Mail-order library

As you probably all know by now, my grandfather recently sent me his library. Would you like to have a closer look at one or two of the books this week?

I have tried to take pictures of a few of the shelved books, so as to allow you to read their titles and see their colour and size. I thought each of you might like to choose one, and then I can go to the shelf and open it for you; this way I can share my library, and in the process also learn more about what I actually have here in my house.

There are so many books, and they are so special, that I often find myself overwhelmed. I have read only a handful of the books so far, and many I have yet to even open! I am only beginning to catalogue and organise, so please excuse the fact that some books share a shelf for no apparent reason. I like to think that makes it more interesting and surprising.


Dubliners, Ulysses, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Pudd'nhead Wilson, A Tramp Abroad, Poems of the Caribbean, Roughing It, The Innocents Abroad.


White Fang, Little Women, Emma, Northanger Abbey, Persuasion, Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights.


Simplicissimus, The Invisible Man, The Sermon On The Mount, A Streetcar Named Desire, The Nibelungenlied, Gone With The Wind, Peter Pan.

P.S. I spoke to my grandpa last week and asked him if he didn't have even a small moment of regret that he no longer had the books in his home. He laughed and said "Oh El, you know I have them with me wherever I go, they're all in here," and I could hear him tapping on his big, round, bald head.

P.P.S. My Grandpa is currently in Manhattan and spends much of his time people-watching, riding on buses and going to the cinema. He saw the latest Batman movie and hated it, he refused to tell me why, but he did tell me that he stood at the exit to the cinema and asked each person as they left if they would like to join him in asking the management for a refund. I know this to be true because my brother was with him at the time. He also described how he found himself on a completely empty bus one evening, so he sat beside the driver ("a lovely young woman") and they sang show-tunes together.