End of the year Book Haul

I really shouldn’t be buying books so close to the Holidays but I had a voucher that was going out of date and I just could not resist.

I love this bookshop in Paisley so much. They always have a wonderful selection of second hand books, and I have to be a fan of someone who sorts their new books into two sections: new books cheap and new books not cheap. The massive second hand collection is always very reasonably priced too, and they are very understanding of the bookworm.

Our conversation today, more or less

Bookseller: *laughs*

Me: I know it’s ridiculous

Bookseller: You can leave them on the counter while you browse if you want… Although you probably don’t need anymore.

Me (despairingly): I know it’s a big pile but i’ve put two back already.

Bookseller: Well put them on the counter while you look but you can’t pick any more up unless you take one out of the pile you already have.

Me: thank you!

I appreciate the willpower on my behalf!

Eight books, my Muriel Spark buying continues with the most famous of her novels The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, it’s so slim, I just know I am going to read this soon.

I actually already started Bodily Harm by Margaret Atwood on the train home. I’m hooked and I’m only on page 25. I should have known that Margaret Atwood would be a solution to my stressed out reading listlessness of the last few weeks. Rennie is running from her life and gets caught up in a web of corruption. I can’t wait to see where this novel goes.

If someone can resist a £1.50 copy of a Daphne du Maurier novel they haven’t read, it certainly isn’t me. Despite my lukewarm response to my last du Maurier, Don’t Look Now, I couldn’t resist adding Hungry Hill to my collection. There is no blurb on this edition, so I guess I will get a surprise when I start reading.

I also picked up a lovely hardback of The Scarlet Pimpernel which I have somehow never read- that seemed like a good enough reason to pick up this classic.

Nabokov, Borges, Reid Banks and Lehmann are all authors I have been meaning to read for some time but never actually have. I think 2019 is shaping up to be a year of new authors for me.

I could honestly have bought double or triple this easily today, so whilst it might not seen restrained I do genuinely feel that I have been quite sensible here. Or so I am going to keep telling myself.

The smell of old books makes me swoon

I can’t quite believe I am finally doing this. I might as well start with complete honesty: I adore books. Love them. Total obsession. The smell of old books makes me swoon. I’m not sure if anyone will read this but I expect the decidedly non literary Family will be delighted as I will have somewhere else to vent. There are only so many versions of the polite-smile-and-nod after all.

I expect this blog will be something of an oddity as I move from genre to genre and never so much as glance at the best sellers. Not a very admirable quality, but the fact that a book is easily obtainable and everyone and their Granny is currently reading it, is more likely to discourage me from reading it than encourage.

I recently discovered the lovely Abbey Books in Paisley. It was a belated birthday visit. The Family know me well, but then proceeded to throw caution to the wind by opening the door and telling me to pick whatever I like. No budget. No book limit. It should have been carnage. Fortunately for everyone involved there was a time limit in place as we arrived not long before the shop was due to close. I left delighted with a beautiful pile of five books. Admittedly, the bookseller was openly bemused by my choices but I chose to take that as a compliment (and there were no witnesses to prove otherwise). Having absolutely no restraint at all, I returned a mere fortnight after my first visit and proceeded to buy a second armful of books. Seven to be precise (plus another chuckle from the bookseller that none of the books had been published within my life time).

Twelve books for about £25, that old book smell, a chatty bookseller, and orderly but not so orderly that a good rummage isn’t possible. I think I have found my new favourite place to spend a Saturday morning.

Hopefully, you can see the lovely books I got on my first trip to Abbey books. So far I have only read the Christie. I don’t think I have ever had a Christie sitting on my shelves for more than a couple of days before I give in to the urge to read. Mrs McGinty’s Dead will probably not become one of my favourite Christie’s but I have so few of her books left to read. Starting it and realising that I definitely had not read this one before was enough to make me smile and I didn’t expect Ariadne Oliver to turn up so that was a pleasant bonus.

I have been reading a lot of Mary Stewart over the last year. Her books are just so delightful and I always end up reading them in one sitting. Perhaps knowing going into them that the heroine will get her hero and that the villain will be punished should make me like them less. I find that it just adds to the enjoyment and escapism. The Crystal Cave is the first of her Arthurian novels and I am quite unsure about whether or not I will like this change of setting. I was quite happy in the crumbling country estates that form the settings of many of her other novels.

Pamela Frankau and Rose Franken are both authors I have heard of but have read none of their works. Having never physically seen either of the authors’ works before I added them to the to-buy pile quickly before I could feel guilty about buying them solely because their names were slightly familiar to me.

D. E. Stevenson I felt slightly less guilty about, having read one whole book by her already, and therefore rather more certain that she might be to my taste. It helps that I already have another one of her books on my shelf to read, although Miss Buncle’s book is rather more beautiful than the tatty paperback I just bought. Miss Buncle’s book is a lovely grey Persephone paperback that has been languishing on my shelves for some time clamouring to be read. Perhaps now that I own an additional D. E. Stevenson novel I will finally be inspired to read it.

This has turned into a mammoth first post that I can only hope will be read and perhaps even enjoyed. I would love some comments on my initial post.  I will post my first review soon, Clover Coverdale by Verily Anderson.