It’s a Bank Holiday today here in the UK – if you have the day off, I hope you’re spending it a fun way. We’re on a day trip to Windsor Castle with friends who got free tickets through her work. Otherwise, there’s no way we would ever have gone: it’s very expensive, plus down with the monarchy and all that.
Thanks so much to Eleanor (here, here and here), Laura (the two images below) and Marcie for posting about their recent library reading!
Marina Sofia has posted a couple of relevant blogs, one a review of an Alberto Manguel book about his home library and the other a series of tempting photos of world libraries.
In the media: I loved this anti-censorship George Bernard Shaw quote posted by Book Riot on Instagram…
…and my heart was warmed by the story of Minnesota governor and current vice-presidential candidate Tim Walz installing a Little Free Library in the state capitol earlier this year. He gets my vote!
One volunteering day, a staff member told the strange-but-true story of an e-mail just received to the general libraries account. A solicitor presiding over an estate clearance let us know about a West Berkshire Libraries book found among their client’s effects, borrowed in early 1969 and never returned. Did we want it back? The consensus was that, as we’ve been doing fine without this book since BEFORE THE MOON LANDING, we will drop the issue.
Not exactly library related, but in other fun book news, I took a couple of online quizzes and got intriguing results:
My suggestion (for Angie Kim’s Happiness Falls) featured in the recent Faber Members’ summer reading recommendation round-up. And here’s that blog post I wrote for Foreword Reviews about the Bookshop Band’s new album and tour.
I’m hosting book club a week on Wednesday. Although it’s felt for a while like it might be doomed, the group has had a stay of execution at least until January. We took a break for the summer and at our July social everyone made enthusiastic noises about joining in with the four autumn and winter reads we voted on – plus we have two prospective new members who we hope will join us for the September meeting. So we’ll see how it goes.
My library use over the last month:
READ
- Private Rites by Julia Armfield
- Parade by Rachel Cusk
SKIMMED
- Nature’s Ghosts: A History – and Future – of the Natural World by Sophie Yeo
CURRENTLY READING
- One Garden against the World: In Search of Hope in a Changing Climate by Kate Bradbury
- Clear by Carys Davies (for September book club)
- Moominpappa at Sea by Tove Jansson
- The Garden against Time: In Search of a Common Paradise by Olivia Laing
- The Burial Plot by Elizabeth Macneal
- Late Light: Finding Home in the West Country by Michael Malay
- The Song of the Whole Wide World: On Motherhood, Grief, and Poetry by Tamarin Norwood
- The Echoes by Evie Wyld
CHECKED OUT, TO BE READ
- Wasteland: The Dirty Truth about What We Throw Away, Where It Goes, and Why It Matters by Oliver Franklin-Wallis
- This Is My Sea by Miriam Mulcahy
IN THE RESERVATION QUEUE
- The Glassmaker by Tracy Chevalier
- James by Percival Everett
- Small Rain by Garth Greenwell
- Bothy: In Search of Simple Shelter by Kat Hill
- The Painter’s Daughters by Emily Howes
- Dispersals: On Plants, Borders and Belonging by Jessica J. Lee
- Held by Anne Michaels
- Playground by Richard Powers
- Intermezzo by Sally Rooney
ON HOLD, TO BE PICKED UP
- The Accidental Garden: The Plot Thickens by Richard Mabey
RETURNED UNFINISHED
- The Cove: A Cornish Haunting by Beth Lynch – I enjoyed her previous memoir, and her writing is evocative, but this memoir about her return to the beloved site of childhood holidays lacks narrative drive. If you’re more familiar with the specific places, or can read it on location, you might be tempted to read the whole thing. I read 30 pages.
What have you been reading or reviewing from the library recently?
Share a link to your own post in the comments. Feel free to use the above image. The hashtag is #LoveYourLibrary.
Bookish Beck = Rebecca Foster. American transplant to England. Freelance proofreader and book reviewer.
Bookish Beck 
OK, I have to know: what was the title of the missing-since-1969 book?!
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Oops, I never found out!
I belatedly added in your post. Thank you, as always 🙂
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My local volunteer-run library made me laugh this month. They had just proudly put together a display of a number of books from the Booker longlist and were not happy when I asked if I could, you know, borrow some of them… I managed to get them to allow me one book but couldn’t negotiate two. (I kept quiet about the fact that I had one longlisted title out already.)
I’m just finishing The Glassmaker now and have mixed feelings – review coming soon.
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Ha ha, that sounds more like a bookshop problem, having your window display ransacked. Every week when I go in for volunteering, I add books in to fill gaps in the endcaps or thematic or seasonal displays.
At least one can always count on Chevalier to be highly readable.
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You made the right decision about The Cove – my ‘disappointing read’ of the year so far and I doubt it will be beaten. I was so looking forward to it as well!
The Bothy by Kat Hill is really good. Never wish to stay in one for a variety of reasons but love reading about them. Also enjoyed the Richard Mabey.
Hope you enjoy your day out!
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Starting the Mabey later today.
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We get to go to Windsor Castle for free – one of the (few) perks of living in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead. So we don’t mind taking our guests there – they all want to see it. Hope you have a nice time, and thank you for mentioning my tenuous library links this month.
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That’s a good perk! We found it rather soulless and less interesting than a comparable National Trust house. The doll’s house furniture and Moat Garden (open for charity) were our favourite parts.
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I only have one library book on loan at the moment – Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston 🙂
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I would have borrowed that, too, but I found a copy in a charity shop last year. At 3/£1 paperbacks, it was rude not to!
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Enjoy your Bank Holiday outing! I’m resolutely staying at home. Clear’s an interesting choice for a book group. Lots to discuss, for sure.
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It was very busy in Windsor. By contrast, the roads in our own town were much less busy than usual!
The novella length is a boon. There’s a chance some people may actually have read it.
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Yes, you should read James, if you haven’t already! And good on Walz. I can’t see his opposite numbers having much to do with any library, any time soon.
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I think I’m 3rd in the queue. Perhaps I’ll get a chance to read it before the Booker is announced.
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I had James checked out and wasn’t in the mood to read it, so I returned it today. It has a lengthy waiting list on it still. I will keep it on my TBR list, though.
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Have a fun day!
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Thanks for linking to my post. I’ve been borrowing fewer library books lately (well, fewer for me) because of the Great Deluge in the later spring (that only recently receded) but I wonder how long that will last. What fun-to take quizes about “next books”.
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