This post is a slightly delayed reaction to the lovely Kirsty’s meme from a few weeks ago. Although short, it’s deceptively time-consuming, as it takes the unsuspecting blogger on a trip down memory lane. When you get to my advanced age, that’s quite a long trip.
Anyway, here goes….
The book that’s been on your shelves the longest
Hmm, difficult to be precise without a great deal of excavation, but I think this would be Wuthering Heights. The proceeds of my Saturday job in the local pharmacy were speedily squandered in the nearby bookshop, and I built up a small but precious collection of classics.
A book that reminds you of something specific in your life (a person, a place, a time)
Having progressed to the dizzy heights of the cigarette kiosk in Sainsbury’s, I was then able to afford some rather swanky hardbacks from The History Guild. My first investments were The Myth of the Goddess and Truth and Fiction in the Bible. Both really opened my mind to different ways of thinking and also sharpened my critical faculties. I was only 18, bless me, but it was the start of many adventures on which my enquiring mind would take me.
A book you acquired in some interesting way
A lovely teacher at sixth form college, Mrs Lewis, was very excited to be teaching a student who actually liked books. One memorable afternoon, she lured me to the English cupboard and told me she was going to turn her back while I helped myself to anything I fancied. There were fairly slim pickings, as the contents mainly comprised rather dessicated volumes of poetry, but I did come away with a copy of Cold Comfort Farm, which remains one of my very favourite books. I am also indebted to Mrs L for trying very hard to get me a university grant. Alas, it didn’t work out, but I did finally get there 15 years later.
The book that’s been with you to the most places
In terms of abodes, then that would be Wuthering Heights again. However, the one that I often pop in my handbag or take on holiday is The Diary of a Nobody, which is guaranteed to induce levity in the most inappropriate situations.
Your current read, your last read and the book you’ll read next
I’m in the final furlong of Victoria Glendinning’s masterly Trollope. It has taken me an embarrassingly long time to read, mainly because it’s the size of a small terraced house and not particularly portable.
My last read was Geraldine Jewsbury: Her Life and Errors, an intriguing, if superficial, study of an omnipresent Victorian.
I’m tossed on the horns of a dilemma as to what I shall read next, but it’ll probably be a biography of the Victorian publisher Richard Bentley.
I actually have about half a dozen books on the go at the moment – not my favoured approach, but the only way of managing the mountain of research required for my PhD. I crave the luxury of reading them all from cover to cover, but the reality is that I’ll be confining myself to relevant chapters and then shuffling back to the library to get some more.
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