Lost in a good book

Talking of bandwagons, which of course, I wasn't, I'd just like to say that I was always going to blog about LibraryThing even though Corinne and Nik have also talked about it. I don't think Cat realised what she had started when she put us onto it. But then, given the way we all are about books, maybe she did.

Anyway, I spent quite a bit of time at the weekend going through some of my bookshelves, digging out books I'd forgotten. Do others have 'double' bookshelves, with one row of books in front of another, or is it just me? I have books tucked behind books that I probably haven't looked at for years, yet I want to keep them. It was only when I hit 200 in my catalogue that I found out that that was the limit to a free account (as yet, I'm too tight to pay to add more) - and I haven't gone through the half of them yet. I remember when I bought my first house, the one thing that my mum rejoiced about was that she would finally get rid of all my books.

So far I've been pretty selective with my 'star rating'. Very few books get 5 stars, and when I look at those that do, I realise that, in a couple of cases, it's because I've seen a brilliant stage production, rather than because of the book itself. But then, it's my list, and I can grade it as I like.

The other thing that it highlights is that I've always read. Books on the list go all the way back to my childhood, and for as long as I can remember I will happily settle down with a book and the world can pass me by. Or at least, that's my argument for not doing housework!

The other thing, and Corinne has mentioned this too, is what it says about me. All my interests are there. Shakespeare (is 3 copies of the Complete Works too many?), theatre, play texts, novels that I call 19th Century 'classics', history, fantasy, sci fi, and slushy romances.

Sounds about right to me!