What are you reading now?

[vinteuil]

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I do have other Huxley paperbacks / ... / It'll be under H in the left hand bookshelf in the 'library' (front room)

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No, my sort-of system was to move rightwards along the top shelf of the shelves on the right-hand wall in my workroom, the previous volume being the Thos More/Walpole. Next along was John Evelyn.

... can we infer from this that the left-hand (library) bookshelf is classified alphabetically, and the right-hand (work room) chronologically?

For the last thirty years I have filed my eng: lit: books chronologically (by birth date of writer) - but I confess I have taken the lazier option in the other room of alphabetical order for foreign lit...

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[french frank]

... can we infer from this that the left-hand (library) bookshelf is classified alphabetically, and the right-hand (work room) chronologically?

More or less, yes. Though they are also in different rooms.

Downstairs, pretentiously named the 'library', a left-hand book case has (mainly) fiction classified alphabetically but is restricted to works in English, or occasionally English translation. It also has works about music. The right-hand book case is more mixed. Literature is classified by language, and genre where necessary (I don't have any Welsh drama and very little prose). There is then an assortment of history, English poetry, criticism. Russian novels in translation (which are few) are abusively in the right-hand book case due to contraints on space.

Upstairs it's a mix of chronology, size, reference, likelihood of ever being considered readable, Old French texts & critical works &c.

This system does at least lead me to the approximate shelf I'm looking for. If nowhere there, it's in the roof space or has, very unusually, been given to Amnesty. Things I read or part-read that I don't like - usually some modern novel I feel I "should" read - are/were immediately consigned to Amnesty. I never wonder what happened to them.

For the last thirty years I have filed my eng: lit: books chronologically (by birth date of writer) - but I confess I have taken the lazier option in the other room of alphabetical order for foreign lit...

Yes, my memory for dates forced me to abandon that system.

[vinteuil]

Yes, my memory for dates forced me to abandon that system.

... ah, it was precisely because I am hopeless at dates that I adopted the chronological system. It is in itself educational and good for the memory


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[Serial_Apologist]

... ah, it was precisely because I am hopeless at dates that I adopted the chronological system. It is in itself educational and good for the memory


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I have to admit to shelving my books partly for appearance's sake: largest at the ends, smallest in the middle. Then they are categorised along such lines as Political, Philosophical/Religious/Spiritual, Travel/Local History, Geography/Meteorology, Architecture/Painting/Sculpture, Horticulture/Environmental, Classical Music (at one end) Jazz (the other). There are two shelves of paperbacks - one of which consisting almost solely of ghost stories/horror, and three of hardback novels and plays. Dictionaries are in a separate subsection with practical subjects such as DIY and house plant care. I have a large quantity of literature on jazz stored in a filing cabinet located, not in the living room area but here in what I conceitedly term the study, and a large drawerful of O/S and historical maps, folders full of newspaper articles to keep, and NT/British Heritage and other visiting pamphlets and leaflets. Don't bother with all the faff of visiting e.g. Corfe Castle, Hidcote or Ely Cathedral, just contact me!

We've discussed how we catalogue or shelve our recorded music on the forum, but not, I think, our "literature", though I could be wrong.

[french frank]

We've discussed how we catalogue or shelve our recorded music on the forum, but not, I think, our "literature", though I could be wrong.

Anyone see that article pointing out how often people set up their Zoom computers to show a backdrop of their book shelves? I fancy setting up mine in the kitchen showing the cooker with batterie de cuisine above it.

Have now settled on Benjamin Constant, Adolphe, a short-head winner over Manon Lescaut.

[vinteuil]

Have now settled on Benjamin Constant, Adolphe, a short-head winner over Manon Lescaut.

... and short, too! Some eighty pages, I guess

I went thro' a period of revelling in those French celebrations of indecisive heroes who can never quite bring things to a head.

I loved Adolphe and the other Constant autobiographical stuff - and, from a slightly later period, Eugène Fromentin's Dominique


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[french frank]

... and short, too! Some eighty pages, I guess
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I was eyeing it for a while because the Classiques Garnier edition looks quite hefty. Some 120pp of introductory material, 130pp in all of text and just over 150pp of Appendices, Notes, documentary material.

Yes, I have Dominique too.

[vinteuil]

Anyone see that article pointing out how often people set up their Zoom computers to show a backdrop of their book shelves? I fancy setting up mine in the kitchen showing the cooker with batterie de cuisine above it.

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... if you have your batterie de cuisine positioned above the cooker, don't the pots and implements all get covered with greasiness from the cooking?

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[french frank]

... if you have your batterie de cuisine positioned above the cooker, don't the pots and implements all get covered with greasiness from the cooking?

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Yes. But they get cleaned every time they're used and it's mainly only three items that are used regularly and which I like to keep to hand, plus odd things like ladle, slotted spoon, strainer, sieve. The heavy cast iron stuff and other lighter pans do live in a cupboard beside the cooker.

[Ein Heldenleben]

For those interested in contemporary fiction Light Perpetual by Francis Spufford is one of the best new novels I’ve read in a very long time . Quite incredibly moving....If you live / have lived in South East London it’s an absolute must read.

[vinteuil]

For those interested in contemporary fiction Light Perpetual by Francis Spufford is one of the best new novels I’ve read in a very long time . Quite incredibly moving....If you live / have lived in South East London it’s an absolute must read.

... ain't it all a bit christian / cs lewisy tho' ??

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[Ein Heldenleben]

... ain't it all a bit christian / cs lewisy tho' ??

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I didn’t think so - except the final few pages. Also I don’t have a problem with Christianity ..good to see the no 54 bus route get a name check though . One of the great Sarf Lunnon bus routes right up there with the 75, 94 , 108b and 53 . It’s very good on life in that part of London over the last 70 years..never thought I’d get Misty eyed over Millwall...

[Ein Heldenleben]

Old hat! Giles & Esther Coren's photo in their Sat Times Mag lockdown diary has her sitting on the worktop looking very dinky and apparently setting fire to her bum. Giles looks at the camera rather amused. So, done before!

I have one shot favouring my music book collection and another favouring my Bluthner grand...

[french frank]

Misty eyed over Millwall...

Do you have a publisher yet, Helders?

[Ein Heldenleben]

Do you have a publisher yet, Helders?

Would make a good song wouldn’t it ? Better than the Millwall song quoted in the book (to the tune of Rod Stewart’s Sailing )
No One Likes us
No One likes us
We Don’t Care
In fact my local teams song was “ when the red red Robin etc....” if that means anything to you !
Not a song you would sing within one mile of the Den though..