Tuesday, September 19, 2023

the library


“When I have a house of my own, I shall be miserable if I have not an excellent library.”

―Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

 What do they call this room I ask the man showing us the house we purchased last year. It was a room off the living room through double wooden doors. "A parlour?", he suggests. From that very first day I called  this room the library. And plans began forming in my mind almost immediately to the possibilities of making this such a room, walls lined with built in book shelves, an antique bookcase on that wall filled with books, comfy chairs with reading lamps, and maybe even a footstool.  Of course, I've had libraries of sorts all my life, wherever or whatever held my large assortment of books was considered a make-do library. And certainly this past year a majority of books have been stored in boxes on the third floor awaiting my vision to become a reality. At last I have a lovely room that embraces the afternoon sun on cloudless days, making it a perfectly wonderful place to be christened "The Library".

 “Books are delightful society. If you go into a room and find it full of books— even without taking them from the shelves they seem to speak to you, to bid you welcome.”

  ~William Gladstone


I have a friend whose husband was starting a new business and was very capable and interested in building us book shelves.
Some days I have my lunch at the table that sits in the center of the room.

"In a good bookroom you feel in some mysterious way that you are absorbing the wisdom contained in all the books through your skin, without even opening them.” 
― Mark Twain


 One Sunday afternoon, a berry clafoutis with hazelnut whipped cream  with "delightful society". My husband was there too😊, and he is certainly delightful society.

"A house that has a library in it has a soul." - Plato

3 comments:

Gretchen Joanna said...

What a great blessing to have a dedicated library!!

Amelia said...

This is beautiful, Cathy. I love the new bookcase, it will be so nice, that will hold a lot of "book-friends!". Yes, books really do seem to be our friends don't they? There is something very comforting about our books. (Especially old ones!). : )

Blessings to you Cathy! ~Amelia

Gretchen Joanna said...

Wonderful shelves! The fact that my "library" is scattered through all the rooms of my house makes for a problem almost anytime I want to find a particular book. I can't imagine the calm that would descend on my house's soul if it were unified in one room.

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