#bookwealth: The new thing that's breaking the internet. Or something.
Finally, a social media hashtag I can really get behind.
I was delighted to discover that I am bang on trend for the first time since I remarked to a schoolfriend back in 1986 that I thought that new boy band The Housemartins looked quite good. Yes, hard on the heels of last week’s newsletter about the absolute imperative of not getting rid of any your books comes #bookwealth which, as that arbiter of all things cool Homes & Garden puts it is “a naturally curated and earned sense of style – on the bookshelf and beyond” Or to to put it more bluntly, swanking about your home library.
As far as I understand it, one of the key elements of a redoubtable #bookwealth post is to put up on the social medias various images and videos of your bookshelf arrangements but - and here’s the incredibly awesome twist - only of books you’ve actually read. Wait, there’s more. Only of books you’ve actually read AND on their actual shelves. Incredible, huh?
So in the spirit of sharing, this is how I intend to increase my bookshelf wealth in the near future, a peak into my To Be Bought pile as it currently stands on Bookshop.org. Hold on to your chapeaux book-pickers, here we go…
In at number 24 for the somethingest week in a row, it’s Beethoven’s Assassins by Andrew Crumey, one of my favourite novelists, the genius behind Mobius Dick and Sputnik Caledonia which are clever, but not too clever clever.
New at 23 it’s The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World by Bettany Hughes - great idea, great historian. Bosh.
A non-mover at 22, On Not Being Someone Else: Tales of Our Unled Lives. Andrew H Miller’s ruminations on not being who we are and the paths not taken. Just the kind of thing that keeps me awake at night.
Steady at 21, after thoroughly enjoying her look at the weather a millennium ago in Winters in the World: A Journey Through the Anglo-Saxon Year, I’m after checking out her back catalogue in Conquered: The Last Children of Anglo-Saxon England.
And we’re into the Top 20.
Last year a bit higher, now down a bit lower at 20, it’s Daniel Tunnard's ESCAPEs, a novel set in a far better world than this in which competitive Scrabble, not Association Football is the global game of choice. What’s not to like?
At 19, Cold Enough for Snow by Jessica Au. I can’t remember adding this or anything about it. But at the very least it’s got a good title and a classy blue Fitzcarraldo cover.
“In a disintegrating and increasingly lawless land, a young man is travelling north”. Yes, at 18, it’s The Sanctuary by Andrew Hunter Murray. Again, I’ve got nothing, no idea why it’s on the list but apparently it’s “the gripping must-read thriller by the Sunday Times bestselling author of The Last Day” so it surely must be at least half-decent.
Up 17 at 17, Wendy Erskine and her short story collection Sweet Home. Recommended by a friend who reads lorryloads of books.
At 16, in the list for at least a year, is Wild Light: A printmaker’s day and night by Angela Harding. I nearly bought this for my son for his birthday this year so I could read it, but didn’t want to look bad so got him something he actually wanted instead.
Another long termer at 15, A Spectator ‘Best of the Year’ (but I won’t hold that against it) it’s Winchelsea by Alex Preston. It’s been on the list so long I’m considering taking it off. But nice cover.
The kind of book I’d like to write myself, On Browsing by Jason Guriel is at 14. If I only read one book on this list, it’ll be this one.
A non-mover at 13, Winter Recipes from the Collective by Louise Glück. You know in the Guardian books quick Q&A when people are asked what they’re most embarrassed not to have read? Well, when they ask me - and they will, they will - I don’t want my answer to be the entire works of Louise Glück.
At 12, Sleeping Among Sheep Under a Starry Sky: Essays 1985-2021 by Wallace Shawn. Sounded intriguing in a book review I read and I’m a big fan of his acting work. Let me put it this way: have you ever heard of Plato? Aristotle? Socrates?
Dropping three at 11, it’s Alexandria by Paul Kingsnorth. I loved The Wake (in fact I happily forked out for it at the crowdfunding stage on Unbound a decade ago). I was less keen on the follow-up Beast but I’m a sucker for a trilogy, however disconnected.
And here we go into the top 10…
At 10, A Year Unfolding: A Printmaker's View by Angela Harding. No, this was the one I nearly bought for my son for his birthday this year so I could read it but didn’t want to look bad so got him something he actually wanted instead.
Not in any way a new entry at 9, To Be Taught If Fortunate, a novella by Becky Chambers. Who doesn’t love short modern sci-fi, especially one described by Joanne Harris as “Extraordinary” and “A future masterwork”. Future masterworks are what I’m all about.
At 8 since I read The Vet’s Daughter and thought ‘Whoa, this is really odd but in a good way and I should read more of her work” is Barbara Comyns’ A Touch of Mistletoe.
The Queen’s Gambit by Walter Tevis is at 7. I used to play a lot of chess as a young person (you are reading, in fact, words written by none other than the under 16 York Chess Champion, fact). Everybody said I should watch the Netflix dramatisation but I’m a stubborn swine and won’t do so until I’ve read the book first, which admittedly looks great.
There’s a re-entry at 6 for Conquered: The Last Children of Anglo-Saxon England which I seem to have put on my list twice.
China Mieville’s Railsea is at 5. This is not on the list for me (though I found his The City & The City fascinating), it’s to remind me that I think it might make a good present for a family member.
At 4 is Ghosted by Jen Ashworth. If I’m honest, it doesn’t sound quite like my cup of tea at all but various friends whose opinions I don’t actively distrust say it’s smashing and who am I to argue.
Just ahead at 3 is The Woodcock by Richard Smythe. “It's 1920s England, and the coastal town of Gravely is finally enjoying a fragile peace after the Great War. John Lowell, a naturalist who writes articles on the flora and fauna of the shoreline, and his wife Harriet lead a simple life, basking in their love for each other and enjoying the company of John's visiting old school friend, David. But when an American whaler arrives in town with his beautiful red-haired daughters, boasting of his plans to build a pier and pleasure-grounds a mile out to sea, unexpected tensions and temptations arise. As secrets multiply, Harriet, John and David must each ask themselves, what price is to be paid for pleasure?” It all sounds terrific, all of it, and I often ask myself this question so high hopes for this one. When I eventually buy it.
On the list for nearly half a decade, Bright Dead Things by Ada Limón is at 2, another one of those recommended to me by people.
Which means that still at number 1 since I first started using bookshop.org is Time Song: Searching for Doggerland by Julia Blackburn. I read and enjoyed her book Old Man Goya in 2002 and I like to circle back to authors whose work I enjoy at least once every two decades.
So, what do you have on your ‘to buy’ list?