feather_ghyll

I managed only four and a half rereads during the month of February, and I still haven’t completed the fractional! I intended to read more, but there you go. I needed something to drive me to reach for the ‘to reread’ pile, and this ventured did that. I reread and reconsidered a couple of books.

I also treated myself by rereading ‘The Blue Castle’ by L.M. Montgomery, which I love, although that didn’t blind me to some weaknesses. ( Read more... )

So, I don’t think Rereading February was a worthless exercise, and if I don’t reread more books, I’ll probably set aside another month like that in future. It was weird, though, to continue buying new books – as if I’d walk past a charity shop or second-hand bookshop and not browse! – whilst having to admit to myself that I wouldn’t be reading the book I’d purchased forthwith. It’s rare that I do, but normally there’s the possibility I might, so there was that change in perspective.

Last week, I was asking myself 'What is wrong with me?' ( Read more... )

Gratis, a lesson you'd think I would have learned: when buying a second-hand book, it is worth checking the last page, not to scan the content - I'm no advocate of that! - but to make sure that it's there. The last page of a story has to be the most irritating missing page. This lesson did not come about as a result of the book I'm about to review.

The Girls of Chequertrees: Marion St John Webb Harrap October 1925

This is a reread because I accidentally purchased a second copy of this book, having forgotten I already owned one, and I’d forgotten the story too. ( Read more... )

The reason why I didn’t watch the tennis yesterday was that I went shopping and successfully bought mumble books (all hardback girls own apart from one paperback D.E. Stevenson) for mumble mumble pounds. Actually, it worked out as being about £4.40 per book and not one of them cost more than you’d pay for a first hand paperback. It’s just the volume that makes me want to mumble. I’ll be posting many reviews about this haul, I hope.

While I wasn’t watching tennis, plenty happened on the women’s side, with seeds falling everywhere. Williams (Serena) and Li Na are the biggest surprises, but many others have gone. I suppose it's the cumulation that's the surprise, although it's telling that so many women have won the French recently. That is, nobody has come close to Nadal's domination.

I came home today to ( Read more... )

Last week, I visited – I was going to type ‘bookshops’, but one of them was a charitably run book recycling project. ( Read more... )

I’ve never been one for making resolutions. But, over the past few years, I have made two low key ones, which I haven't been particularly great at keeping. Here are the 2013 versions.

1. I will take my list of the Chalet School books I have yet to own with me whenever I go shopping, because last week I saw a copy of Shocks for the Chalet School, but didn’t remember that I didn’t have it. I couldn’t justify the time or expense to go back to that shop in that city some other time. Sticking to this should help me with my real resolution, which is to get the full set of CS books (and, one day, without breaking the bank, the unabridged set).

2. I will go to the theatre more often to see plays, musicals and/or dance shows. The sum total for last year was dismal, and every time I went, I enjoyed myself and thought ‘I must do this again’. Granted, that was because I went to see things I really, really wanted to see, but I could look at what’s coming up locally a little more assiduously.

This post is looking forward, the next will look back and be an overview of what I read over the Christmas holidays.

Today, I ventured forth to a town I've never visited before and bought 14 books. In preparation, I'd searched for the second-hand book shops, jotted down the street names - but if I'd been really prepared, I'd have printed off a map. Thanks to some helpfully placed town maps, I found all of second-hand book shops and quite a few charity shops. Most of those books are girls own, so I hope there'll be reviews coming down the line - two Mabel Esther Allans, two Nancy Brearys, two Monica Marsdens, a Susan I hadn't got before and a Gwendoline Courtney, among others.

One of the shops was overwhelming - two rows of books on shelves and then piles and piles lying in front of them up to my knees. It made all the other cramped and overstocked shops I've been to over the years seem amateurish. There was a half-price sale there, and no wonder. It's quite likely that there were books that I'd have bought if I'd been able to find them there.

In another shop, I was asked if I was a collector. I answered hesitantly, because I am, up to a point. I'm a reader, first, though. I want the full version or the most authorially revised version of a story in the best condition possible, if I can.

I’ve just come back from a holiday in a city in northern England. I was asked what I’d do: ‘Visit the historical sites, drink copious amounts of coffee and some shopping,’ I answered vaguely. Then I went and researched where the second-hand bookshops were rather than anything else.

I was mildly hysterical after walking into a shop that had first editions of Elinor M. Brent-Dyer and Dorita Fairlie Bruces for £50, £195 and £300. At least, I was hysterical after I closed my jaw again. Later, I saw an Elsie J. Oxenham for a mere £40. As someone who has kittens while considering spending more than £10 on a book - and you should see the mental gymnastics involved when I decided to justify spending that much - WELL. In the first shop, jostled among these highly-priced mintish-condition rarities was a girls own book going for six pounds. I already owned it.

Anyway, I managed to get several books, all for less than £6, elsewhere, some of which are girls own or Vintage Children as Oxfam would have it. I spent less than £40 all told on them! And I did visit historical sites taking coffee breaks and really enjoyed myself.

My next post will be a full review of a book, but over the past week or so I have spent a lot of money on books (really, a lot. I justified it with birthday money, discounts and REALLY, REALLY wanting the books). They will be read and reviewed in due course.

I've also read Mercy by Caroline B. Cooney is worth reading. For some reason, I wasn't expecting much of the author - I don't think I've read anything by her, but associated her with garish covers... The story of perhaps the most pragmatic girl in her settlement, brings out much of the complexity inherent in a situation in the turn of the eighteenth century in which Indians (gradually differentiated into Mohawks and other tribes), currently allied with the French, attack a whole Puritan English settlement and kidnap most of the residents they don't kill, who are mainly children. Over a long, cold and dangerous winter trek to Canada and new lives, some assimilate, some resist, awaiting ransom. Both writing and story-telling were of a high standard.

The Key to Rose Cottage by Margaret Baker features impetuous Margery, madcap Robin and their cousin Nicola. A series of coincidences mean that they have to keep house without any adults if they mean to have their holiday. I will say that the characters were lively.

Doris of Sunshine Ranch by Helen Dickson was obviously a sequel, but I had forgotten that I owned and had read the earlier book - I only discovered after checking an old list of books I own. One day I hope to have all said books in one place and be able to make an up to date list, or certainly all my Girls Own books. Doris and her family live on a Canadian ranch during the second world war. She's the eldest girl of the house and has to take on a lot of responsibilities when her mother goes away to meet her first grandson. The book is an odd mix of sentimentality (though it does manage not to pair everyone off as the opening chapters seem to suggest will happen), the kind of events you come across in a family on holiday story and exposition about the area. Its sentimentality mainly revolves around Doris being soft on all the young ones, except for brother Pat, whom she kicks on the shins a lot to shut him up when he is tactless, without ever explaining that to him. ( Read more... )