We are now entering territory where my fiction alphabet-by-author order breaks down temporarily to accommodate a few stacks of mass market paperbacks and assorted small books. Things are going to get even funkier once we start running into my non-fiction, but I am trying not to think of that yet. There is perhaps a jumble analogy to be made since my reading for February and March has turned into a jumble of unfinished books. I have about five different titles that are close to being finished and 3 or 4 that I do not intend to finish. Such a disappointment after my rockstar January. I need to get things moving again. It’s also been too darn long since I posted anything here. Things have been hectic to say the least.
Without further delay, I give you Shelf 24.
SHELF TWENTY-FOUR: 46 books, 21 unread, 25 read, 54% complete
Shute, Nevil – Mazaran
Shute, Nevil – Stephen Morris (completed)
Shute, Nevil – Beyond the Black Stump (completed)
Shute, Nevil – A Town Like Alice (completed)
Shute, Nevil – The Chequer Board (completed)
Shute, Nevil – Pastoral (completed)
Shute, Nevil – In the Wet (completed)
Shute, Nevil – Ordeal (completed)
Shute, Nevil – The Breaking Wave (completed)
Shute, Nevil – The Far Country (completed)
Shute, Nevil – An Old Captivity (completed)
Shute, Nevil – Round the Bend (completed)
Shute, Nevil – The Legacy
Shute, Nevil – Lonely Road
As promised in the last installment, here are a bunch more Nevil Shutes. I think In the Wet is one of my favorites. A flash forward look at the Queen and her consort being flown around the commonwealth to avoid anti-monarchy unrest in 1980s England. The story focuses on the Australian pilot who flies them. So many fascinating things in this book. I also really like Ordeal (or What Happened to the Corbetts in the UK) which follows a young family as they try to avoid contagion in a pre-war look at WWII England. The only one I have come close to not enjoying is An Old Captivity.
Sinclair, May – Life and Death of Harriett Frean
Sinclair, May – The Three Sisters
Sinclair, May – Mary Olivier: A Life
Trollope, Anthony – Lady Anna
Trollope, Anthony – The Vicar of Bullhampton (completed)
Trollope, Anthony – Sir Henry Hotspur of Humblethwaite
Trollope, Anthony – The Belton Estate
Trollope, Anthony – An Autobiography
I love finding these Oxford World Library editions of Trollope. I’d love to own all of them but don’t want to look into how many there are for fear of doing just that.
Blackmore, R.D. – Lorna Doone
Brown, George Douglas – The House with the Green Shutters
Disraeli, Benjamin – Sybil
Benson, S. Vere – The Observer’s Book of Birds
I bought this bird guide from 1972 because it is little and because it has lovely illustrations in it.
MacInnes, Helen – While Still We Live
Trollope, Anthony – Can You Forgive Her? (completed)
I’m not going to pull out the front stack of books because that would be too much work to list everything in back, but this one is peeking through so I include it here.
Garbutt, P. E. – How the Underground Works
I love anything to do with the London Underground and couldn’t pass up this little guy from 1963.
White, E.B. – This is New York (completed)
Gide, Andre – Lafadio’s Adventure (completed)
Gide, Andre – Strait is the Gait (completed)
Gide, Andre – If It Die
Gide, Andre – The Immoralist (completed)
I read all of these long before I bought these copies. I couldn’t resist the vintage Vintage paperbacks.
Camus, Albert – The Stranger (completed)
Forster, E.M. – Howards End (completed)
Forster, E.M. – The Longest Journey (completed)
Forster, E.M. – A Room with a View (completed)
I’ve read and seen Howards End and A Room with a View countless times. I think I’ve read The Longest Journey twice and haven’t really thought too much of it. I might need to give it another go.
Stendhal – The Charterhouse of Parma
Stevenson, D.E. – The Blue Sapphire (completed)
Stevenson, D.E. – The Musgraves (completed)
Household, Geoffrey – Red Anger (completed)
Not as good as Rogue Male, but good, vintage, spy fiction.
Warner, Rex – The Professor
Bainbridge, Beryl – Injury Time
Plomer, William – At Home
Orwell, George – Coming Up for Air (completed)
Orwell writes really good novels and I really enjoyed this one.
Next time: random non-fiction about authors/books
hogglestock 
I have one of those teeny tiny copies of Sir Harry Hotspur, but without the dust cover. I think I got it for $1 from the donation bin at the library. It’s really cute but so tiny I didn’t actually read it, I think I read the entire thing online.
I also owned that exact same edition of Howards End, bought and read my first semester of college for Modern British Authors. . . a long time ago. I don’t know if I still own it, and I haven’t read it for years but I remember loving it (though I have read A Room with a View multiple times, it’s one of my favorites.
I think I also own Coming Up For Air, but I’m pretty sure it’s in storage. I do love looking at your bookshelves!
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I like the size of the mini books, they fit well in my hand. Plus it makes me feel old-timey.
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J > Surprised bayou don’t have Shute’s ‘On the Beach’ – I read it when I was about 14 my Mum was introducing me to grown up books, and at that time I read a number of Shutes, including a Town Like Alice.
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On the Beach was in the last installment of shelf by shelf. It was the first Shute I read. I was 17 and cried like a baby for the last 30 pages. I’ve seen the movie twice, but haven’t re-read the book.
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Room with a View is my most favourite film. Ever. I never get tired of watching it – laugh in the same bits, cry in the same bits… It’s perfect.
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Same here. And I saw a remastered version a while back that was glorious.
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One small comment–from a Trollope fan girl–R.D. Blackmore wrote Lorna Doone.
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There are SO MANY Trollopes, that’s why they live on my Kindle!
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