I’ll be gathering all the Bookshelf Travelling in Insane Times blogposts here for the moment. Judith at Reader in the Wilderness has had too much going on in her life recently to be able to keep up with it, so I’m stepping in to help.
The bookshelf I’m featuring this week is home to some favourite authors. I loved The Forsyte Saga by John Galsworthy, it’s about a large and wealthy London based family, starting from Victorian times and following their lives and family feuds beyond World War 1. These books are available free from Project Gutenberg here.
I think I’ve read all of the books on this shelf apart from Veranilda by George Gissing. This book dates from 1904 and originally belonged to Jack’s Granny and has her name in it. M. Besford. I used to write my name in books but stopped doing that decades ago. I’m now wondering if I should at least write it in pencil, as I really like to see a name and date inside a book. What do you do – inscribe or leave blank and pristine? Have you read Veranilda or anything else by George Gissing.
I remember that I really enjoyed reading The Mulberry Empire by Philip Hensher – before I started blogging, but I’ve never read anything else by him. Have you?
A few of my Rumer Godden books are on this shelf, some are in a bookcase upstairs, possibly they wouldn’t fit on this shelf. Elizabeth Jane Howard and Penelope Lively are favourites too, then of course there’s Mrs Gaskell. I’ve been meaning to visit Elizabeth Gaskell’s house for years. I see that it has opened up again but I might leave it until next year.
If you’re taking part in Bookshelf Travelling this week I’ll add a link to you, if I miss your post please send me a link.
I read Marking Time early in the summer as part of my 20 Books of Summer. I will be continuing the Cazalet Chronicles and would like to read other books by Elizabeth Jane Howard. The books by Rumer Godden look very nice, especially Black Narcissus.
I thought I wanted to read Wives and Daughters by Gaskell until I read Constance’s review at Staircase Wit. But maybe someday I will try something by her.
tracybham,
I read Black Narcissus years ago but bought this one to do a re-read sometime. I also read Wives and Daughters decades ago and remember that I enjoyed it back then, I wonder if I would now, sometimes it’s just the mood that I’m in at the time that determines my reactions to a book – I think.