Haul

I don’t know why it’s taken me so many years to get to Astley Book Farm. I first heard of it years ago, I think perhaps from this blog post that Hayley wrote in 2010. At the time, I didn’t have a car – and without a car, it wouldn’t be very easy to get to this bookshop. While it’s close to Nuneaton, it’s pretty isolated in transport terms – unsurprising, given that it’s a converted farm. I got a car in 2014, but somehow it didn’t happen – until last weekend!

Astley Book Farm is every bit as wonderful as you all told me it would be. Room after room after room, warren-like, with a wide variety of reasonably priced books. And an amazing cafe. And a snug at the end. And a barn of 50p books. It was all wonderfulllll. I can tell I’ll be back there often. But these are the books I bought while I was there…

The Poor Man by Stella Benson
I’ve been doing surprisingly well with Benson books on recent bookshop trips, and was delighted that the streak is continuing.

Encounter by Milan Kundera
Slowness by Milan Kundera
Yes, I have lots of books by Kundera that I haven’t read, but not these. Until now! Encounter is essays and Slowness is a novel. Yay Kundera!

Willa Cather by Hermione Lee
A Woman of Passion by Julia Briggs
Early Stages by John Gielgud
The Gift by H.D.
What is Remembered by Alice B. Toklas
I’m grouping all of these in a lazy way because I bought them all to stock up my biography/autobiography shelf. The Toklas is after reading Two Lives (which turns out to have kicked off quite a chain reaction), while A Woman of Passion is a biography of E. Nesbit. I started in the biography section, which partly explains why there are so many…

Family Matters by Anthony Rolls
Sergeant Cluff Stands Firm by Gil North
There turn out to be so many British Library Crime Classics I don’t know anything about, and I am grabbing all of ’em.

Mrs Carteret Receives by L.P. Hartley
I might not have bought this if I’d realised it was short stories, as for some reason Hartley doesn’t seem like an author I’d enjoy as much in brief bursts. But it’s mine now, so I’ll find out eventually!

A Wild Swan by Michael Cunningham
Whereas I did know this was short stories, and I’m more than ready to try out Cunningham at that!

Old Filth by Jane Gardam
I’ve only read one Gardam novel (God on the Rocks), but this is the one every talks about as being brilliant – so, since it was 50p, I thought it was worth a shot.

I’m pretty pleased with the haul I came away with! There are definitely a lot of modern paperbacks alongside the more unusual finds, but there’s plenty for everyone – and I’m looking forward to my next trip, if only because of the amount of cake options in the cafe that I’ve still got to sample.

I’ve missed these for a few months, which emphatically doesn’t mean that I’ve not been buying books. But I think I’d been a bit restrained over the past couple of months – and, indeed, had been pretty restrained in August until the last week or so of it… and I have a whole heap o’ books. But they’re pretty great. No regrets.

If Only They Didn’t Speak English by Jon Sopel
I saw Sopel speak at the Hay festival earlier in the year – the only thing I went to, in fact – and it was excellent. Saddening, but excellent. So I eventually got a copy of his book – which retreads a lot of the same ground as his interview, but is good reading nonetheless.

Portrait of Stella Benson by R.E. Roberts
My recent wonderings about Stella Benson led me to buy this – I’d seen it described as a personal account of her life, and I love it when the memoirist has a relationship of some sort with the subject.

Letters of C.S. Lewis
I found this in a charity shop, and apparently bought it shortly after it was put out on the shelves. Which led to a curious conversation with the person shelving books, who I thought wanted to take the copy from me. It was all very confusing.

In the Freud Archives by Janet Malcolm
Forty-One False Starts by Janet Malcolm
Psychoanalysis: the Impossible Profession by Janet Malcolm
The Journalist and the Murderer by Janet Malcolm
Yup, I was serious when I said that my recent read of Two Lives had sent me off on a Janet Malcolm craze.

The Snow Ball by Brigid Brophy
I really enjoyed her novel Hackenfeller’s Ape, and the Backlisted podcast did an episode that convinced me this novel was definitely worth buying – so I was pleased to find it in a charity shop recently.

