Project24

What a jet-setting lifestyle. About a day after arriving back from Paris, I was off to Somerset, which is where I now am, tucked up in bed in chilly Chiselborough.

Quick entry – to say that, after years of meaning to (and none too subtle hints dropped, to no avail, when I was in Paris in 2005) I have been to Shakespeare & Company bookshop! Here I am in front of it…

(Yes, fact fans, that is the first – and probably last – time I’ve put a photograph of me up on here – that’s how big a deal a visit to this bookshop was!) To be honest, it wasn’t a huge temptation away from my Project24 resolve – because it’s mostly a new-book bookshop, and the lovely floor of older books upstairs are browsing only (so I didn’t look at them too carefully, lest there be anything I really wanted and couldn’t have.) But the shop has a lovely feel, and I was keen to have a souvenir to take away from it, so step forward book no.8…

I love the NYRB Classics series, both for book choices and for production quality, and I love Sylvia Townsend Warner. I could have bought Summer Will Show anywhere, it is true, but it seemed appropriate to have it as my Shakespeare & Co. souvenir, since it’s set in Paris. More on it when I read it… cos I’m going to bed now. Au reservoir!

Project 24 – #7

The eagle-eyed among you will have spotted that Project24 is up to #7 already, which takes me to halfway through April (apparently the cruellest month… well, we’ll see). But the seventh book is one I’ve wanted for about eight years and, though I bought it online rather than finding it serendipitously, I think you’ll excuse the purchase when you know what it is:

Yes, two of my favourite authors, combined in one beautiful book: Miss Elizabeth Bennet by AA Milne. I have actually seen the play performed – by an am-dram society in a village with the wonderful name of Blewbury, back in 2004 – and read it in 2008 or thereabouts. But this was one I needed to own…

And it got me thinking. I’m going to make you be very interactive this week, as I want more ideas. AA Milne dramatising Jane Austen is more or less a dream come true for me – but what other author combinations would delight and amuse you?

I’ve had a little think. I’d love to read Jane Austen’s novelisation of Much Ado About Nothing. And I think Tove Jansson could turn ‘Kubla Khan’ into an atmospheric novella. Do any of you know the beautiful Nancy Griffith song ‘Love at the Five and Dime’? I’d love EM Delafield to turn that into a novel.

As you can see, whimsy is the name of the game – let me know your suggestions of authors adapting things, as crazy or as plausible as you like. Let time, geography, language be no object… I’m looking forward to hearing what you come up with.

Project 24 – #6

Drastically scaling back the number of books I’m allowed to buy in 2010 has meant that the ones I choose are likely to come (and have come so far) in three categories:

They’re out of print books which rarely become available, and the opportunity is too good to missI’ve physically been to a great secondhand bookshop and don’t want to come away empty-handed…They’re books I’ve been wanting to buy for years, but couldn’t really afford.
My sixth book of 2010 falls in category 3 – The Heirs of Jane Austen: Twentieth-Century Writers of the Comedy of Manners by Rachel R. Mather. This book could have been written with me in mind – it looks at EF Benson, EM Delafield, and Angela Thirkell as (unsurprisingly) the heirs of Jane Austen – two of my absolute favourite authors (EMD and JA), and two I like a lot (EFB and AT) all in the same book together? Wonderful. I have actually read this already, a few years ago – lent by a kind Thirkellite – but knew at some point I’d have to have a copy myself. So, there you are – no.6 has been chosen. (Sorry that I could only find a tiny picture of the book – the cover is too shiny to take a good one with my camera, under electric light.)

Which would take me to the end of March. Except, ahem, another is on its way… and I’m going to Paris at the end of March, and will be visiting the Shakespeare & Co. bookshop. Let’s hope April is a lean month…

Project 24 – #5

I’m really running through them like wildfire now… halfway through March’s allowance and we’re only just halfway through February. Perhaps the naysayers were right… anyway, enough self-flagellation, you’ll want to know what the book is.

My favourite shop in Oxford, Arcadia, is a lovely little place which is great for gifty things. I always buy my greetings cards and wrapping paper there, and to top it all they sell secondhand books. They specialise in Penguin paperbacks, and when I walked past today, they seemed to have even more than usual. Inside there were rows and rows of them, each individually wrapped in cellophane. But it was outside that I spotted Strange Glory by L H Myers. I can’t remember where I heard of it, but it was in connection with my research, and I wanted to track down a copy… so when I walked past one, I couldn’t leave it there – right?

