Book storage problems part 2

Thank you to everyone who made helpful suggestions re book-storage - I thought rather than replying to the comments, I'd write another post, as they may be helpful ideas for the rest of you (many of whom confessed similar dilemmas), before sharing my answer! The problem has proved only more pressing in the last 24 hours since the arrival of a stash of VMCs...

1. Billy bookcases from Ikea are very popular; I like the idea but I can't afford to replace my existing cases.

2. Install brackets above bookcases - this would work if we weren't renting!

2. Refrain from having children as they are likely to be an exacerbating factor as they accumulate their own books. Luckily I do not have maternal instincts.

3. Culling books. This invariably leads to regret, as several people have admitted. I am quite good about this and do get rid of books that I don't want to keep; unfortunately since discovering the Notting Hill books and comics exchange I invariably end up with as many books as I have got rid of.

4. Boxing up books - putting them into storage, or under the bed. No space under my bed sadly (that is where I keep my shoes), and although we have a storage unit (where K's books are currently housed), I prefer to have my books where I can see them... I do have a catalogue of my books on librarything which helps in the organisation of them.

5. Act as a lending library. I think this suggestion was made in jest, but actually I have resorted lending books to my friends and family, particularly new acquisitions, so that I don't have to find them a home.

6. Store books at your office. I do have 2 shelves under my desk where I often keep books that I am lending people/borrowing from others (Stuck in the book and I regularly use it as our exchange place...); there is potential to extend this but I don't think it would be quite right!! I do have a locker which I could utilise better...

7. Double/triple backing books. Sadly this doesn't work too well on my shelves as they are not very deep, although I do put books which are awaiting culling behind my regular books - it is very difficult to get them out though and as I said above, I do like to have my books on display!

8. Borrow books from the library. I do already do this and borrow books at a rate of knots (I estimate that I take out and return 20 books a week, but I don't have the physical capacity to take anymore, plus there is the availability issue - lots of my VMCs are not available from the library).

Lots of good suggestions - many thanks readers!


So what has my solution been? We identified that if we didn't mind restricting our access to the kitchen slightly, we could replace one of the small bookcases with a tall one (which will also have room for another row of books on the top). It's still in construction here you see, but I have Friday off and hope to rearrange all of my books then!

We also found that if we turned the dining table through 90 degrees, and don't mind sitting side by side staring out of the window while we eat (this may not last, as our 2nd floor flat overlooks a busy road and bus route and I'm not sure how much we'll look like we're in a zoo), there is room to fit in the small bookcase AS WELL. (It obstructs a plug, but hey - who needs to hoover the dining area?!).



Finally, I am bidding on a small revolving bookcase on ebay, which could sit next to the television.

I hope we will have found a house before these things are filled up. K says that if it has a garage he will convert it into a home library for me...

The problem of book storage

The problem of book storage irks me on a daily basis; it often feels like our small flat is overwhelmed by books, but the problem is always far worse when there isn't enough space to put books away. (The problem of book storage also haunts me at work when the subject librarians ask for more books to be put on the open shelves than there is space for, but that is a separate issue). Since I started reading blogs and blogging my book addiction has run away with me and my flat has more books in it than I am sure the architects would have intended. I must now face facts - we have run out of wall space.

My fiance is collecting me some more shelves from Argos today (isn't that the best Valentine's gift?!) with which we can replace a small set of shelves, which will give me 2 extra shelves to put books on, but given the numbers of books which are sitting on top of books on shelves at the moment, it isn't going to solve the problem. We sadly can't convert any more of the small shelves into tall shelves owing to inconvenient things like light switches and radiators.

I've spent quite a lot of today fruitlessly googling things like "book storage solutions" which made me quite grumpy, because most of the solutions seem to be designed at people with either lots of arty books, or not very many books at all. When you have over 1650 books in a 1.5 bedroom flat you need something serious. Our long-term solution is to buy a house and hopefully we will be doing that at some point in 2011 but I do need something in the interim.

I've known about the Bibliochaise chair (above) for ages, but suspect that it would be far beyond my price range even if I could find out how to get hold of one. Ideally I'd like to find a coffee table that could hold books; although we have run out of wall space we still have some bits of carpet available, and a low level coffee table wouldn't restrict the view from sofa to television...