The Trip to Echo Spring by Olivia Laing
Adding to my pile of Laing books to read, after really liking To The River. This one is all about writers and alcohol – intriguing, no?

The Bachelors by Adalbert Stifter
I’ll be honest, I don’t even remember buying this. But I love these boxy little Pushkin Press editions.

Reaching Down the Rabbit Hall by Allan Ropper and B.D. Burrell
The subtitle ‘extraordinary journeys into the human brain’ sum this one up – hopefully the sort of popular neurosciency type stuff that I find fascinating.

Rockets Galore by Compton Mackenzie
I want more and more Mackenzie. Though I think this might be a sequel. Which would be the second time I’d done that with Mackenzie.

Rosy is My Relative by Gerald Durrell
Sure, I need more Durrell waiting on my shelves.

Any you’ve read, or would recommend, or are interested in? I’ve already started the Sopel and one of the Malcolms…

I’ve just spent a glorious weekend in this AirBnB in Herefordshire, near the Welsh border, with good friends and great weather. And, yes, it just happened to be near Hay-on-Wye, the town of secondhand bookshop. It also happened (though we didn’t realise this when we booked the holiday) to be the Hay Festival.

When I found out it was the festival, I was a bit worried that all the bookshops would be overcrowded, and all the good books would be gone – but I managed to come away with quite a great haul. AND I saw Jon Sopel talking about Donald Trump, which was entertaining and terrifying in equal measures.

It’s been a little while since I went to Hay, and it was lovely to go back – and, staying nearby, we were able to get there early and leave quite late. ALL THE MORE BOOKSHOPPING. And here are the *cough* 21 books I bought – a haul I’m really pleased with. Bonus: the view from my window at the AirBnB.

Do Butlers Burgle Banks? by P.G. Wodehouse
Company for Henry by P.G. Wodehouse
Barmy in Wonderland by P.G. Wodehouse
One of the bookshops I went in is, sadly, closing down – there do seem to be fewer and fewer each time – and it was holding a half price sale. There were SO many P.G. Wodehouse novels available, and I would have loved to picked up armfuls of the novels I didn’t have yet. I restrained myself and picked three that looked interesting.

Concerning Books and Bookmen by Ian Maclaren
This is a short book about how great books are, and what book obsessives are like – and it was published in the 1910s, which just gores to show that not all that much has changed.

Tantivy Towers by A.P. Herbert
I think APH has appeared in a few of my recent ‘hauls’, and this is a comic opera, of all things.

The Little World by Stella Benson
Here’s a top tip for book hunters: never overlook the ‘pocket classics’ section. I’d long assumed that there were filled with small editions of the standard classics – the Dickens, Gaskell, Wordsworth, etc that could be found anywhere. WELL, not so. It’s where I found this book (travel writing by Stella Benson) and the next one…

Lovers and Friends by E.F. Benson
I was hoping to find some more E.F. Benson in Hay – more on that later – and was really excited to stumble across Lovers and Friends, which I don’t remember ever hearing about before.

Murder at the Manor
Thirteen Guests by J Jefferson Farjeon
More books for my growing British Library Crime Classics shelf! My assumption is that I’ll be reading them for years and years.

Buttercups and Daisies by Compton Mackenzie
I’ve started reading this one already – it’s a very funny novel about a well-meaning tyrannical father and husband who disastrously moves his family to the countryside. I’ll feed back soon!

In the Purely Pagan Spirit by John Lehmann
Having just read some Rosamond Lehmann, I thought I’d read one of her brother’s novels – well, I didn’t know he’d written any novels (despite having read his vituperative memoir of the Woolfs) but now I have one!

Ivy Compton-Burnett by Frank Baldanza
I. Compton-Burnett by Charles Burkhart
Some ICB fan had obviously sold a pile of books to one bookshop, and I was happy to sweep them right UP.

English Journey by Beryl Bainbridge
Apparently this is something of a response to J.B. Priestley’s book of the same name (which I haven’t got or read), but who more entertaining to give her own eccentric and unique perspective on England than Beryl Bainbridge?

