Sunday 26 October 2008

Dusty Bookshelves


THE LEAVING DAY is approaching fast and Tui and I are building & dismantling in clouds of sawdust & bookdust respectively. He has made more wonderful shelves and cupboards and the truck is getting more and more nookish by the day. The days here are not at the moment quite what you'd call days.. the darkness of the nighttime gets a little greyer between morning and afternoon and then it's night again! And all the while we are lashed with freezing rain.
Anyhow, from nookish things to bookish things ... I am now sitting amongst stalagmites of books, towering in teetering spires around and about me, and breathing in the floating blankets of dust that have been softly mustering atop the bookedges over time. I think I have selected my most used and treasured and least heavy books for the invitingly lovely bookshelves ready in the wheeled house. Some more good but un-squeezable-inable books will go to my parents' house :) and the last lot ... is for you! Yes.. indeed, I thought that you discerning Hermitage-reading folks would be interested to virtually browse my book shelves and avail yourself of a bargain. There's to be a Hermitage book sale! I have been a book hoarder for a long time, and I have had to be brutal. So there are some great books there .. on such diverting subjects as: tree lore, book arts apprenticeships, elvish, devils, medieval books of hours, runes, nursery rhymes, holy wells, tin whistles, fairground transport, children's book illustrating, fairy tales, anarchism and a plethora of stories...



I have put the books all on one long page, in sections by subject. And the sale can be found by clicking on that there rusty book sign to the below right. As soon as a book is bought, I'll remove the paypal button, but if two people should buy the same book whilst I am sleeping, I'll send it to whoever got it first, and I'll refund the unlucky one! If anyone can suggest a more hi-tech way of dealing with this problem I'd be grateful, but as it is I have spent two days listing everything on here... I'd love to write a little something about each book, but I think I might be going crosseyed with the effort.
Just imagine yourself standing in one of those old rickety-shelved second hand bookshops in cathedral towns where the proprietor is reading a tea-stained newspaper and customers shuffle past each other apologetically peering up and down the bookspines. There'll be a spiral staircase up or down to a chilly room with even more interesting and obscure books in difficult piles and a damp anorak draped over the radiator. To leave, you'll have to cough quietly, step around many boxes of unpacked unshelved books (possibly from the houses of dead people), and you'll emerge into the day having left a substantial number of hours behind, wedged between the yellowed pages of silverfish-nibbled academia.

27 comments:

d. moll, l.ac. said...

I really hope your new rolling home finds a place with less rain and darkness........we are awfully spoiled in that way in California........

Ruthie Redden said...

oh rima these scottish whistly winds, frosty rains are darkening skies , but your delicious new home looks cosy enough to keep it all at bay. we are wishing you well for the start of your new adventure, and now off to browse the shelves of ur wee ol book shop, just cant resist a peep at books *ruthie*

Nao said...

This is such a good idea Rima!

I just went and bought 3 treasures from your collection. I promise you their new home will be a good one. After their long journey across the sea they shall find their way to on a very loved book case, surrounded my very loved books of the same magical family. They will be read on rainy days and sunny afternoons and appreciated for all their charms.

I hope this makes it easier to let them go~

Also, are you still making customs clocks these days, given how busy you are?

Griffin said...

Oh Rima, how brave! I have lots of books and I couldn't bear to get rid of any of them. The pain must be awful!

laoi gaul~williams said...

you are brave~i have a hard time making room for more books~i have lots at my mum's, lots packed away and lots on shelves and i still need to mak room~even more now!!!!
thank you for letting some go anf giving us the opportunity to care for them for you!

laoi gaul~williams said...

i will treasure them :)
xox

Gretel said...

Bugger, I should have visited earlier...probably for the best, I think Andy would go ballistic if I squeezed another book in! Poor Julian Cope is in there I see...

Anonymous said...