I've had much fun discussing the options on facebook today; Ikea have been suggested but apart from this there isn't much on offer. The Kindle/e book reader has been mentioned several times; I suppose that might limit future damage but it's not going to help right now! And the culling that I should probably face up to just isn't an option. I have found some second hand rotating book-cases on ebay which sound like a good option, so watch this space and I'll keep you posted...

Baking from the cupboards 4

Baking from the cupboards is proceeding incredibly well; I've still not bought any baking ingredients and I don't think K is at all deprived of baked goodies!

The highlight of this week's baking from the cupboards was my treacle tart. I've never made this before, but it was so easy and oh so frugal as it enabled me to use up the end of the homemade bread that was a bit too tough even for toast - I attacked it with the grater and it made fantastic bread crumbs. And it meant I could make pastry again. The recipe was Mary Berry, but it is no more complicated than a pastry shell, a slightly greater amount of golden syrup than crumbs and some lemon zest/juice.

Of course it was also Valentines Day; I was short of time so I'm afraid K only got some vanilla shortbread hearts but I put them into his lunchbox and I hope that he wasn't too embarassed! I did make some cheesey gluten free hearts too to have as a nibble with dinner that night; unfortunately they resembled cowpats as they did not hold their shape. Not terribly romatic but all using store cupboard ingredients. I had promised myself a reprieve for Valentines Day, and when I have the day off at the end of the week I will be making sachertorte - I can barely wait! I picked up both chocolate and cream for less than £2 so it is hardly extravagent even if it involves a whole box of eggs...(however, this aside I am fully determined to see out this project - I have enough things to bake with for at least another month if not longer!)

Finally, I reprised my mini cheesecakes (and yet again forgot to take a photo); this used up the last of the digestive biscuits (although I have plans for a chocolate version involving some mini chocolate animal biscuits that are languishing in the cupboard...), and the last of the dessicated coconut. I used coconut milk rather than cream to mix with the cream cheese, and topped it with some frozen cherries.

Signs of Spring?

It is getting noticeably lighter in the evenings now (although not quite in the mornings yet), and I smelt hyacinths in Marks and Spencers the other day. I am resisting buying daffodils until it is mid February (they are to me the first signs of Spring but mid January just seems far too early), but I did get some half-price hyacinths last week. These should have pink blooms when they open and I hope they will smell wonderful. My little Christmas tree has sprouted, and it is time to put it into the fridge for 8 weeks - I know that sounds weird, but my guess is that that "forces" a winter. I am a little concerned as quite a big shoot has come up and I don't want to kill it, but I've got plenty of time to have another go if it turns out that I have not had success this time.


What are your signs of Spring?

Domestic goddess, career woman or both?

The dichotomy or choice between being a domestic goddess or a career woman has been on my mind over the last week for a number of reasons, but although my thoughts are a little half-formed at the moment, I wanted to write about it. My blog probably gives a sense of me as someone who loves her home and enjoys pursuits related to the home - primarily baking (not just one but two sorts of biscuits), but who has dabbled in other domestic arts such as making jam and chutney and mincemeat and who makes her own Christmas cards and cross-stitches. But I recently wrote posts as part of the Library Day in the life project where I detailed some of my professional activities. I'm at the stage in my career at the moment where I can just about manage to balance my life as a professional and my life as a home-maker, but I'm not sure if I would be able to if we lived somewhere that is bigger than our current small flat or if I progressed any further up the career ladder.

I tried to think of role models, particularly in literature as I suppose my world view is generally more affected by the books that I read than by celebrities. But the trouble is that the books seem to reinforce the view that you can't really do both. One of my favourite publishers, Persephone Books, publishes books "by women, for women and about women", but they unashamedly seem to focus on the domestic sphere. Similarly Virago books celebrate women too, but although some of the titles feature women who have careers and do great things, they don't ever do so at the same time as trying to maintain a household and a partner.

I asked my friend Claire (Paperback Reader) if she could think of any examples; she came up with Nigella Lawson - a woman who is held up as an illustration of a domestic goddess, but who is also a career woman, but we decided that she is not an example really at all since her career was made out of pursuing domesticity!

Are there any women in literature who I might be able to emulate? Or somewhere down the line am I going to have to admit that I can't have it all and make a decision between which path I pursue? A better job and Marks and Spencers Ready Meals and predominantly seeing my partner when we are both tired, or deciding that I want to have time to wear my Persephone pinny, bake and blog and look after my partner but accepting that this means I will never reach great heights of salary or importance.

