I typed the post title above and it made me feel all sort of Regency/Georgian. I’ve seen it on other peoples’ blogs and I’m not sure if people in the US really still call it a nightstand nor do I know when people in Britain started calling it their bedside table. In my case that’s a misnomer anyway as I actually have a small chest of drawers by my bedside.

At the moment my pile consists of:

Lavinia by Ursula Le Guin
The Early Stories by John Updike
School for Love by Olivia Manning
The King’s General by Daphne du Maurier
The Harsh Voice by Rebecca West
Selected Stories by Anton Chekov
No Wind of Blame by Georgette Heyer
Les Liaisons Dangereuses by Choderlos de Laclos
Blooding Mister Naylor by Chris Boyce
The Oxford Illustrated Literary Guide to Great Britain
AA Illustrated Guide to Britain

At the moment I’m reading and enjoying Miss Smilla’s Feeling for Snow by Peter Hoeg.
Will the next one be taken from my bedside pile?

Mebbe aye or mebbe naw – as they say. It could be taken from the many other piles around the house. We’ve run out of bookcase space and wall space. We’ve got to the stage where our fairly large (7 rooms) Edwardian house is stuffed to the gunwhales, which is what happens when you live in the same house for over 22 years.

Can someone tell me if the “nightstand” name is for real or is it jokey. I’m interested in how language develops or doesn’t over the years.