We go together, because opposites attract

[venta]

If I were a modern, up-to-the-minute type I might say that I spent Sunday de-junking my life. However, I'm not, so I'll say I was having a bit of a clear-out. As usual, the six bags of stuff to go charity shopwards do not correspond to six bags worth of space in my room.

While attempting to weed things from my bookshelves, I was amused by the incongruities in my collection.

My books aren't alphabetised, or subjectised, or anything. Although my CDs are regimented by alphabet, I've never had much trouble remembering where in the unordered shelves a book is. CDs are uniform; books are delightfully varigated in their shape and size.

So, my books are mostly ordered by height, for convenience of fitting onto shelves. They're also slightly ordered by time of acquisition (or, more accurately, by availablility of space at time of acquisition). Series are, in general, littered across shelves in several rooms (except for my Lindsey Davies books which, having been loaned en masse to someone last summer, are slightly surprised to find themselves all in one place.

As a result of this non-order I do have books which you can almost see attempting to distance themselves from the tomes on either side. "Nothing to do with me", says a volume of parallel texts of different translations of the Apocrypha, edging away from a first year maths text book titled Sets, Functions and Logic.

My favourite, though, is the jaunty The Phantom Tollboth snuggling up to Thomas Paine's Rights of Man.

Of course, an alphabetic approach wouldn't necessarily prevent unlikely books sharing shelf space. What's your most incongruous bookshelf pairing ?

Comments

[shui-long.livejournal.com]

My bookshelves are more-or-less organised - in theory, so I can find things, but the heaps of books on the floor rather undermine that. I'm rather glad you asked about exciting inconguities, as ferreting through the heaps I found two books which I had forgotten I owned.

A purge is seriously overdue - either that or find more walls on which to put bookshelves, and I'm running out of walls. There's a couple of feet of out-of-date computer manuals which can go, for a start. And I'll have to decide which fiction books I'm really not going to read again. The crime collection stays fairly static, as most of the new books seem to go straight to the Oxfam pile, some without even getting finished. (Lindsey Davies and PD James are the exception there, though I'm not sure that the latest book from either would be a keeper if I didn't already have a collection.) Some of the SFF can go, particularly where I've bought each book in a series but I don't feel they are keeping up the initial promise. Do I really want most of Diskworld? (probably yes).

I thought of joining Bookmooch, but scanning through their site I couldn't see anything I particularly wanted, and quite a few copies of books I'd be listing to give away myself. So maybe not.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Yes, isn't there a shocking amount of bad 'tec fiction out there ? I've given up experimenting with new authors, and reverted to buying mint-flavour Penguins in second-hand emporia.

[shui-long.livejournal.com]

Yes, I have a cherished collection of green-back Penguins, mainly acquired second-hand - some of them even older than I am. And well-used: I find it's those I go back to re-read over again. Margery Allingham, Edmund Crispin, Carter Dickson, Nicholas Freeling, Michael Gilbert, Michael Innes, Ngaio Marsh, Dorothy Sayers, Josephine Tey... I never really took to Agatha Christie, nor Gladys Mitchell, though.

Of the more recent authors on the permanent shelves, Sarah Caudwell sadly died in 2000 with only four books written; Patricia Finney (PF Chisholm) hasn't published anything for several years; Penguin seems to have abandoned Janet Neel ten years ago, and she hasn't published anything since 2005. I like the Cold War era novels of John Le Carre much more than his recent work; Anthony Price is still alive, but he stopped writing nearly 20 years ago due to illness (and I suppose his books are more 'spy thrillers' than crime, if of an intellectual variety with a very strong historical thread).

[venta.livejournal.com]

Nicholas Freeling and Michael Gilbert, you say... I've not heard of them, but the others from your old-school list are a role-call of the authors I like, so if you rate them I'll investigate!

I've not heard of any of your modern authors, but then I'm not very good at recent crime fiction. All that police-procedure and forensic stuff takes all the fun out of it (and the likes of Patricia Cornwell make me want to bite). I'll make a note of the names though, and keep an eye out.

Give me a nice, cosy murder like grandma used to bake and I'm happy :)

[shui-long.livejournal.com]

Nicholas Freeling wrote two series of books, one starring Van der Valk, a Dutch detective, and the other Henri Castang in France. Arguably as much novels featuring a detective as detective stories.

Michael Gilbert's substantial range of books includes "classical" detective stories, stories using his knowledge of legal practice, spy novels and thrillers. Try Smallbone Deceased, The Body of a Girl or Death of a Favourite Girl for the more traditional detective story, or the collections of short stories featuring Patrick Petrella of the Metropolitan Police.

If you like Edmund Crispin or Michael Innes, then I think you should try Sarah Caudwell. This article explains why.

Patricia Finney (as PF Chisholm) has written three books set in Elizabethan England, which might be described as "historical detective fiction"; I think they're particularly good of that kind.

Janet Neel has written several detective stories which are contemporary but seem to maintain the proper tradition; you might try Death's Bright Angel, Death of a Partner, or Death among the Dons.

Anthony Price's series featuring Dr David Audley, a historian recruited to a somewhat unconventional corner of Counter-Intelligence, might be described as intellectual spy thrillers combining Cold War politics with a strong thread of history, the plot sometimes turning on the uncovering of past events. You're welcome to my spare copy of War Game if you'd be interested in that.

Meanwhile, back to a vain attempt at decluttering my flat...

[venta.livejournal.com]

I'm running out of walls

Actually, I find the time to begin worrying is when you're eyeing the ceiling thoughtfully and beginning to formulate Heath-Robinsonesque ways of utilising all that "wasted space".

[shui-long.livejournal.com]

eyeing the ceiling thoughtfully

It isn't load-bearing (I've checked - not entirely by design...)