Baking from the cupboards 3

Baking from the cupboards is proceeding along merrily; I don't feel too deprived in trying to make things out of what we have and it is more satisfying somehow than buying ingredients to make recipes that I have just read about. I am amassing a little stash of recipes I want to make when this challenge is over (i.e. when the cupboards are empty, which I am estimating will not be before the beginning of March), but I am having fun using things up from my extraordinarily well-stock cupboards. What have I to show for the last week?

1. CAKE. This week's cake was a new take on lemon drizzle cake. I had an orange that was really quite past its best, so I zested it and added it to a plain sponge mixture. The piece de resistance was the icing which utilised some tropical fruit juice that I had in the fridge (I think the juice contained orange, banana, mango and passionfruit); I just used that to mix my icing sugar and poured it over the top. It was a little different but very tasty!


2. BISCUITS. I was umming and ahhing over what biscuits to make for K to take in his packed lunch this week; obviously it being his first week in a new job, I didn't want to embarass him with cupcakes with sprinkles on or hippopotamus shaped shortbread. Then I read that Saturday was World Nutella Day which coincided with me having read this recipe on Friday. It was a no brainer. The mixture was a little too sticky for me to roll into balls as the recipe instructed so I filled cupcake cases with the mixture. When they came out of the oven I was a little concerned as they were more like cakes than biscuits but as they cooled they crisped up and hardened.
3. QUICHE. Obviously a good way around the baking from the cupboards challenge is meal-baking which is exempt, as while cake isn't quite necessary, dinner certainly is. I learnt to make pastry in my Kenwood mixer earlier this year and there has been no stopping me since. Quiche is such an easy meal - I make a little one and a bigger one, and they feed K for three meals with bread/potatoes and salad. This is the first time that I've attempted a quiche varieyt which was a staple of my childhood dinners - sweetcorn quiche! It sounds weird but sweetcorn combined with a very mild cheese like Cheshire or Lancashire cheese works so well.

4. Pastries. I made danish pastry from scratch over the Christmas holidays and never got around to posting pictures of the almond danishes or the mincemeat puffs that I made with it. It was a lot of effort so I was happy that I could freeze the remainder of the dough to use later on, and I dug it out of the freezer at the weekend. This enabled me to use up a bit more of the Christmas chutney that I made (and which has been languishing somewhat), and combined with goats cheese they were apparently very tasty. I also used some pesto to make some palmiers with it, but unfortunately they all disappeared before I got a picture. The pastry making was a faff but I did feel impressed with myself for doing it.

Save libraries

Saturday was #savelibraries day; I wasn't intending to blog about it, but since it's been mentioned by many of my favourite bloggers I thought I would add a post. Oxfordshire seems to be one of the worst areas threatened by cuts with 20 of the 43 libraries in the county being threatened with closure. There were various read-ins happening, and although I didn't make it to any of them, I did do my bit.

K is starting a new job on Monday near Didcot, and because I like to be able to envisage where he is, he took me over to see the outside of the offices. As we'd never been to Didcot library before, we stopped off there on the way home. "Library tourism" is one of my favourite Saturday afternoon pastimes, partly because it is free, and also because I have a professional interest in seeing different libraries and how they are run. Over the past year, we've visited a number of libraries around Oxfordshire, Thame, Headington, Neithrop, Wantage, Botley, Kidlington and now Didcot. I was really quite impressed by Didcot library which has obviously been recently refurbished; it was smart and clean and tidy, and there was an excellent selection of books. Sadly, my card was almost maxed out already, due to several library trips during hte week, but we had K's ticket and between us took out 17 books, which means that we now have FORTY library books at home. That'll keep me busy for a bit!

Here's my loot - as you can see a nice mix of books, cookery books, a travel guide to Austria (which disappointingly only has a paragraph on the place we're going to for our wedding).

Two little Penguins

A short post today as my wrists and fingers are sore and I'm a little scared that I might be developing RSI. Hopefully resting up over the weekend will help, but I couldn't resist showing off these new little books which I recieved to write about last week. These are Penguin's Mini Modern Classics, which are being released to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Penguin Modern Classics. There are 50 of the titles to collect and they showcase "short" writing from great writers of the last 100 years. I am particularly excited to see Margaret Drabble's The gifts of war because I have read and enjoyed very many of her novels. I have not come across Paul Bowles before but apparently he is "considered one of the most remarkable American authors of the twentieth century" [Amazon]. When I spot these in the shops, I will be on the look out for the Shirley Jackson's The tooth, because I greatly enjoyed both The haunting of Hill House and We have always lived in the castle (both of which were published as Penguin Modern Classics).

