Book Shelves - The Lounge



The built-ins in the lounge

 Last Blog I was showing off the smaller book shelves we use for storing / displaying our books. I talked about the family room and the book shelf on the half landing. I mentioned the built-ins that we had constructed for us as well. Above is the full view of them. I have mentioned them previously in a much earlier Blog when I was just starting to post here. Today, though, I'm focusing on the smaller more intimate book shelves where we store our books.

Off to the right of the built-ins, tucked into a corner by one of our comfy chairs is one of those cases. It's a cozy, sunny corner and it contains a mix of books, some I've read and some I haven't. Some of my favourite series are there.

As an aside, the painting you see above the bookcase is by a Victoria painter, Alesha Davies Fowlie. We saw it at a local art festival and fell in love with it.

On the top of the bookcase are a mix of books, from fiction through history to biography -
Howard Engel - The Ransom Game (A Benny Cooperman mystery)
Hakan Nesser - The Return
Terry Jones - The Barbarians
A.C. Baantjer - DeKok and the Death of a Clown
General Rick Hillier - A Soldier First
Val McDermid - A Darker Domain

The bookcase is a very simple one; we either bought it at a yard sale or at auction.It's very simple, doesn't even have a back. But the missus gave it new life with a fresh coat of paint and it tucks perfectly into that corner.
On the bottom shelf, at the far end you can see one of Jo's memories of home in the UK; it's a carrying case with her father's jumper cables in them, kind of a neat item.
As to books, one of my high school favourite series is displayed in the middle; Edgar Rice Burrough's John Carter of Mars series. I had to replace most of the original books over time as they got quite worn with all the travelling I did as a youngster. My Blog on the series was viewed quite heavily when the movie came out this year. Other authors displayed on this shelf include James Patterson - 4th of July and The 5th Horseman, Max Brooks - The Zombie Survival Guide, Simon Winchester - Outposts, Martin Cruz Smith - Stalin's Ghost, Georges Simenon - The Blue Room, Karen Irving - Pluto Rising and two Jeffrey Deaver's - The Cold Moon and The Bodies Left Behind.

The middle shelf features two of my favourite series, one old, one new.. About, it must be five Christmases ago now, Jo got me the Ian Rankin, Rebus series. It involved ordering some on line, searching through bookstores in Victoria, especially one of our favourites, Chronicles of Crime, located on Fort Street. It was such a nice surprise. I've been working my way through the series and enjoying every moment of it. You can see where I am at the moment, The Hanging Garden turned back to front. Jo and I have also over time enjoyed both TV versions of Rebus, although, personally I think Ken Stott makes a better Rebus. To the right of the Rankin books is another James Patterson, Cross and two wartime, erotic books, George Revelli's Commander Amanda Nightingale and Amanda's Castle.To the right of them are my other series. I had read most of Ian Fleming's James Bond books back in junior high school; they were quite exciting for my adolescent mind. I've been slowly collecting them again; have read three or four so far. They're nice to pick up and relive; excellent spy novels. So far I've found Goldfinger, From Russia with Love, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Thunderball, Live and Let Die, Dr No, Octopussy/ The Living Daylights, Casino Royale and The Spy Who Loved Me. Great stories, all written between the mid-50'sto mid-60's. Real classics.

Finally we move to the top shelf, a true mish-mash. They are a mix of hard covers/ paperbacks, science fiction, fantasy, mystery, history, a really nice mix of favourites. Let's see what you can find there -
Tom Robb Smith - Child 44
David Rotenberg (a great mystery series set in China) - The Golden Mountain Murders, The Lake Ching Murders and The Hamlet Murders
William Gibson - Spook Country
Stephen Donaldson - The Man Rides Through and The Mirror of her Dreams
James Patterson - Four Blind Mice
Jeffrey Deaver - The Sleeping Doll
David Benioff - City of Thieves
Cormac McCarthy - The Road
Jim Butcher - Grave Peril and Small Favor, David Brin - Heart of the Comet, Max Boot - War Made New, Simon Winchester - Krakatoa, Jo Nesbo - The Redbreast, Zoe Heller - Notes on a Scandal, Michael Connelly - City of Bones, Robertson Davies - What's Bred in the Bone and Christopher Golden - The Gatekeeper Trilogy.

Anyway, there you have it, another nice little bookcase, packed with joy. I'll leave this Blog with a piece of art, this is the painting by Alesha Davies Fowlie that sits above this peaceful corner.

Keep on reading and supporting your local book stores.