Bibliophile

In Praise and Celebration of Book Clubs

/ Eleanor Jane / Leave a comment

For many years I wanted to join a book club.  The idea of meeting a lot of like minded people to talk about books was wonderful but I was hampered by two things.  Firstly, there weren’t any near me and secondly I was hesitant about committing myself to reading books I didn’t like.  Not that I expected to hate them all – I just knew there would be some I didn’t.

However, when there was an opportunity to set one up at work I jumped at the chance.  I am so glad I did!  Yes, there have been books I really did not like but there have been others that I loved – even some that I would not have picked up if left to myself.

I have also genuinely enjoyed the discussions and it is great to be able to have them with a group of people who love books just as much as me.  Besides, I’ve learnt that if I really hate a book I don’t have to finish it.  That makes an interesting discussion too.

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Side note: this is neither a book I hated, nor one I didn’t want to read. I suggested the group read it for our meeting next week and I am gripped by it. Hopefully they have been enjoying it too!

Book Festival Fun

/ Eleanor Jane / Leave a comment

We are currently in the middle of one of my favourite weeks of the year – Appledore Book Festival.

I love book festivals anyway but there is something about Appledore which makes me extra happy – perhaps it is the sea or the fact that the sun always seems to be shining!

I always have a stall at the book fair, this year on the first Sunday of the festival. It is always nice to share my books with so many book lovers and I had a great time.

Bookseller’s view of a book fair

I also spend a few days working at the festival which is another joy. I get to meet so many fascinating people and, again, talk to loads of other book lovers.

Perhaps best of all though is the reading time – it doesn’t get much better than this!

The Joy of Serendipity

/ Eleanor Jane / Leave a comment

On Monday I was hurrying along the street towards the railway station when I came upon an Oxfam bookshop. I didn’t really have time to stop but I could see a very attractive classics section just inside the door and decided I could spare a couple of minutes to browse that at least.

There were some good books there but nothing I wanted to buy and I was just turning away when my eye fell on the poetry section – specifically a book of medieval Latin lyrics.

In a few weeks I will be going to the Cheltenham Literary Festival and I am especially excited about a talk on how to read a Latin poem. This focuses specifically on two poems – one (part of Ovid’s Amores) I have already and the other the Confession of the Archpoet which I have been struggling a bit to find. The problem is that I want an edition with both the Latin and the English translation – although I have done some Latin I am not yet good enough to read a whole poem easily but I didn’t want to just have the translation which would kind of defeat the point!

Anyway, there I was in the bookshop with the Latin lyrics in my hand and thinking that the Confession is a medieval poem – and a pretty famous one at that. Surely it might well be in this very book? A quick flick through located it and even better it was there in both Latin and English. I snatched it up. Thankfully I also managed to catch my train home.

It just goes to show – it is always a good idea to visit any bookshop you may come across!

Visiting Agatha Christie

/ Eleanor Jane / 2 Comments

I am just back from a week’s holiday in Dartmouth. I had a lovely, restful time and got to do a lot of reading.

No trip to Dartmouth would be complete without a visit to Agatha Christie’s house Greenway.  She described it as, ‘The loveliest place in the world,’ and it really is beautiful.  You can see that the views when she lived there must have been amazing, although the trees have grown up a  bit now and obscure the view somewhat.

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Some of the nicest things about the house are the bookshelves.  A great many National Trust houses have libraries which are filled with books bought by the yard – all matching and never read.  The books here were completely mismatched and looked very well read which made me so happy.  There were naturally many different editions of Agatha Christie’s own books and I fell in love with this little bookcase on the landing.  I want one!

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Perhaps my favourite thing though was the drawer of imaginatively addressed envelopes which found their way to the house.

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Of these, I was especially fond of this one which is just wonderful.

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Of course, we had to walk down to the boathouse which features so prominently in Dead Man’s Folly.  We had been listening to the audio book on the way down to Dartmouth and I finished it after our visit.  I have read it before but it was fascinating to read it again and be able to picture the scene exactly.

Once in the boathouse we spent a long time watching the river from the balcony.  It is such a peaceful spot and it is a lovely place to sit.  There is a fireplace inside so I should think it would be wonderfully cosy in winter too.  Whilst there I also got to sit in Agatha Christie’s own chair – it was made especially for her and she used to sit in it to look over her manuscripts.  One couldn’t read anything but Dead Man’s Folly there and there was a handy copy lying on the chair with a useful label pointing me to the relevant pages.

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We left by ferry and so walked down to the quay through the woods – the shortcut which so infuriated Sir George Stubbs.  It was a lovely day and I’m sure I will be back again in the future.

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Welcome

/ Eleanor Jane / 1 Comment

I have been a bookworm for as long as I can remember.

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I am the sort of person who will actually read the cereal packet if there is nothing else to read and it is very rare for me to leave the house without a book in my bag. Even if I know I won’t get a chance to read, I hate the idea of being caught without a book.

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I can’t remember the first book I read by myself but I do vividly remember my first Famous Five book. We went camping when I was seven and my parents gave me an omnibus edition of the first three books. I guzzled it down and finished it within a day. I haven’t really looked back since.

In fact, a lot of my fondest memories involve books. When I was thirteen we studied Great Expectations at school but, as often happened in our English class, we only really read a few chapters. I borrowed a copy from the school library and finished it over the summer, mostly sat on a raft with my feet in the stream. That book happened to be the Everyman edition and now whenever I see one of their books I am transported straight back to that summer.

Books have always been a very important part of my life and I love to share them. Welcome to my bookish corner of the world.

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