The Challoners by E.F. Benson
And another Benson! This was in a shop that had quite a few in stock – though this was the only one I could afford. The man running the bookshop confidently suggested that £250 (which one of the rarer books cost) was “only the price of dinner for four or five people”. Which means that I’ve convinced a stranger that I look like the sort of person who spends at least £50 on dinner, so that’s something.

The Fool Hath Said by Beverley Nichols
News of England by Beverley Nichols
For Adults Only by Beverley Nichols
The Powers That Be by Beverley Nichols
A couple of the people on our trip had popped into Hay the day before I went, and I’d been forewarned about lots of Nichols books – and I swooped in and bought all the ones I didn’t already have. This range seems to encompass novel, essays, journalism, and theology. Versatile!

Rose Macaulay by Jane Emery
I did read bits of this biography of Macaulay in the Bodleian once, but it’s good to have it on my shelves.

Have you read any of these? Or any particularly catch your attention? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Yes, I bought books in April. I bought eight books. But I read 11! So I’m continuing my reading-more-than-I’m-buying streak – spoilers, this will not be the case in June, as I’m going to Hay on Wye. But so far so good in May.

Here are the books I bought, and where and why etc.

Honeybubble & Co by A.P. Herbert
This is the first of three books I bought at a donkey sanctuary table top sale (classic me). APH was one of those Punch types whom I’ve not read much of, but vaguely know about. Something to add to the pile.

A Legacy by Sybille Bedford
I always think I have all of Bedfords novels, but I didn’t actually have this one before. Now i do!

Rolling in the Drew by Ethel Mannin
Mannin is another of those authors I think I know about, then realise I’ve just seen her name a lot. This looks really funny – a satire of a health retreat, from 1940.

The Bankrupt Bookseller by Will Darling
The original book and its sequel collected in one edition. Fun!

We Think the World of You by J.R. Ackerley
I really hope I like Ackerley, since this is the fourth book I’ve bought by him without having read any. But NYRB Classics… so beautiful.

Out of the Ordinary by Jon Ronson
I do really enjoy Ronson. This will be a nice, undemanding read sometime.

To See Ourselves by E.M. Delafield
My friends know me well enough that they knew to message me when they found this in Hay-on-Wye, and ask if I’d like them to pick it up for me. Er, yes please!

The Vanishing Celebrities by Adrian Alington
I couldn’t resist this murder mystery (I think?) with such an intriguing title. I was going to read straightaway, but A Century of Books means this one might wait a while.

I hope you all had a great Easter! I had a very restful time on my holiday, and glad to be back to blogging now.

I’m enjoying looking back at my monthly purchases – it helps keep me honest, and it also makes each month either a Read More Than Bought or a Bought More Than Read month. And it’s good to know which is which. March is… Bought More Than Read! Which I’m going to count as a victory… though it was a pretty close-run thing. Here are the seven books I bought in March…

Flesh and Blood by Michael Cunningham
I popped into a charity shop on the way to a course, with only about two minutes to spare – and luckily that two minutes included spying a Cunningham novel I don’t yet have. I’ve only read four of his books, but I really love his writing – this one will be great one day.

A Book of Book Lists
Impulse buy! Well done, Waterstones and whoever stocks the piles near your till. This is all sorts of lists of books – from those that are most likely to be left unfinished, to the books Scott took on his trip. I can’t resist this sort of thing.

None Like Him by Jen Wilkin
My small group at church is reading this one, and I’d better get a move on because they’ve read two chapters and I’ve read… none.

Trespasses by Paul Bailey
We popped into Bakewell on my holiday – I’ve just been away for a week in the Peak District with dozens of others – and came upon a little bookshop. Somebody else got the signed Debo Devonshire book before I could get to it (it’s ok – he’s a big Debo fan too, so I let it slide) but I grabbed this Paul Bailey, after loving At the Jerusalem.

Love, Courtship, and Marriage by Thomas Herne
I’m already kinda incensed because this guide to marriage and sex from the 1920s would have been PERFECT for chapter 3 of my DPhil thesis. Oh well. I’ll still enjoy reading it – I find these sorts of books completely fascinating. Also from the Bakewell bookshop!