Here is the full list:

Hell Screen – Ryunosake Akutagawa
All The Blood Within Me – Kingsley Amis
Some of Us Had Been Threatening Our Friend Colby – Donald Barthelme
The Expelled – Samuel Beckett
Him With His Foot in His Mouth – Saul Bellow
The Widow Ching – Pirate – Jorge Luis Borges
The Delicate Prey – Paul Bowles
The Queen’s Necklace – Italo Calvino
The Adulterous Woman – Albert Camus
Children on Their Birthdays – Truman Capote
Bluebeard – Angela Carter
Killer in the Rain – Raymond Chandler
Red Rose, White Rose – Eileen Chang
The Strange Crime of John Boulnois – G. K. Chesterton
Youth – Joseph Conrad
Romance of the Thin Man and the Fat Lady – Robert Coover
Babette’s Feast – Isak Dinesen
Hassan’s Tower – Margaret Drabble
Short Treatise on the Joys of Morphinism – Hans Fallada
Babylon Revisited – F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Living Daylights – Ian Fleming
The Machine Stops – E. M. Forster
The Tooth – Shirley Jackson
The Beast in the Jungle – Henry James

Canon Alberic’s Scrap-Book – M. R. James
Two Gallants – James Joyce
In the Penal Colony – Franz Kafka
‘They’ – Rudyard Kipling
Odour of Chrysanthemums – D. H. Lawrence
The Magic Paint – Primo Levi
The Colour Out Of Space – H. P. Lovecraft
Lunar Caustic – Malcolm Lowry
Wunderkind – Carson McCullers
Bliss – Katherine Mansfield
Flypaper – Robert Musil
Terra Incognita – Vladimir Nabokov
A Breath of Lucifer – R. K. Narayan
The Cornet-Player Who Betrayed Ireland – Frank O’Connor
The Sexes – Dorothy Parker
Through the Wall – Ludmilla Petrushevskaya
La Grosse Fifi – Jean Rhys
Filboid Studge, the Story of a Mouse That Helped – Saki
The Last Demon – Isaac Bashevis Singer
The Mark-2 Wife – William Trevor
Rich in Russia – John Updike
The Door in the Wall – H. G. Wells
Moon Lake – Eudora Welty
The Crime Wave at Blandings – P. G. Wodehouse
The Lady in the Looking Glass – Virginia Woolf
Chess – Stefan Zweig

Thanks to Ceri from Riot who sent them to me!

Baking from the cupboards 2

Baking from the cupboards is proceeding rather well. Since the Christmas Pudding Cupcakes there have been four further creations from the things lurking in my cupboard, and there is still plenty of other ingredients to play with (although I am now out of both raisins and sultanas; currants and cranberries and cherries are the only dried fruit that is left).

Firstly: PUDDING. or more specifically toffee, banana, and date pudding.
This was a recipe from a Weightwatchers supplement that came with one of the food magazines that I subscribe too. But I think it was only a weightwatchers recipe if you used low fat marg. (I used butter), and made four puddings with the quantity (I made two...), and used skinny custard. Oh well, I didn't say anything about baking healthily did I?!

These have a little bit of golden syrup at the bottom. You could make them in pudding basins and turn them out but I decided to use my heart shaped dishes. K insisted that I get custard...

Secondly BISCUITS, or more specifically Orange, oat and sultana cookies.
These ARE actually quite healthy as they contain lots of fibre. I spotted this recipe in the February Good Food magazine and was excited as they contained lots of ingredients which I had in - banana, coconut, walnuts... I didn't have an orange, but they still apparently tasted good without. Oh and I had to use raisins instead of sultanas too...


Thirdly, CAKE, or more specifically apple cake, that I posted about on Sunday as part of Virago Reading Week.

Fourthly CHEESECAKE, or more specifically mini no bake lemon cheesecake. I forgot to take a picture of these but I will definitely be making them again as a) there are still more digestive biscuits to use up before they go soggy b) I realised that by using GF biscuits I can make them gluten free for me! (And the cheesey mix was soooooo good that I probably should make it properly into a cheesecake for me rather than eating it on its own)

I am quite enjoying the challenge of using things up - the things that are next in my plans are apple and blackberry crumble or pudding, ditto plums (have jar of plums and blackberries from my friends allotment) or pumpkin pie as I found a tin of pumpkin puree that I'd bought in a fit of enthusiasm one time.

