Good Book Hunting

It is very cold outside, and has been all week with snow on and off - and more expected.

So what better way to spend a cold Saturday morning than with a nice cup of tea, the occasional peppermint cream and/or white chocolate and raspberry biscuit, and a big pile of 'loot' bought back from our holidays.

By loot I mean books:



The first step was to put them in to piles:

And then came the infinite pleasure that is browsing. . .

First up:
'The Art of Dining' by Sara Paston Williams
'Italian Cooking' by Nella Whitfield
'100 Cocktails' by 'Bernard'

Nella has a recipe on how to cook 'Chicken as served in Rome' and I make a mental note that I could try making this myself later on.
'Bernard' intrigues me.  Who is he?  Or she?  I see that Bernard knows how to make a Florida Cocktail which might interest Mark Ruffner over at All Things Ruffnerian . . .  There is a Champagne Cobbler (I always wondered what was in those).  No 'Blue Witch' though (I had this at a hotel AGA and I were staying in while holidaying at Wernigerode some years back and really liked it) perhaps it hadn't been invented back in 1958 when this book was written. . . 

Suddenly I remember that I must get the parmesan and rosemary biscuits out of the oven. 

I only bought one 'old' gardening book this time.
'A Book About Roses' by Dean Hole.
Dean Hole was the Rev. Samuel Reynolds Hole, Dean of Rochester.  An avid gardener, he wrote many books.  An expert on roses, he was also incurably romantic and he tends to veer off into flights of fancy when describing flowers.  Sellars and Yeatman in their book 'Garden Rubbish' make fun of both him and Beverley Nichols.
I am pleased to have finally found this book to add to my collection.  Here he is writing about why the rose should be in every garden:

Erika over at Parvum Opus would love this book because the pages were hand cut and some were missed out so that when I cut them myself (using a paper knife) I am the first person to touch the page since it was published back in 1903.

I also picked up some works of fiction:
'The Father Brown Stories' by G. K. Chesterton
'The Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow' by Jerome K. Jerome
'Uncle Fred in Springtime' by P. G. Wodehouse
'Unnatural Death' by Dorothy L. Sayers
'Stories from Froissart' by Henry Newbolt
'With Moore at Corunna' by G. A. Henty

I enjoy reading the Father Brown stories: short, very clever, and with results that are not always guessable.  Wodehouse and Jerome always make me laugh and these two books are missing from the collections I inherited from my father.
Lord Peter Wimsey is a hero of mine.  Dorothy L Sayers was such a skillful writer of crime fiction.  I think that I now have the 'set'.
Henry Newbolt (of 'The Highwayman' fame), later Sir Henry Newbolt, is someone I could read a lot of and never get tired.  I think I shall enjoy his book too.
And as for G A Henty - when I start reading his books it is difficult to put them down: filled with historical facts, plenty of daring-do, lots of scrapes and mishaps but always a happy ending for the hero.  What more could I want?

'Seeing that he was alone, several men armed with clubs and picks came out.
"I am an English officer," he said, "and I desire". . .'

I have to close this book otherwise I shall sit reading it and not finish the work at hand.

Look at this frontispiece for Henry Newbolt's book:

Isn't it wonderful?

AGA likes buying books on interior design.  I do too.  We found a goodly number among which are these:

This one looks very interesting:

It is the sort of book to lay on the settee with, and browse though when one should be doing something else.  The picture in the bottom right shows the beginning of the chapter on wallpaper in America.

Now, these two books are quite a find as far as I am concerned.  They form part of a series called 'The Picture Guides' published by the Medici Society back in the early 1930s.  These two are 'Florence' by Pierre Gauthiez and 'The Country Round Paris' by Edmond Pilon

Poetic in their description, these books are enchanting to read.  I already have two others (including The Land of St. Francis Assisi) and I see that there are still nine more for me to get.

I was very pleased to get these books too:

'The Celtic Border Land' is of course the Welsh Marches where we spent our holidays.  It made a nice souvenir to take away with us - especially considering the fact that after having purchased it, I saw a copy for sale is another shop, but at an higher price.

'The Story of Venice' is part of a series entitled 'Medieval Towns'.  Part history and part tour guide I think that this edition on Venice would get Jane and Lance Hattatt's immediate attention. I intend to take it with me next time AGA and I go to Venice:

'The modern visitor arriving by train is like one who should enter a stately mansion by the stables.  Once however, in his gondola, the 'black Triton' of the lagoons, gliding along the waterways to the strangers' quarter by lines of house and palaces, whose walls timeworn or neglected, sometimes degraded, will be mellowed under the dim light of the infrequent lamps, he will be caught by the spell which Venice casts over those who come to her.'


This book caught my eye:

Written by the brother of the artist, Rex Whistler, it is a book that explores the history and origins of English festivals.  The picture of your right shows Christmas decorations in England prior to the introduction of the Christmas Tree.  That might be something to experiment with next year!

Now the book on your left is on a subject dear to my heart: The Early Georgian Period.  I have already browsed through this and I can tell you that it is a very good read.  On your top right is a series of books on English Cathedrals.  The books, often written by the Cathedral Deans or the Bishops themselves, provide a fairly in-depth history of the buildings as well as explaining the layout, design etc.  Look at the detail on the cover of the volume on Exeter Cathedral.  I really like this sort of thing.  These will join the others that I have in the same series, back in Melbourne:

Last but not least are these two books about Melbourne.  If you care to take the time, Melbourne is an absolutely fascinating city to study.  I love it!  AGAs ancestors were among the first settlers of Melbourne back in the late 1830s so I have a vicarious link to the place.  Whenever I am book hunting I keep an eye out for anything on Melbourne that might interest me.  These two did.  Printed in the 1950s they are pictorial essays on the city.  These are the sorts of books I can imagine my blogging friend Faisal having in his book collection.  One in particular I consider quite a find: Tasmanian born Jack Cato was a Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society, an historian and a world renowned photographer.  His black and white portraits of the city of Melbourne are excellent and to think it was located in the depth of the Welsh countryside.

Sometimes you get into such a book hunting frenzy that when you get home you find you bought something you already have!

I shall send the second one to my nephew, William!  He loves reading and I am hoping to encourage within him a love of old books, just as my father did in us.

Many of the books shown in this post came from the Great Book Hunting Expedition that we undertook here:

Others were tracked down at various locations throughout the Welsh Marches.

So, I don't care that when I look out of the sittingroom window I see this:

I am more than happy to sit comfortably, ensconced in a corner with my books!