Albert and the Dragonettes by Rosemary Weir
Albert’s World Tour by Rosemary Weir
I’m going to write about Albert the Dragon properly one of these days. But I realised I didn’t have the whole series, and should rectify that…

I’m planning to do this list for every month, as a way of showing myself what’s finding its way to my overflowing shelves – and to see if I read more than I bought in any month. Which is a pretty low ambition, one would have thought, but also not very achievable… though I think I did it in February! This round-up is coming a bit late, but that’s nothing compared to how late my round up of 2017 reading is. One day it will come, I (sort of) promise.

(Granted, I did get quite a few review copies… and I’ve included some gifts in this post, just because I wanted to mention them.)

Here they are, with a silently judging Hargreaves:

Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh

I have a handful of Waugh books I’ve not read, but I bought this one because my book group is reading it this month. I’m halfway through. In the past I have been conflicted about Waugh’s moral compass… with Vile Bodies I’m largely just confused about what’s going on.

My Face for the World to See by Alfred Hayes

I can’t resist a cheap NYRB Classic, even if I’m amassing them and not reading all that many.

An Abundance of Katherines by John Green

I liked The Fault in Our Stars, and I’ve been watching John Green’s vlogs for many years, so I’m happy to put another of his books on my shelves. I’m not often in the mood for reading teenage fiction, but it’ll be good when I want a quick, doubtless heartbreaking, read.

From the Heart by Susan Hill

Susan Hill writes a book about every five minutes, in many genres, but I very much appreciate her ‘short literary novella’ genre – The Beacon, A Kind Man, Black Sheep – and hadn’t heard of this recent one until I stumbled across it.

Reading Allowed by Chris Paling

I visited Mostly Books in Abingdon for the first time in ages – and I always try to buy a book when visiting an independent bookseller, to support them. It was rather sad to see how few books were on the shelves – it’s a small shop, but there were still big gaps on the shelves. I was wondering if I’d have to read empty-handed, but this comic memoir of working in a library looked fun.

The Proper Place by O. Douglas
Ann and Her Mother by O. Douglas
Penny Plain by O. Douglas
Farewell to Priorsford by O. Douglas

These were a very kind gift from my friend’s mum (hi Mrs S!) who sometimes reads the blog and knows that I like O Douglas (also known as Anna Buchan – John Buchan’s sister). I had to be strong and not accept all the novels on offer – there were quite a few – but asked for a selection. I’m excited to see what I think of these!

Since the last four are gifts, I only actually bought five books in February. Very restrained, no??

As you no doubt know, I was only buying 24 books last year. It was entirely self-imposed, in an effort to read more books from my shelves – and, by the end of the year, because I don’t have much space in my lovely little flat. When the sanctions were lifted on January 1st, what did I buy?

We’re three weeks into 2018, and I haven’t gone completely crazy. That’s partly because I got lots of books I really wanted for my birthday and Christmas presents (thanks friends and fam!) and partly because I’ve decided to Be a Bit Sensible. So, I’ve only bought a handful of books so far. Basically I deserve a medal or Nobel laureate etc.

Ok, I took a week break after starting this post and writing those first paragraphs, and in that time I went to a great secondhand bookshop in Wantage with my friend Lucy, and we did go a little crazy. So I may need to return that medal. So – what have I bought in January?

Let’s start with the books I got in Wantage, which is the left-hand pile:

The Reluctant Cook by Ethelind Fearon

I didn’t realise that The Reluctant Hostess was the first of a series – it’s a fun mid-century humourous book about a self-deprecating housewife. I.e. my jam completely.

The Poet’s Corner by Max Beerbohm

Every now and then I threaten to myself that I’m going to collect all the King Penguin books, because they’re so beautiful. But then lots of them are on lakes or moths or anything I’m not interested in. But this one had to come home with me – and was a present from Lucy, as we each picked one of the other’s books to be a belated birthday present.

How to Shoot an Amateur Naturalist by Gerald Durrell

Adding to my pile of humorous non-fiction by Mr Durrell – always good to put something on the shelves that is guaranteed to be fun whenever it comes off the shelves.

The Unnatural Behaviour of Mrs Hooker by Eileen Marsh

I don’t know anything about this author or this book, but that title is so beguiling. Does anybody know anything about it? I was also provoked into buying it by the subtitle ‘a book for women’. We’ll SEE, Eileen Marsh.

