Books, books, books. Wherever you turn in this house there are books. Age appropriate books. Aged books. Ageless books. If you’re looking for it, there’s more than an even chance we’ve got it.
But, it won’t be in the loo.
Al fresco Facilities
I know lots of you out there thoughtfully provide a basket or a shelf in the smallest room. Those little Christmas stocking books or a magazine or two will be available to while away any waiting time. Not here.
On the other hand, there are books on my husband’s bedside chest, on the floor beside my bed – I got the smaller chest AND the phone – on a shelf above the radiator. There are books in my writing room, in the living room, in the room that was the playroom, in the spare bedroom. The cookery books adorn a shelf outside the kitchen (and a cupboard in the living room, Shh!) while a shelf in the kitchen holds British birds for that moment when an interesting visitor arrives on the wistaria.
There are romantic novels everywhere. The coffee table in the living room, the kitchen table, my handbag… a girl does not want to be caught out and I can easily keep several stories in my head at once, even complicated detective plots. But, never in the loo.
Why not?
Don’t know the answer to that, but I suspect, being as we are a back of the cereal packet household, the queues would be intolerable.
Novels Now 
I suppose reading in the loo stems from the days of outside water or earth closets when people tore up squares of newspaper and hung them behind the door. At least this is one of the descriptions I have used in Family at Fairlyden where the girl hides in the closet down the garden reading her book to evade the chores. In these days of super health and hygiene I suppose reading books in the loo is frowned upon – that, and most people have more comfortable places to read.
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Hi Gwen, I think we’ve all taken a book into the loo to evade something, or maybe just to find out who done it in peace. Anne
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That kind of sounds like my house, Anne, books everywhere, not particularly romance ones though. Lots of crime and thrillers. But you’re right – never in the loo!
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The world is already dividing, Chris. Should I be keeping a tally?
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Anne, this sounds very familiar. We have books everywhere too, apart from the “littlest room”. Books are like pets – I don’t keep pets in the bathroom either, except the eight legged variety. The titles are fairly equally divided between romance, crime/thrillers, and non-fiction. Have never managed to count them all, but they could sink a small-ish ship 🙂
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Hi Henri, It’s good to know there are other houses like ours. I was quite unnerved when babysitting in houses where there were no books, or none to speak of. Anne
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At the moment I’m trying to rationalise our books -well mine. The DH refuses to part with a single one. And the problem is not only books, but magazines, newspapers, old postcards and random items ‘waiting to be filed.’
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Hi Myra, well, if I were being wholly honest, there’s the small matter of the theatre programmes. But we don’t need to get into them. Anne
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I did a blog on the same subject a couple of years ago. Since I’m old and slow, it’s only in 7th place down. http://monyamaryclayton.blogspot.com/
I always thought that if one was in the loo long enough to read something, one needed a laxative! How unkind. For many it’s a refuge. An old friend with six children used to lock herself in to write her poetry.
One thing about my books used to annoy me, though it doesn’t happen now they have their own room. Male acquaintances who called in to see my husband always assumed the books were his! How sexist can you get?
Favourite quote on the storage subject: “A room without books is a body without a soul.”
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Hi Monya, I left a comment on your blog. Lovely post. Thanks for dropping in here. May I ask – how did you find Novels Now? May I also say what a nice and unusual name you have. I have a friend who used to lock herself into the bathroom to paint when her children were small. Our books are to some extent now amalgamated, but it’s taken thirty years, and I do keep my research material and signed books etc separate. Anne
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