Wordery

I have been naughty and purloined a good term from a bookseller of that name, but it suits today's post.

Here are two books I returned from Hampshire with.  When we were in Ringwood, there were lots of Charity shops, and one in particular had some excellent books.  I was Very Good and put back two Archaeology ones (one was on Material Culture and was a follow up to a book which seemed to be on every reading list I had for my Mat. Cult. course at Uni, and I could never get my hands on it as someone had always got there first).  This was The Past is a Foreign Country - the new one is the same title with Revisited on the end.  It was £3, but it was VERY heavy and I know I wouldn't ever have time to devote to reading it properly.  These I will read and pass on.

Two of my recent Library books.  I haven't started the Serpent Papers yet, but The Utopia Experiment is the sort of book which sounds like it aught to be better than it is, so you plod on waiting for "the good bit" but it's more about his psychological stance than actually day to day living in the wilds of Scotland in an experimental post-apocalyptic community.  To be honest, I could tell it was going to fail before he even got there because a) it was in Scotland, and b) they arrived about July with only very naive thoughts about self-sufficiency.  I would say - don't bother.  I'm not surprised to find he is now living in - I think - Guatamala.

Current bed-time reading.  I bought Growing up in Kilvert Country recently (probably at Hay-on-Wye) and was reading it when the Library came round again.  It tells of a fairly typical rural upbringing and isn't one to keep.

The First Murder I can heartily recommend.  5 historical crime writers (as detailed on the cover) deal with the murders associated with the performing of a Medieval play, spanning a thousand years.  Excellent.

When I go on journeys I see images which just have to be recorded.  If I am driving, I quite often tell my husband to write something down for me.  When I get home, i write them into my Commonplace notebook.  The one above is my travelling one, which lives in my big handbag.  On my train journey to Hampshire, the windows were filthy and I ended up just reading my book.  The pages above and below are from a past journey to So'ton - just little snippets.  They may end up as poetry eventually.  I  am copying them into a lovely hardback journal which middle daughter gave me for Christmas, but last week's journey is what made me want to look back at last year's entries.  Apologies for my scrawl - these are just notes.  Does anyone else have a Commonplace book?