The Three Brontes by May Sinclair

How come every 20th novelist wrote biographies too? I’m intrigued to see how this book compares to May Sinclair’s novel The Three Sisters, which is vaguely based on the Bronte sisters. (But not, dear LibraryThing, the same book.)

Up the Country by Emily Eden

After loving Eden’s novels The Semi-Detached House and The Semi-Attached Couple earlier in the year, I was excited to find her book of letters from India.

Mr Punch in the Family Circle

This is an edited collection of Punch sketches – in both senses, since there are images and skits – to do with the family. And, yes, A.A. Milne features. It’s a lovely edition too – will be fun to dip into.

Selected Letters by Charles Morgan

I read a novel by Morgan in about 2003, and have been meaning to read something else by him ever since – this collection of letters is apparently selected based on being about writing and the writer’s life, which is ideal.

And onto the right-hand pile – and the books that didn’t come from Wantage, but have come in fits and starts over the first few weeks of January.

Often I am Happy by Jens Christian Grondahl

I loved JCG’s novel Virginia, and have now got… three more books by him waiting. I hadn’t heard of this one, and hadn’t realised that it had been translated – it looks lovely, and it was on sale at Blackwells.

The Givenness of Things by Marilynne Robinson

I picked this up in a charity shop, and I feel like I’ll take the plunge and read some of Robinson’s essays if I only fill the house with enough copies. I started one of them once and felt wildly out of my depth… one day. If nothing else, at least the charity benefited.

Plays 4 by Alan Ayckbourn

I’ve been on an Ayckbourn binge with audiobooks – more anon – and found this collection for £1 in Blackwells. Not the same as seeing them on stage, but apparently the season for Ayckbourn revivals is not quite yet. Well, not in the south. The north is seemingly a perennial Ayckbourn revival.

Company in the Evening by Ursula Orange
Begin Again by Ursula Orange
Landscape in Sunlight by Elizabeth Fair

All the Furrowed Middlebrow reprints came out while I was restricting my book buying, so obvi I went back and bought a handful of them when 2018 began. I needed those Ursula Oranges while the opportunity was there.

The Curtain by Milan Kundera

I had some book tokens from work, and this long essay by Kundera seems really interesting. And can keep the other unread Kundera books I’ve got waiting company.

Appointment in Arezzo by Alan Taylor

And the other book tokens went on this – a book about the author’s friendship with Muriel Spark. One of my favourite genres is books-about-unique-relationships-with-authors, and I love me some Spark.

I’m pretty pleased with my choices from January, and nearly all of them pass my “I really want this” test – I’m trying to buy fewer books in a just-in-case way. Which is a brilliant way to buy books, but not when you have about 1400 books you haven’t read. I might miss some gems this way, but I’ll also read some of the gems I have waiting for me.

It was a lovely year for bookish presents – here’s the little pile I got from various people under the tree this year…

Nemo’s Almanac – this was from my friends Paul and Kirsty and, coincidentally, I bought them the same thing! It’s a collection of quotations (mostly poetry) where you have to identify the author.

Bloomsbury by Matthew Ingleby – Matt was at Magdalen with me, and my friend Lorna (who also knows him, rather better than me) sent me a signed copy of this one. Always eager to add to my Bloomsbury shelf!

The Cat’s Cradle Book by Sylvia Townsend Warner – I usually take part in the LibraryThing Virago Modern Classics Secret Santa, and it always ends up in truly brilliant purchases. My nonplussed family watch while I squeal over things – like this beautiful edition of one of the few STW books I don’t have!

Catherine Carter by Pamela Hansford Johnson – and this equally beautiful edition – signed by PHJ no less! I should say that my Santa was unveiled as the wonderful Jane at Beyond Eden Rock.

Deeper Than Indigo by Jenny Balfour Paul – I don’t know anything about this one, but Jane thought it would be up my street.

The Professor’s House by Willa Cather – the final Secret Santa book is one I read ten years or ago, but have never owned – and it’s a nice VMC with a Vanessa Bell cover.

