Books

I’m far too disorganised to have carefully curated bookshelves, though I do love the colour coordinated shelves Solveig has arranged in Meols - a voracious reader, she’s rapidly accumulated an impressive library which regularly feeds my rather stuttering reading habits. 

Here, books tend to be scattered round the house, arranged generously by theme only. In the office there’s our travel library; the kitchen’s obviously the place for my addiction to cookery books; the lounge has my photo books etc…. 

But the books featured in today’s blip are unashamedly arranged for decorative purposes on an up-cycled bookcase in our bedroom - but they’re all precious in their own right too. A beautifully illustrated edition of ‘Out of Africa’ - a favourite; a Folio edition of The History of English Literature given to me by my best friend’s father at a time when I was feeling distraught over an incident in my teenage years; two Peter Frankopan books - actually gifts I have to G who loved them - awaiting reading, but I just love the decoration; Nigel Slater’s Christmas Chronicles - the book which made me love his writing. Then there’s the Steve  McCurry Portraits, a Christmas present from Simon - I love his work so much. The Anthology of Love was a Christmas present  from my parents  back in 1979 - inscribed in mum’s writing, a glance at which still brings her right back to life. There are the few decorative volumes picked up here and there in second hand book shops. I came so close to buying a beautiful edition of the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám in Barter Books last week and really regret not buying it. 

Oh, and the bookcase …. It’s the last remaining part of a bedroom suite of furniture that was left me by a childhood next door neighbour, a wonderful man who had endless patience entertaining me when I was young.