The Ol' Library

Was considerably depleted on June 26, as you can imagine. If you are a reader at all, you have probably participated in the "desert island" exercises where you pick the books you absolutely cannot live without should you be stranded on a desert island and have a choice.

Well, restocking a book collection is a similar process. I've spent some time mulling over what to buy first - that I want on hand at all times just in case I want to read it. Of course, my list is far larger than just these few, but I sure gave it some thought. So, I bought these:

The complete series of Horatio Hornblower books by C. S. Forester. I discovered Horatio as a freshman in high school because some outfit or another had a book sale where they brought the books to school, and if we liked what we read, we could buy it. I bought Ship of the Line, which in retrospect was a good starting point even though it was more or less in the middle. Hornblower was at his obsessive best with the huge responsibility of a ship of the line and all the endless attention that required, plus having to fret about Lady  Barbara Wellesley, whom he carried on board in the previous novel, and had fallen in love with her, plus his tangled feelings of shame because he was already married to the hapless Maria (whom he had married in a fit of feeling sorry for her, as earlier novels revealed). Plus, every decision he made was endlessly dissected in fits of self flagellation.

Well, for an angst filled teenager who felt much the same, this was quite a revelation - that he could feel this way and still be a success. It was a bit of an inspiration. I spent some years trying to accumulate the rest of the books in the pre-internet world of the seventies and eighties - and I think it wasn't until the nineties that I actually had all of them. Not matching editions at all, but By Gawd I had 'em. This set had to be purchased from three different places online, but they do match, and dammit all, I've got 'em all! Whee!

There are so many other books that I gotta have, but I think I can find them in used bookstores if I just look - things like Lonesome Dove and some of McMurtry's other works, some of James Clavell's stories of the Orient including Shogun, Tai-Pan and King Rat, for sure. Science fiction and fantasy classics have to be included - Ringworld, Ringworld Engineers, The Foundation Series (Asimov), and probably even The Lord of the Rings series. I used to have a big collection of Stephen King novels up to a point - I suppose I'll have to get The Stand, but he started pissing me off politically, I didn't think he was as good as he used to be, and he took too damned long on the Dark Tower series and I lost interest.

Sis got me hooked on the Kinsey Milhone alphabet novels by Sue Grafton, but Ms. Grafton has left poor Kinsey stranded in the eighties, and that was just a little while ago, you know. I kinda feel the same way about the Joe Leaphorn/Jim Chee novels by Tony Hillerman, which are fascinating looks into two members of the Navaho Tribal Police and all the cultural ramifications that involves. If I need to read them, I know just who happens to own all those books, and she happens to be willing to loan them to me!

Of course there are the Great Novels - Les Miserables, The Count of Monte Cristo, Steinbeck, Jack London (for sure The Sea Wolf!) and so many more that just slip my mind at the moment, but when I run across 'em, I'll be snagging immediately if not before (finances willing).

So, it's kinda fun to do this - I'm sure I'll end up with a bunch of rag tag dog eared paperbacks, but that suits me fine. I'm not much of a snob when it comes to what a book looks like, as long as it doesn't fall apart and I can read it, we're good to go!