books I

We had a clean out and I went through a cupboard full mostly of books and sorted out which ones I wanted to get rid of. I knew that I needed to do this quite ruthlessly, but I also knew that there were at least some books that I would prefer to keep and would even be willing to take books off the shelves in my room to have space for them, if necessary. 

So, I started there first - looking at the books on my shelves and thinking which ones I would be willing to get rid of ||| but it just didn't work. There's no book on my shelves that I don't want. Maybe I have something of the hoarder in me...I searched my collection for books that I would be willing to discard, but the first book I found that I thought maybe that was the case, straight away I thought...no. There's no book that I just happen to have. Every book I have has been chosen because I want that book. I do sometimes get rid of books though for various reasons, and sometimes I lose books when I move house or circumstances change. 

When I went through the cupboard and got rid of a lot of the books in it, I was surprised by how many forgotten treasures I found - books that I thought I had lost and that hold a lot of meaning for me. So I've stacked them in my room...there's a lot more space in here since I cleared out a lot of other stuff. I wanted to write about some of them - not all of them - and something about what makes them special. This is in no particular order.....

Mary Queen of Scots by Antonia Fraser

This is a book I have a lot of positive associations with. I read it when I was studying that period in history, but unlike any other history book, I read the whole book. It's just such a compelling story, and all the more for me because of my Scottish ancestry. 

Holding Yawulyu: White Culture and Black Women's Law by Zohl Dé Ishtar

This is about Australian indigenous culture. The overview on the back of the book says: 

For two years, Zohl Dé Ishtar lived in a one-room tin shed with the women elders of Wirrimanu. As their 'Culture Woman', Zohl assisted the elders in establishing and coordinating the Kapululangu Women's Law and Culture Centre. Holding Yawulyu: White Culture and Black Women's Law tells the story of Zohl's journey as she documents White culture's effects on Indigenous Women's Law. 

The White Earth by Andrew McGahan

This is a beautiful looking book, the author is Australian and it's recognised as being very good literature. That's a qualifier of a few on this list - I know they're good books. They have a reputation. 

Children of Dust: A Memoir of Pakistan by Ali Eteraz

I've always been drawn to this book - to the look of it, to the author and his style and what he has to say, although I've never really known exactly what it's about. I know vaguely that it's about the culture of Pakistan and the culture of America and the writer's engagement with both of those cultures, as he is from Pakistan and he comes to America. And it's about Islam. I heard good things about it in an article, and I bought the book because it looked interesting, and only later realised that the article I read was about the writer of the book I had bought. Like I said, I like the style - there's something very grounded and smart, at the same time, about it...it reads like a cross between a really interesting and intelligent conversation and a well-written novel. 

Cults in Our Midst by Margaret Thaler Singer 

This was the first book I read about cults and it blew my mind. 

On Native Grounds: An Interpretation of Modern American Prose Literature by Alfred Kazin

A study of American literature between 1890 and 1940 (William Dean Howells to William Faulkner) by arguably one of the best of the best literary critics. A nice discovery I made just now is that some of his other books are available quite cheaply in the kindle version on Amazon. 

Of Human Bondage by W Somerset Maugham

Again /// a very attractive hardcover edition of a book that is recognised as being outstanding literature. 

The War of the End of the World by Mario Vargas Llosa

Again || just great literature. 

The Historical Reliability of John's Gospel by Craig L Blomberg

I don't think the title does justice to this book. It sounds a bit dry, but the book is anything but - it's a fascinating study of John's gospel by one of the pre-eminent New Testament scholars and theologians of our era and maybe all time. 

Primo Levi by Ian Thomson

I bought this book, which is a biography, kind of on a whim. I liked the look of it, and it had good reviews printed on the back and inside cover, and I didn't really know much about Primo Levi, but, from what I did know - what I had heard - he seemed like someone about whom it would be interesting to learn. 

The Mill on the Floss and Romola by George Eliot 

I'm a big fan of George Eliot and I think these are the only two of her novels that I didn't have - or didn't realise I had - the physical books. I did start reading The Mill on the Floss at one stage, but I didn't really like it and gave up quite early into it. It's very well regarded though, so I think I will definitely give it another go some time. Romola is an interesting one. The consensus among the critics and scholars (from what I remember) is that it's basically Eliot's most boring and dry novel - it's the hardest one to read, at least (which isn't always a bad thing). But goodreads seems to cast it in quite a positive light, calling it 'One of George Eliot's most ambitious and imaginative novels'. I know why they say that - because, out of all Eliot's novels, it's the one that is most grounded in actual history and historical issues. A lot of the reviews are good too, although some people only gave it 1 or 2 stars....but it's funny - someone who only gave it 2 stars, wrote a very long  and extremely well-written review in which they discussed the critical reception of the book which, as I said, hasn't been very favourable in our times, but when the reviewer was talking about the issues that Eliot explores in the novel, it sounded really interesting to me. The reviewer writes: 

But Eliot was attempting things even larger than political history: it’s the conflict between the “clashing deities” (Chapter 17) of Christianity and paganism that really captures Eliot’s imagination and underlies the conflicts within her main character. Romola’s dilemma in its broadest outline is the dilemma of Renaissance culture.

 That sounds fascinating. 

I'm going to end this post here as it's getting a bit long....so this will be my first ever multi-part blog post because I still have about as many books to go - no, actually more than what I've already written about. Hey - I might just make my blog into a book blog and only write about books from now on, working my way through my entire collection. But, for a start, there will probably be about 3 parts.