We go together, because opposites attract
Sep. 7th, 2009 11:14 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ventaIf 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 ?
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 ?
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Date: 2009-09-08 11:24 am (UTC)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...