January Reading

I have been using my Persephone Diary to record my reading thus far in 2011 (as my trusty notebook that had been in use since 2003 was about to run out), and I'm rather enjoying it. It is lovely to see the beautiful endpapers as I jot titles down. I've done well with my reading in 2011 so far; I am back on track with reading "proper" books after my slump into Babysitters Club books last May that I never really recovered from. I am doing pretty well with my Virago Modern Classics reading too, spurred on by Rachel and Carolyn's Virago reading week. Most days I have managed to read two books, though do not be too incredulous, normally this has been one novel and then a childrens book or a cookery book or something like that as a second title.




Here is the full list, copied from my Excel spreadsheet - I have made some slight refinements to my categorisation which I think will help me make better statistics of my reading.- here are the abbreviations:
VMC = Virago Modern Classic
P = Persephone
LBD = Little Black Dress (my current guilty indulgence!)
CB = Cookbook
T = Travel
AB = Autobiography
B = Biography
NF = Non fiction (other than the above categories)
C = Children's
CW = Cornwall related in some way
RR = Reread.

Mystery of Mrs Blencarrow	Oliphant, Mrs	P
Bid me to live	H.D.	VMC
Mrs Marridge Project	Fisk, Pauline	C
Goldengrove Unleaving	Walsh, Jill Paton	Cw
Christmas at Fairacre	Read, Miss	RR
Stoner	Williams, John
Fortnum and Mason's Afternoon tea		NF
Girl in translation	Kowk, Jean
12 days of Christmas	Ashley, Trisha
Salem Chapel	Oliphant, Mrs	VMC
Yes sister, no sister	Craig, Jenifer	AB
Good daughters	Hocking, Mary	VMC
Diary of a lady	Johnson, Rachel	AB
The love boat	Lace, Kate	LBD
Izzy's war	Dewar, Islar
Indifferent heroes	Hocking, Mary	VMC
The air hostess		LBD
The good psychologist
Easy chocolate	Marks and Spencers	CB
Salzburg: City Guide		T
Skippy dies	Murray, Paul
Word watching	Horne, Alex	NF
The loved and the envied	Bagnold, Enid	VMC
Papercraft	Marie Claire Ideas	NF
Housebound	Peck, Winifred	P	RR
Hidden places of Cornwall		T
Welcome heroes	Hocking, Mary	VMC
Seagulls in the attic	Hadsworth, Tessa	AM	CW
The village	Laski, Mangerita	P	RR
Millennium hall	Scott, Sarah	VMC
Comfort and joy	Knight, India
Return to Peyton Place	Metalious, Grace
Voices in summer	Pilcher, Rosamund
Room	Donahue, Emma
Learn to cook wheat, gluten and dairy free	Savill, Antoinette	CB
Tiny bit of marvellous	French, Dawn
Dean's lighthouse adventure	Fiddler, Kathleen	C
Repeat it today with tears	Peile, Anne
Animal instincts	Dixon, Nell	LBD
Every home needs a balcony	Dunn, Raina
Party frock	Streatfeild, Noel	C	RR
Daddy's gone a-hunting	Mortimer, Penelope	P	RR
Pete, Pam and Jim: the investigators	Fiddler, Kathleen	C
Glitter of Mica	Kessoon, Jessie	VMC
Noel Streatfeild	Bull, Angela	B	RR
We that were young	Rathbone, Irene	VMC
Starter marriage	Harrison, Kate
Susan Spray	Kaye-Smith, Sheila	VMC
Barrow Lane Gang	Streatfield, Noel	C
Growing up gracefully	Streatfield, Noel	C	NF
Christmas cooking with kids	Rigg, Annie	CB	C
Zoe	Jewsbury, Geraldine	VMC
Seriously good	Vickery, Phil	CB
Sunlight on a broken column	Hosain, Attia	VMC
Diary of a medical nobody	Lane, Kenneth	AB

I feel quite pleased with this start to the year...I am sure the Persephone Diary has made me try hard with my reading :)

And what will I be reading in February?
Here's my stack of chick lit (on the left), slightly more serious reading in the middle, and three books which I have recently acquired. Can't wait to read We had it so good. Oh, and I hope to be reading from my recent haul of Viragos too!