We've just had a massive clearout this weekend, taking bags and bags of books to the Amnesty shop! Your collection had a few of our own favourites and the ones I would have liked had already sold! Maybe just as well because we can actually put all the books vertically on shelves now instead of squeezing in the horizonals. I see you had the Ronald Hutton book (a friend of my husband's!) It must have been difficult sorting through these but I'm glad for you that they're going to their welcome new homes.x

tut-tut said...

I wish I could! I really do, but things bookish have taken over here . . .

mariel said...

I am always so torn when it comes to parting with books. On one hand, I feel like I am losing a little part of me, but on the other I am glad that these books can be shared with others..

Vita said...

found a couple of treasures! Thank you Rima! they will be loved and read many times!

Anonymous said...

your book shop is wonderful, and nearly empty!

the scene you set before entering (with a click!)
described many a place i've been, real and imaginary,
when it comes to books...

i hope (please!) that you will leave this shop up, at least for awhile -despite everything selling out, as it is a wonderful reference for books to search out long after that dust settles in your intriguing little bookstore.
blessed be.

Christina Silverio said...

Ooooo, you've found another of my weaknesses! Nothing draws me in like a collection of old books... *sigh* :)
...Off to browse!

laughingwolf said...

some incredible books, rima... nice to see many already sold :D

BT said...

Oh, I wish I'd called earlier, but have still managed to find some I like and have bought! Please see note about sending them to a UK address Rima.

Many thanks

Gina

Ciara Brehony said...

Oh the days have run away from me, between a bank holiday weekend and no school this week, it has become one long snuggle under a blanket on the couch, and now I'm sorry I didn't read this sooner. Can one ever have too many books? Though we are short on space for them, I can't resist a peek...

Very brave and generous of you dear-heart!

Pamela Terry and Edward said...

Whew, I almost got here too late! But I did manage to grab a bit of a Leprechaun before he got away!

Creations by Marie Antoinette and Edie Marie said...

Hi rima,I just droped by to say hello and invite you to my blog,for my very first contest.Its not much to it really,Just help me name my newest doll vignette.Its an Angel playing a piano.I know you are very busy with all thats going on in your life right now.I hope you sell some of your books.Its hard for me to part with mine,but they do take up alot of room,if you are going to take care of them properly.Hugs Marie Antionette

Danielle Barlow said...

Congratulations on a succesful sale! I'm sorry to have missed it! Many of them I have , but I fancied a copy of 'A Dark Spirit'. Probably couldn't really have justified it anyway!

Gail said...

Wish I'd visited earlier - oh well - guess it was meant that way ... goodluck with the travels and getting your new home ready. Hope you manage to catch up online regularly - I'd miss your blog ;-)

Take care
-GailX

Ester García said...

Wow, lots of books!
Marvelous your last clocks, Rima.... I love them, specially the one about Tarot! Do you sell these magical pieces of art? They have no price...

Hughs!

Curious Art said...

Oh rats... I snost, I lost! (Past tense of snooze & lose.) Actually I wasn't snoozing, but working like a fiend.

Maybe I should consider that I was delivered from temptation by my last round of deadlines...

Unknown said...

Ahhh... a nookish wheeled home....

I'm trying to breeeeathe at the thought of your sale. I can't imagine I can afford having them sent to Europe, but I'll fantasise and peruse.

oh yeah, I've handed you the Kreativ Blogger Award. :)

Karen said...

I just picked up Witch Child by Celia Rees in a charity shop in Penzance to read on my train journey home.I was hooked! Now I see you had the second book Sorceress and I'm too late! :( ( I'll have to go on the charity shop hunt again)

Quilt Architect said...

I have enjoyed reading about your journey. Got to the books that you were to sale and was hoping to have a look at your book shelf but it is gone. Would have love to look at your titles...maybe you could make a list of the books that you decided to take with you and post it on your blog. I always love looking at the book shelf in people's home.

Unknown said...

What a lucky lady to have bought it!


--
Jenifer
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