Sunday, 24 July 2016

On the Bookshelf

Another passion of mine is books, any book I can get my hands on pretty much, I have shelves full and until recently a loft full too. Having to part with a few books was not easy but I figure it makes way for new ones!

I'm a fan of charity shops, you can find some fantastic books and in my town with the number there are it's easy to pick up something of interest.

In addition to that as I skip around the web reading blogs and such like I have a habit of saving a book someone mentions or recommends into my Amazon basket to check out further and probably purchase. I mean how easy does Amazon make it for you.....

I read a post a few weeks back at the end of 30 Days Wild on Louise's blog and it got me thinking about growing up in Guiseley and all the walking we did around the area as children and how much time I spent immersed in books. Especially one book my parents had - Book of the British Countryside - they still have the book but it's practically fallen apart now, it still has my pencilled tick marks on the bird pages. I managed to track down a copy online and couldn't help but purchase it. I remember it without the dustjacket though, I'm sure it had one but I never saw it. I do remember how much I loved the daisies that covered it front and back. I used to spend hours looking through it and looking up things we'd seen on whatever walk we'd been on that day.





A few of the Collins guides I picked up recently also, they're handy little books. In fact I've had my Collins bird guide a fair few years now and I take it out with me all the time.



This book though is one of my favourite reads for quite some time. I saw it on blog i've recently discovered and had been reading through - Birdingfordevils - a couple of weeks ago. The book arrived earlier this week and I've barely been able to put it down, absolutely fascinating read about Kenn Kaufman's Big Year adventures in the early 70's. I'd highly recommend it (though i'm no doubt late to the party and everyone has already read it!).



8 comments:

  1. As a kid I was glued to that AA book of the Countryside. Loved it...

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    1. I must admit i've spent a fair bit of time looking through my copy.

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  2. Lovely and interesting post. I still have some of my nature books from childhood - still love looking at the Observer books bring back so many happy memories. You can never have too many books - says she who is finding it impossible to declutter her book collection!

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    1. Thanks :) I do too, the first book I ever bought with my own money when I was about 8 or 9 is a butterfly guide & still sits on my shelf! Declutter and books shouldn't be words you use in the same sentence!

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  3. Like many, I also had the AA book and used to spend hours with it. My brother and I reproduced all the species guides (fish, birds, etc) by hand to scale and posted them on our wall... a project that took us months (and resulted in a 35ft long hand-drawn basking shark spread over many pieces of A2 paper taped together!!)

    Did you have any luck with the hairstreaks?

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    1. How cool, I come from a family of artists but any kind of drawing skills passed me by completely!

      No luck i'm afraid, Headingley we couldn't find a way in, it's all fences! Meanwood we had a good explore and found the area but no butterflies!

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    2. Ah well it's been many years since I lived in Headingley - sounds like they've tightened up security! Sorry to send you on a goose-chase!

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    3. No worries, you don't know if you don't try! :)

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