Bibliophilia

I've just spent Saturday evening cataloging my books on Library Thing (you can see my library in the sidebar on the right, and Monkey's too). DH was watching 'The Bucket List' which wasn't really grabbing my attention so I grabbed my laptop and squirreled away. I've really enjoyed it, and it's surprising to see how my book purchases in the last 2 years or so have been heavily weighted towards non-fiction. I always used to be a novel kind of a gal and now I just can't find the time to get into them. Understandably there are lots of parenting books, and my collection of craft/ knitting books is steadily growing. But I do so want to read a novel, a whole one, cover to cover, that would be soooo nice! Preferably on a beach. The only other hiatus I took from novel reading was after I finished my first degree in English Lit. Having been required to read between 2 and 5 novels a week for 3 years (light stuff, you know, like Homer's Iliad) I needed a break, although in actual fact I didn't really give up novels, I just switched to reading lighter stuff, lots of crime fiction writers like Sue Grafton and Patricia Cornwell. These are authors I still enjoy occasionally but I don't devour them anymore like I used to, too much violence and darkness.

I know a lot of my blog friends are equally passionate about books and it's something I can't wait to pass on to the Monkey. I haven't kept any books from my childhood and I really regret that now. Not that I know where I could have kept them all. I remember at primary school we used to have a book club of sorts. Every term a small catalogue would be handed out, we would place our order and bring in the money to pay the teacher. We never knew when the books would be coming, they would just suddenly be there one afternoon after we came in from playtime, sitting on the teacher's desk waiting to be distributed. I can recall the delicious agony of having to wait for my book until after story time, craning my neck to look at the titles and find my own book amongst the precariously balanced tower. 

Do you have a Desert Island book? On Desert Island Discs you get given the Bible and The Complete Works of Shakespeare, but what else couldn't you live without? What could sustain you as you await rescue? I haven't got an answer to that myself yet, I think I'll go and trawl my shelves right now and see if there's a book I couldn't live without...