Whenever I'm back (and often when my parents come to visit), I do a book swap and take books I've read in London back to Somerset and get new books from Somerset to take to London. I like to think of it as shopping my shelves. It gives me little shivers of excitement to browse my own shelves of unread books and decide which deserve the honour of a trip to London. As much as it is heartbreaking not being with my entire book collection I do enjoy shopping my shelves and discovering books I'd forgotten I'd bought or remembering the reasons why I'd bought others. Trust me, it's exciting.
As well as spending some time rummaging through my own shelves this weekend, I also spent some time with my Mum's books. My Mum's shelves are amazing - lots of Virago Modern Classics and the entire works of authors like Barbara Pym and Fay Weldon. I have always relied on my Mum for brilliant book recommendations as so many of the books she has pressed on me in the past have turned into beloved favourites. We may not always see eye to eye (she has just DNF'd May We Be Forgiven which I loved), but I can more or less guarantee that any books still on her shelves that have survived years of charity shop culls are worth reading. So, to cut a long and meandering story short, these are the books I acquired from my Mum's veritable bookish treasure trove:
Look at all the pretty VMCs!
