Sorry people, I have been meaning to blog for the last couple of days but the non-interweb-world kept having the audacity of getting in the way. I shall be writing a stiff letter of complaint to the authorities, be assured. Anyway, beetling about the interwebs yesterday, I came across a book meme that I hadn’t done. Who’d've thunk it?

The book that’s been on your shelves the longest.

That would be Pig Will and Pig Won’t by Richard Scarry, a book I’ve had as long as I can remember. I loved the Richard Scarry books as a child, and this one stuck out particularly because of its size. It’s a tall book – about as half as tall as I was at the time – and I liked to carry it around the house with me. I still love his illustrations, but for me, the fond memories come from knowing it was my very favourite book when I was just learning to read.

A book that reminds you of something specific in your life (a person, a place, a time).

There are several candidates for this. One of the first presents Boyfriend bought me was a copy of A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf. It was one of only a couple of Woolf books I didn’t own at the time. It was only a couple of months into our relationship, and at the time it was a long-distance thing: me in Oxford, him in Glasgow. I came home from work one day to find a little package from him containing this book – a complete surprise.

From childhood, there is Richard Scarry as mentioned above, but I also remember my phase of tucking myself in the airing cupboard with a torch and my copy of Matilda by Roald Dahl. That remains my very favourite children’s book. I wanted to be her.

There is the summer of 1999, when I first read The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath and thought I suddenly understood everything in the world. There’s the summer of 2001 when I spent four months only reading late 18thC and early 19thC gothic novels (Ann Radcliffe, Matthew Lewis, Horace Walpole, Charles Maturin, etc). There are countless more.

A book you acquired in some interesting way.

The most interesting (for me) is a book that I unfortunately no longer have (the usual story: loaned it to someone, never got it back). In 2001 I moved into a flat in the West End of Glasgow with some friends. The person who happened to have lived there before me was Liz Lochhead, the well-known Scottish writer. Being a literature geek, I thought this was pretty cool. What was cooler, though, was finding a copy of Just Duffy by Robin Jenkins under a futon she had left in the flat when they moved. I know I should have sent it on to her forwarding address, but the idea of having one of her books on my shelves was just too tempting.

In the unlikely event that you’re reading this, Liz, I’m really sorry I didn’t return it.

The book that’s been with you to the most places.

I’m not quite sure how this differs from question one, to be honest. The small collection of books from my childhood have moved with me to every flat and house since I moved out of home at 17. Richard Scarry, Roald Dahl, The Babysitter’s Club, Nancy Drew, I still have a few of them all.

As for the book that has been to the most places, with or without me, then I think that would have to be a copy of Christopher Robin stories and poems by A.A. Milne. It was originally my dad’s, and now I have it, and I treasure it. It has fallen apart completely, more or less, but it means a huge amount to me. I hope one day that I can pass it on to my own children, whenever that might be.

Your current read, your last read and the book you’ll read next.

I am proof-reading Twilight Stories by Rhoda Broughton for Catherine and Victorian Secrets. Other than that, I tried to read The Taste of Sorrow by Jude Morgan, but just couldn’t get into it. It has gone back on the shelf for the time being, though I will try again. The last book I finished was Howard’s End is on the Landing, and next up will be The Man Who Was Thursday by G.K. Chesterton, The Centre of the Bed by Joan Bakewell, and Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel.

Do feel free to do this meme yourself, and if you do, leave me a message in the comments so I can have a nosy.