Books and Doors

Do you have bigger book eyes than your book shelves? I do. I really do. It is an addiction I think, especially rummaging around in second hand book shops. New ones are fine, but the surprises to be found in second hand ones win every time for me. And then there is the mystery to be found above the sign. Joe Specks? I have found, this morning, that he is a character in 'The Uncommercial Traveller' by Charles Dickens-a doctor in his childhood hometown of Dullborough which I presume is Rochester, and which he has visited for the day, finding everything to be smaller and less impressive than his childhood memories suggest (a familiar experience to many) and who saves the day, by filling in the gaps in the history of the people they had known as children, and by talking about the past they shared. This is in chapter 12 should you be interested. The book can be read here at project Gutenberg. Books and doors go well together-both being openings to somewhere else. Last week I was living partly in 16th century border country, and now I am in 1860s Canada. I have also been visiting the 1940s, by looking at a make and do children's book of the time, and have discovered this bird sanctuary in Mousehole through a free book given to me yesterday. It was in a pile by the till that I was looking at as the man rung up my purchases. He asked if I would like it. I said no, but then he said it was free so I changed my mind! I picked it up because of the painting on the cover-a woman holding up a bird as if to give it freedom. The book tells of the two founders of the sanctuary in 1928 and has lots of black and white photos of them with various of their charges, and altogether looks like a very lovely book to have been given. The reason for it being given away was the extremely large and almost unmanageable pile of books the owners of this shop have. It is incredible. The corridors of books go on seemingly forever, over two floors. You could get lost in there for days.

I loved this door.

A view back towards the street-but I am not even at the end of the shop!

I loved the Sherlock Holmes spines. I didn't notice the book 'Goose Shooting' until I downloaded the photo. How unpleasant.

These piles of books make me feel better about my own, which are bad, but not this bad!

This is the door to the Oxfam shop, a proper old fashioned kind of charity shop which has all sorts of things to offer, including lots of books. Yesterday though I had already bought enough books in the other shop, so only bought a bag of fabric scraps-all different polka dots which are really pretty and will be useful for something. I am sure.

More piles-I like the covers of this series of books, though this one didn't come home with me.