Bibliophilia

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No Electricity, But Much Excitement

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We went to the hospital today for a long-awaited appointment. I have been undergoing epilepsy tests but they came out negative. No abnormal electrical currents or any abnormal brain structures - I'm relieved that I'm not dying of a brain tumour and I'm frustrated that I could not get a clear, concise answer to wtf is going on with me today. We're off to see my GP to find out what is next. Exciting times.

So, a compensation I was allowed to buy three skeins of very, fabulous, very expensive yarn. I am not sure if it is entirely healthy (for my bank account or my partner's sanity) to both suffer from bibliophilia and, er, yarn-philia?

Speaking of bibliophilia, one of my major interests is artists' books: the idea that the book is more than just a transparent medium but actually plays a major part in our understanding of texts (and thus the world) is very, very appealing to me. This year's Glasgow's International Art Festival caters to this interest of mine with the Glasgow International Artists Bookfair. It'll feature all sorts of books about books as well as actual artists' books and workshops on bookbinding etc. I'm so there. No surprise that I will also be found here looking very excited at this exhibition.

Glasgow is good to me.

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The Evening Before the Day

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Having just finished Scarlett Thomas' "PopCo", I find myself longing for non-contemporary novels. I have been reading many books recently but all have all been written within the last thirty years. I long for a different sort of prose, a different perspective. And so I have been looking at my book shelves, thought about the books I have had to abandoned earlier in my life, and then I finally uncovered James Joyce's "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man". The choice was between "Portrait", "Ulysses" and Sterne's "Tristram Shandy". Clearly I'm going for the easy option because, well, I'm like that.

But I have a credit card and access to amazon.co.uk. I also have ideas (some borrowed from Harold Bloom, others from Clifton Fadiman and finally a few picked up along the way) about what to buy. But I want to ask you for a recommendation.

    The criteria:

    written in English

    written pre-1940

    fiction

    novel-length

    nothing I will have read before (which excludes all of Austen, actually)

Feel free to add as many slightly left-field recommendations as you'd like and, if you want, your reason for recommending the novel.

In other news, I foolishly thought I would take tea with some good friends today (it is my birthday tomorrow). This led to a collapse in public and a subsequent three-hour nap. Sometimes I forget how little energy I actually do have and that I cannot just dismiss the lack of energy. Unfortunately every little action has a consequence.

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Book Widgets

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I have been playing around with widgets today trying to find the perfect a suitable library-type widget for displaying current and past reads. I found the Now Reading widget and it seemed great. It was simple, didn't require me to sign up to a website (Shelfari, anyone?) nor did it provide me with intrusive graphics (Shelfari, again). Unfortunately I've discovered that Now Reading is so simple that it is difficult to manage.

So far I have added my novels by authors A to B. That's a measly 50-something novels*, for your information. Now Reading requires me to first add books, then click on a different tab, then decide whether it is "on hold", "currently reading" or "finished" then I can go back to initial page where the book has already been sorted according to its status - and I start the process again. It is clumsy and not entirely intuitive. I'm not too sure about the status updates either as I have a tendency to dip in and out of books (what do you mean that I'm the only one to use most of my books as reference?!). Finally, I wanted a straightforward "to be read" option which I cannot seem to find.

Any book/library widgets you can recommend?

* yes, I still mourn the passing of my old book collection. I had to part with 7/8ths of my collection when I moved from Denmark to Scotland. The loss pains me daily and I keep finding glaring omissions in my collection. Plus I am sure I have a particular book but then I realise that I used to have it. It's no fun at all.