker, C J Sansom, Kate Morton, Kate Mosse, Joanne Harris, Maggie O' Farrell, Sebastian Faulks, Tracy Chevalier and Patrick Gale.

How do you organise your books? (By genre, title, author's last name, etc.) 

I order my books in several different ways. My social history books are ordered by time period and also in the order that I have read them. My knitting books are all together as are my sewing books. I separate out children and young adult's fiction and they are arranged by author. Classics all go together, by author. Then with my fiction books I order them by author and then by who I think they would get along with! That isn't based on anything other than a strange gut feeling that this sort of book would like that sort of book if they met each other! Occasionally my books are ordered only by where I can manage to get them to fit on an already packed shelf!

I really enjoyed thinking about my reading habits to answer these questions and to write this post. I was also pleased to be able to combine my love of reading with my love of vintage knitting patterns as I went through my collection to find the patterns that featured women reading or with books. Actually, there aren't as many as I had thought that there might be. Plenty of posing with flowers, chairs, umbrellas and random backgrounds but not so many books. A gap in pattern cover styling I think!

Charity shop treasures

I finally managed to drop off several bags of stuff at my charity shop of choice today. I have been trying to do this for a while. On my first attempt part of my clutch broke on the journey and in the ensuring chaos I could not get there so these bags have been travelling about in my car boot for ages. The charity shop gods were obviously with me today because as well as successfully dropping off my stuff I also found some treasures to take home!

I only found one in the first shop.

A very nice tin with the Household Cavalry on it. I remember seeing them at Buckingham Palace and at the Trooping of the Colour when I was little. Sharps confectioners were based in York and produced sweets such as toffee bonbons. King George VI died in 1952 so that must be the approximate date of the tin.

My local town has several charity shops (like most towns I expect) and as I left this one I had a feeling that I needed to go and look in another one. I knew exactly which one the feeling was referring to! I know that sounds weird but I am glad that I did as I had much success treasure hunting in this second shop. Always listen to those charity shop feelings treasure hunters!

This is a modern book which I have flicked through many times before and wanted to buy so when I saw it in the charity shop in pristine condition for a whole bargain £2 I snapped it up quickly. Lots and lots of lovely 1950's adverts to look through, such as this one featuring amazing glasses frames. Which, incidentally, I really want a pair of but having tried some modern versions on last weekend I have found that they do not suit me at all. Very disappointing.

I found three of these fabulous Alfred Meakin plates. I know my mum has some like this. I love roses but I particularly like the colours of the leaves, minty, silvery blue/greens.

A lovely scarf in several shades of green featuring some lovely dogs. I don't think that it is particularly old but the dogs are very cute. It has panels of solid and panels of sheer material which is why the pictures look a bit odd.

I had a good rummage in the book shelves and came away with three great ones.

The first is this 1970's book on patchwork which will be very useful as I am trying to learn how to do patchwork at the moment. I have dreams of lovely patchwork quilts.

The back cover showing what is featured inside. Exciting craftyness ahead!

One of the pictures from inside, I really like the fabrics used in this patchwork block. It also features hexagons which are the shape that I am starting with.

Pretty pattern on the front cover but no clues as to what is inside.

Home handicrafts, needlework and repairs - surely a huge range of topics, no wonder it should be part of a household reference library. In the introductions it says that it is intended to be a practical manual covering topics such as how to fix broken china, how to mend a chair leg, how to lay a parquet floor, how to fix a broken lock etc. It has no publishing date inside but a bit of googling suggests 1930 or 1934 and that this book is one of a set of six which would form the reference library.

This is a list of the black and white photograph plates in the book and from this you get a good idea of the topics covered inside.

This intrigued me at once! It has no publishing date and googling suggests that ii has been republished several times. From the illustrations and the paper I think it is late 1930's.

This is the contents page, look at the array of entertainments featured! They are all illustrated with lovely black and white line drawings.

I will be coming back to these two 1930's books in future posts, when I have had a chance to read and digest some of their wisdom!

Interesting old book find - Three Ghosts

Even though it could be said that I have no room left on my bookshelves I am always on the lookout for more books. I love reading and I like to own the physical articles so that I can read them again or sometimes even just to look at them. A nicely full bookshelf makes me feel very content. Whenever I go in a charity shop I always browse the book section, looking for both modern fiction and for anything old and interesting that takes my fancy. I realised whilst rearranging my bookshelves (again), to fit more books in (again), that I could do a series of posts on these old and interesting books. So this is the first of a few.

Front cover

Three Ghosts was published in 1947 and contains three short ghost stories. These are The Red Room by H.G. Wells ( first published in 1896), Rats by M.R. James (first published in 1929) and The Return of Imray by Rudyard Kipling (first published in 1891). I am not going to give away what the stories are about as you may want to read them yourself. If so, you can find the Red Room text here, the Rats text here and The Return of Imray text here.

When I picked up the book and turned it over I was interested to find that it was a greetings book. It is a paperback and the dust jacket folds out and then can be folded over the front cover and sealed. There is a space for the postage and then you could send it off as a gift for someone. I love this idea, how exciting it would be to receive books in this manner through the post. I have never seen this type of book before. It says inside that there are two more books in the series so I will be on the lookout for them. I have tried to find out more about greetings books and have not had any luck yet so if anybody knows anything?

The publisher is Sampson Low, a family run firm that began in 1793 and is still going today. I thought that they may have some information about greetings books on their website but unfortunately their archive is not complete due to bombing and to various changes in the firm.

The stories are illustrated by Laurence Scarfe (1914-1993). There are a number of black and white line drawings and four colour plates. The colour plates are quite dark and muted, which fits the ghost story theme. They are full of detail and I really like the style.

'The door creaked on its hinges as a second old man
entered'.

'While I stood gaping, one candle at the foot of the
bed went out.'

'It was not long before he was standing by it'.

'Can they get up and move....?'

Laurence Scarfe studied at Shipley Art School and then from 1933-37 studied mural painting at the Royal College of Art. At the time this book was published he was lecturing at the Central School of Art and Design. He seems to have had a varied career, illustrating for the Radio Times, showing a mural at the Festival of Britain, decorating pottery, illustrating brochures for hotels and designing posters for the London Underground from 1939-1964. The one I like best is for the Bethnal Green Museum of Childhood and can be seen here.