The Lonely City by Olivia Laing – the final three books are from my family, who wisely turned to my Amazon wishlist. This was from my parents, and you might remember this one from a Weekend Miscellany.

My Life With Bob by Pamela Paul – another one from Mum and Dad; another one I’ve previously highlighted in a Weekend Miscellany. And the first one from this pile that I’m going to start, I think!

How Not To Be a Boy by Robert Webb – from Col, and all about damaging gender stereotypes (as well as about Webb’s life). Well done him for writing it!

Can’t wait to dive in to this delightful treasure trove! I hope you all got good books under the Christmas tree.

I’m excited about my reading in 2017. I don’t have any plans or challenges (for reading; for buying, I’m limiting to 24 books). I’ll miss Shiny New Books, but it also means I have far fewer obligations for reading. I can just read what I want – and, if it gets overwhelming, I’ve put together a table covered in all the books people recommended from my tbr shelves recently (or, at least, the ones I could find!). Thank you so much for your recommendations, and taking the time to search for them!

I’m pretty scared about 2017. I wrote quite a lot here about Trump, but I’ve decided to delete it – I don’t want to demonise people who voted him. Let’s just acknowledge that – in my eyes, and for many people around the world – Trump’s presidency is a terrifying prospect. And I can’t really start a post about 2017 without at least acknowledging that it’s happening.

For today, let’s try denial. And denial comes in the form of some massive parcels which arrived while I was home over Christmas. In advance of Project 24 – and, yes, entirely defeating the point – I was tempted when my housemate pointed out a deal for buying 25 Classic Penguins. I don’t want to throw temptation in your way, but you can do the same. World of Rare Books will bundle up 25 of them for you, for £25 (and rather less than that on the one-day offer we got).

I’ll be honest – my hopes weren’t high. I assumed it would be a case of getting lots of those blue Penguins on poultry farming, economic works, and no orange Penguins at all. How wrong I was!

We sat there and opened up our 50 Penguins. Kirsty kept all of hers; I kept 18 of mine – much more than I expected. I gave 3 to Kirsty (including the Pamela Hansford Johnson in the photo below, as I only realised belatedly that I already had it), 2 to my friend Paul, and 2 to a charity shop – the rejected books being almost all ones I already had, and only a couple cos they didn’t appeal.

And here are the gems I came away with! Lots of lovely classic crimes to explore, and lots of other authors I’ve either enjoyed or wanted to read – and a handful that meant nothing, but could well be fun. But the reason I bought them, really, was because I love the surprise of a random assortment – opening them up and discovering what unexpected books have arrived. If I weren’t doing Project 24, I’d be tempted to do it again immediately…

I was in London on Saturday, seeing various different friends for much-overdue catch-ups. The first thing I did, actually, was go to a private gallery for the first time in my life. I love Raoul Dufy so didn’t want to miss an exhibition of his work at Connaught Brown – and Karen of Kaggsy’s Bookish Ramblings came along with me. We had a lovely time, though decided, on the whole, not to pay £30,000 for a painting. A difficult decision to make, I’m sure you’ll agree.

But just before that, actually, I spent a birthday book token from my friend Malie – and I did it in Waterstones Piccadilly, which has an excellent section devoted to independent publishers. It’s next to the ‘Black writing’ shelves, which is why a non-independent-publisher snuck into my pile. (Also, query, Eudora Welty was under ‘Black writing’… she was white, wasn’t she?)

Here are the books I bought with my book token, clutched in what my friend Lucy refers to as my ‘serial killer gloves’:

Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Yes, secondhand copies of this are ten a penny, but I am so in love with the covers to these 4th Estate reprints. Three down, one to go!

The Murderess by Alexandros Papadiamantis
I spent quite a while going through the NYRB Classics, trying to decide which I wanted, and chose this novella in the end. It sounds quite dark (about a grandmother murdering her grandchild) but also potentially really interesting. And maybe my first Greek novel?

Burning Secret by Stefan Zweig
I read Confusion in the same style reprint from Pushkin, and couldn’t resist a matching edition.

Only when I took the photo did I realise that I’d apparently been drawn to yellow books particularly… Have you read any of these?