feather_ghyll

I read a couple fewer books than last year (47, I think.) As usual, the vast majority were by women and new to me. Most of the children’s books I read were of a higher standard than last year, probably because I’d bought them online (mainly in 2021-22) with greater intentionality than when I physically went into charity shops or second-hand bookshops.

I only read one book by any of the big four, ( Read more... )

It's about time I posted this, as I’m now in the process of taking down the Christmas decorations.

( Read more... )

Last May, I posted a list of links with the title 'LINKS: VARIOUS', saying ‘Here are some links I have meant to post for a good long while’. This is the case again, only the links are different:

Here’s an enthusiastic review of Daddy Long-Legs (I must find a copy of Dear Enemy!)

And in the same series of ‘Squee’ features, one for The Blue Castle (the comments praise A Tangled Web, which is one of the few LMM books I don’t own…yet).

Here's an overview of the Dimsie series and its appeal which led me to something similar about the Abbey girls series.

The confessions of a sci-fi and fantasy bookseller (some of this is specific to SFF, but some points would be echoed by other booksellers, I think.)

Nelson’s Budget for Girls

I very rarely buy annuals or collections of stories like this as I generally dislike short stories, so the balance of stories I like to the ones I don’t makes me wish I hadn't bothered to purchase a book that takes up more space than a more satisfactory long story would. This book is massive. Put this purchase down to a moment of weakness.

In fairness, ( Read more... )

The Abbey Girls on Trial: Elsie J. Oxenham Collins (between 1949 and 1951)

I found myself reading the first few chapters of this book with more interest than I’d expected, given the last few Abbey Girls books that I’ve read, ( Read more... )

A bit late, but I thought I’d mention a couple of books I read over the Christmas holidays. ( A Cornish Stranger by Liz Fenwick and The Abbey Girls Win Through by Elsie J. Oxenham )

A Dancer from the Abbey: Elsie J. Oxenham Collins 1953

The Abbey Girls books ( Read more... )

I did say that my posting would be sporadic in this journal! I'll start off by linking to a rather wonderful post, to read perchance to dream, which urges us to marvel at books

This weekend, I'm hoping to go on a day trip to Hay on Wye, which is a fabulous village on the Welsh side of the border between England and Wales that mainly sells second-hand books. I am trying to set myself a realistic budget - I had a peek at some of the prices for books I might like to buy and had to revise my early plans: same budget, less books. I discovered that I could blow my whole budget (for bookshopping and sustenance) on a single copy of a first edition of an Abbey Girls book that I don't have. Then I'd have to train myself not to eat or drink in its vicinity. Or breathe. And I should possibly buy special gloves, which seems a little extreme. It's the portability, the clutchability and grab up and pick down-ability of a book, so that I can get to the story that matters to me, and so coming up against the second-hand market proper is always a shock. It was interesting to see the going rate for some of the books that I have (with added occasional coffee stain to decrease the value).

When I've told people that I'm going to Hay, a lot have asked if it's for the festival, but for me, that appeals far less than simply walking around from shop to shop and letting myself enjoy the serendipity of the experience that second-hand bookshops provide. (Charity shops provide it too, only cheaper.) While I certainly appreciate the way that online stores allow you to find very specific requirements (great for reading an older series in order, for example), the experience of walking into a shop and finding something unexpected on its shelves, attracted by the title or the cover, intrigued by the blurb or tempted by the price, is something else altogether. Going to Hay, where I'm unlikely to get a bargain in the mercenary sense, though I might get a great story in a tatty, cheap, copy, is more rarefied and intense than going anywhere else; it's a chocolate factory, not a chocolate shop, as it were. I've only been there once, and remember it as a jaw-dropping, fun, but frustrating experience on a pocket money budget, and it may be, oh another 12 years or so before I go again, but I'm really looking forward, and hoping to get some books that I'll end up reviewing here.