One easy way to tell you are in the home of writer – books. Everywhere!

 

Having finished with the Belleville/Duval series, it was time to take a breather from writing.

Looking around, I knew there was one urgent thing I had to do: get our books in order. And record those books.

I searched for an app and came across BookBuddy – to which I added a barcode scanner. I have to say the scanner is not much use for my older books but it’s great for newer books that have the ISBN barcode on the back.

So far, I’ve entered 180 books, almost all of which are in my office. I’ve yet to tackle the dining room, my husband’s den and the garage where there are bookshelves that amaze our neighbours. These are my husband’s sport books, especially Track & Field and Football (Tottenham Hotspur). Look closely at the picture with this blog and you’ll see football playing on the TV.

HOW TO TIDY UP BOOKS … SLOWLY

Cataloguing the books is a great way to tidy up. A warning to anyone else who attempts this: it’s a slow process because I feel I must read something of each book.

It’s also a great way to procrastinate …. there are writing projects knocking around in my head demanding my attention.

WHAT I LOVE ABOUT HAVING A LOT OF BOOKS

My sister was off to see CATS today. You know the one based on T S Eliot’s Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats. I don’t have that book on my bookshelf but I do have Faber & Faber, The Untold Story by Tony Faber of which Eliot was a director.

I sent my sister the excerpt from the book where he expresses his doubts about the success of the project. In a memo (dated 6 March 1936) Eliot writes:

‘There are several ways in which this might be a failure.” 

Ninety years on, he’d be astounded at the success of CATS, I’m sure.

I find it’s marvellous to be able to pull a book off my own bookshelf to read about the author’s motivations. The book on Faber&Faber is a great read, by the way. 

NEVER APOLOGISE FOR HAVING A LOT OF BOOKS IN YOUR HOUSE. 

I’ll be busy soon writing my next book. More on that soon but it will be more ambitious than what I’ve done previously. I find myself echoing T S Eliot’s sentiment: 

‘There are several ways in which this might be a failure.” 

– Judy