Books, books and more books

Our relatively new bookshelves are growing perilously close to full. It hasn’t become critical yet; at a push I can rehouse the photographs and ornaments currently festooning the top row of shelves, and move everything up. But the time will come. And when it does, we’ll need to move house to find more wall space. That, or cull some of the books. I’m not sure which would cause me more pain.

One reason for the burgeoning library, of course, that I receive anything up to six books a month to review, and I can rarely bear to part with anything afterwards. Occasionally I pick out something less than appealing from the bi-monthly list I’m sent, but far more often I find I’m adding an author’s backlist to my book wishlist, because I can’t understand how I missed out before.

I could fill up this post simply by listing the names of authors I’d never encountered before I reviewed their work, but now I have, I can’t get enough of them. Many of them are debut authors, so I can follow their careers. Anyone else come across Becky Masterman? Mary Kubica? Claire Mackintosh? You won’t regret it if you seek them out.

Sometimes, though, I’m sent a book halfway through a series, or by an author with a well-established track record – and that’s what contributes most bountifully to the bookshelf crisis.

Mark Gimenez was already five books in when I reviewed The Governor’s Wife. There are now eight, and five are on my shelf. Alex Kava’s tally is more than a dozen, and I’m still collecting. Martin Walker’s delicious series featuring Bruno, Chief of Police in a small town in France’s beautiful Dordogne region now numbers ten, and there’s a standalone too; I only have two, but I’m working on it. And don’t even get me started on Peter May, one of the most prolific authors I’ve ever reviewed; I didn’t discover him till 2014, and I can’t imagine how I left it so long.

I could go on. And on, and on. Elizabeth Haynes. Alafair Burke (yes, really – how did I miss her?). Frances Fyfield, though that was more a rediscovery. Louise Welsh’s peerless Plague Times trilogy, set in an unspecified but all too recognizable future.

Since few of these authors are bestsellers and I know all too well how hard it is to make a living as a writer, I try to buy new, or encourage gift-giving friends and relations to do so. But it’s not always possible, so I find myself – or rather lose myself – in secondhand bookshops, trawling the crime fiction shelves for out-of-print early titles; it’s been one of my favourite occupations for most of my life, but never, until the last three years or so, with a pages-long list of names in my hand. I’ve always found it hard to leave a bookshop emptyhanded; these days it’s rare that I don’t need a sturdy shopping bag to carry my finds. And it goes without saying that authors I’ve reviewed make up only a fraction of that list.

The books on my to-be-read shelves now number nine: a mixture of Christmas gifts and couldn’t-resist purchases. That doesn’t include any for review; I finished the last consignment a few days ago, though more will probably arrive next week. I get through at least two or three a week, so the pile will soon shrink – but I’m still left with the dilemma of where to store them after they’ve been read.

It seems to me I have three options.

Move to a house with more wall space to put up shelves. (Excuse me while I recover from the cold shivers.) Or cull the books. (Now my blood pressure is dangerously high...)

Cut up my MasterCard so I have no means of buying more books. (N-o-o-o-o-o-o!)

Get a life so I don’t read so much. (Why would I do that? Why would anyone?)

Or maybe I’ll just carry on exactly as I am, and deal with the bookshelf problem when it arises. Live for today, let tomorrow take care of itself.

 

Comments

[Jeff Cohen]

Feel free to ship any used Coppermans to someone less fortunate than yourself if that frees up space.

[Lynne Patrick]

Only the Coppermans? I have a couple of Cohens as well. But I couldn't bear to part with them...

[Richard R.]

Carpe diem! Not book shelves, book walls!

[Lynne Patrick]

That's the problem, Richard - we're running out of walls. The bookshelves are already floor to ceiling.