I should point out how close I came to buying Love by Elizabeth von Arnim yesterday – and I resisted. I’m doing well, honest…

So there it is, no.5. I’ve not read any of the first four yet, I must confess. Maybe I should see how many of the 24 I’ve read by the end of the year… but this week I’m going to immerse myself in Rose Macaulay novels.

Anybody heard of/read any L H Myers? And how are fellow Project 24-ers going? (Project Zero people, keep quiet! You’ll just make me feel worse.)

Project 24 – #4

Book no.4 has found its way into my house, helped (as with the Richmal Crompton Roofs Off!, Book no.1) by my abebooks ‘want’ alert. I love EM Delafield (you can read my thoughts about three of her books here) and have amassed quite a collection of her novels – quite a few unread, but nice to know that the store is there for a bit of indulgence now and then, the most recent being Nothing is Safe, which I’ll write about before too long. One I didn’t have is No One Now Will Know – and, consequently, it is one I *do* now have!

I don’t know a lot about the novel, but this wonderful and reliable EMD website says “A decidedly bleak book in which Fred and Lucian (Lucy) both love Rosalie. The title is a quotation from the Irish poem ‘The Glens of Antrim” No one now will know, which of them loved her the most”. He hasn’t actually read this one, if I interpret the asterisk correctly, so perhaps his information comes from Violet Powell’s occasionally underwhelming biography The Life of a Provincial Lady. And I can’t really imagine that EM Delafield could be completely bleak if she tried – even in her bleakest novels, like Consequences, there are flashes of humour.

So, there you have it – book number four, and one of the most melodic titles I’ve ever come across.

Project 24 – #2 & #3

So, on my travels to Suffolk, Mum and I had three things definitely factored into the itinerary – aside from seeing her sister, of course. Firstly was the spectacular (and spectacularly cheap) hot chocolate at the Essex Rose in Dedham – a three-mug jugful for £2! – second was meeting up with lovely Elaine of Random Jottings, more on that tomorrow, and last was… Castle Books in Colchester. Back in 2001 we had a family holiday in Felixstowe, and popped over to Colchester. Castle Books was where my AA Milne liking developed into an obsession, as they had quite a few of his books, quite cheaply. And I’ve had fond memories of it ever since.

It didn’t disappoint – a wonderful stock, very reasonable prices, and enough temptation to tip me halfway through February on my Project 24 restrictions… that’s right, I bought two. On any other day I’d have happily bought ten, so I do count it as *something* of a success… no?

First up is I. Compton-Burnett by Pamela Hansford Johnson, a little booklet about ICB’s novels from 1951 – it looks like an interesting snapshot of response to ICB by another interesting novelist.

And second is a beautiful book called More Talk of Jane Austen by Shelia Kaye-Smith and GB Stern. I’ve flicked through Talking of Jane Austen once or twice, though I don’t own it – the books look like a lovely mix – informal chat about Jane Austen from the mouths of those with know-how. Indulgent without being unscholarly – think this’ll be one to curl up with soon.

So, there we have it! Numbers 2 and 3 in my Project 24. I also bought a little book about EF Benson in Castle Books, but that was a gift for Elaine – who, in turn, gave me a book – which you’ll be hearing more about tomorrow…

Project 24 – #1

As Susan spotted the other day, the first book of 2010 has found its way to my little home – and it’s Roofs Off! by Richmal Crompton. Possibly, though I won’t swear to it, the first novel I own with an exclamation mark in the title (quick trivia question: what’s the only place name in England with an exclamation mark in it? That’s not a trick question, by the way.)

I have some abebooks alerts which, indeed, alert me to various books which I might want. And one of them is Author=Crompton and ~william (hello Mr. Boolean, I hope you’re feeling well). As you probably know, I’m rather a fan of Richmal Crompton’s novels, and quite a few of them almost never come up in the virtual marketplace. In the six or so years I’ve tried to find Crompton’s novels, I’ve never seen Roofs Off! advertised, and it was a fairly reasonable price – I feel it’s a good start to Project24.

I’m tippy-tappy-typing this a few days in advance, and when you read it I’ll be off in Suffolk with Our Vicar’s Wife – and, if all goes to plan, soon to be meeting up with Elaine aka Random Jottings. And maybe, perhaps, buying book no.2….

Fellow Project24-ers, or anyone on book restriction – how’s it going? Be strong! Or, if you give up, make sure it’s a really good haul…