|  When
I went up into the attic to look for a book yesterday I didn't find the
one I was after (there it was on a shelf downstairs) but, as I opened
boxes and scanned shelves, these seven volumes were saying to me 'Read
me, read me!'. I brought them back down with me.
A friend was saying recently that their house is so full of books she
is going to make her husband take some to the charity shop or the bookshop.
'There are some he hasn't read for 20 years!', she moaned.
Most of these I haven't read for 20 years and there are two I have yet
to read at all but I'm glad that I kept them. I'd like to read - or at
least dip into them - again soon.
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|
Loneliness is Rotting on a Bookrack, Johnny
Hart, 1979 |
The B.C. comic strip from 1972 - 73. |
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The Peasants Are Revolting,
Brant Parker and Johnny Hart, 1979 |
Wizard of Id strips of the
same vintage. |
|
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Field and Forest, Islay
Manley, 1955 |
Yes, I could find a more up-to-date
'introduction to the lives of plants' but this book, illustrated by
the author, has a delightfully relaxed, nostalgic look to it. |
|
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The Reader's Digest Junior Treasury,1960 |
A Christmas present that I received aged 9. I was convinced that,
if I could find all the 'odds and ends', I too would be able to
construct the working telephone and the model motor boat, but the
feature that made a lasting impression on me was Be A Back-Garden
Explorer by American naturalist Edwin Way Teale.
I'm still a Back-Garden Explorer. |
|
|
Autumn Journey, Edwin
Way Teale, 1956 |
The Pulitzer Prize-winning naturalist's
coast to coast journey across the northern states. |
|
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About Looking, John
Berger, 1980 |
Essays from the politically aware art
critic on Turner, Courbet, La Tour, animals, zoos and a field. |
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Difficult Questions, Easy Answers,
Robert Graves, 1972 |
As a student I read everything I could find by Graves.
'Every now and then, since 1931,' he writes in the Foreword, 'I
have published random collections of my shorter prose pieces with
or without verse additions. It is likely enough that this will be
my last.' |
It will take me some time to catch up on that lot but the two slim paperbacks
at top of the pile are going to go with me to Norfolk tomorrow as light
holiday reading. 
Richard Bell, richard@willowisland.co.uk
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