A Bluestocking Knits

I’m catching up this week — three posts in one.

Booking Through Thursday this week is brought to you by Deb.

1. What is the most pristine, perfect book in your collection? The one that looks like it’s never been opened (and in fact may never have been)? Whose binding is uncracked, the corners still perfect?  I don’t think I’ve ever bought a book without opening it, and I rarely bring one home without at least perusing it that day, if not reading it fairly soon (although it may take a while for me to get started on it, to be sure).  I take good care of my books, even paperbacks, and so barring some unfortunate accident, they are generally in good condition.
2. Why is that book so perfect? Was it a gift? Is it a coffee table book too beautiful to use? Something you simply have no interest in and haven’t bothered to open?  If a book is beautiful, then it deserves to be read, and I love looking at beautiful books; I also don’t keep books I’ve no interest in.  The one in my collection in most pristine condition at the moment is probably the very newest, The Week-end Book edited by Francis Meynell.  It’s a lovely little volume of chapters designed to fill one’s week-ends in the country, something to stick in a pocket before a long walk, or leave on the nightstand and skim before bed.  There are identifcation guides for flowers and animal tracks and architecture and birdsongs — including musical bars written-out — recipes and poems and games and rounds to sing in the evenings, all written with exceedingly proper British prose and wit.  (I am very amused at the publisher’s note on Amazon, "with various editions and altercations," though I suppose this was not on purpose.)  I’ve in fact gotten lost for the past ten minutes in the article on penmanship — "PPS.  W.R. Lethaby once wrote: ‘A common interest in the improvement of ordinary handwriting would be an immense disciplinary force; we might reform the world if we began with our own handwriting but we certainly shall not unless we begin somewhere’"!

The questions for the week of July 6 were suggested by Christine.

1. Do you read non-fiction books for pleasure, not counting books required for courses or for work?  Absolutely.  I used to read a lot more fiction, but for some reason, in the last five years or so if not more, I’ve gravitated more towards non-fiction.
2. If so, what areas of non-fiction interest you the most? If not, why not?  History (social history, more often than not) and biography, literary criticism.  I’m currently reading a paperback copy of John Guy’s Queen of Scots, which I found in a box of stuff that my aunt was giving away.  The last biography of Mary that I read was Antonia Fraser’s, some years ago, and although I tend to lean towards Elizabeth I’s side of the story (if I have to choose sides atal), I still find myself fascinated by the goings-on in 16th-century Britain.  (The copy that I read was a library book that had been extensively annotated — in pen — by a rabid supporter of Mary, who made such vicious and copious notes in the margins that it quite colored my reading of the book and stands very clearly in my memory of it.  Funny, how such things can affect the reading of a book.  I felt quite defensive of Elizabeth.)

The questions for the week of June 29 were suggested by Marie.

1. Do you ever reread your books?  Oh, yes — some more than others, of course.  But one of my criteria for buying a book is whether or not I intend/hope to read it more than once — otherwise, it’s a library read.  I found Anne Fadiman’s Rereadings to be a fascinating look at this very topic, the rereading of long-ago favorites.
2. If so, which ones? If not, why not?  Novelists that I love — D.E. Stevenson, Tolkien, Jane Austen, Eva Ibbotson — nonfiction and biographies that inspire me (through the subject or the author’s writing).
3. Do you read the books the whole way through or pick through for favorite scenes?  I don’t often go straight to favorite scenes unless it’s just to verify a quote or passage, in which case I don’t consider that really rereading.
4. What qualifies a book for the reread pile?  Something that captures my imagination, whether through brilliant writing, locales I love, "kindred spirit" characters, it could be any number of things!