Daily Bookshot: Soul Food for the Bibliophile

Soul Food for the Bibliophile, originally uploaded by Robert Burdock.

Books about books are in a genre of their own, and they hold a special place in my heart. I like to call these books ‘soul food for the bibliophile’ because they not only have the potential to leave a lasting and profound impression on the reader, they also have the power to fuel the soul of the true book lover too. Books such as Ex Libris by Anne Fadiman (Penguin), Sixpence House by Paul Collins (bloomsbury) and A Pound of Paper by John Baxter (DoubleDay), have all managed to have that affect on me in the past, and if its cover blurb is anything to go by then this one, Howards End is on the Landing by Susan Hill (published by Profile Books on the 15th October), is another one to add to my ‘soul food’ list:

Early one autumn afternoon in pursuit of an elusive book on her shelves, Susan Hill encountered dozens of others that she had never read, or forgotten she owned, or wanted to read for a second time. The discovery inspired her to embark on a year-long voyage through her books, forsaking new purchases in order to get to know her own collection again.

A book which is left on the shelf for a decade is a dead thing, but it is also a chrysalis, packed with the potential to burst into new life. Wandering through the house that day, Hill’s eyes were opened to how much of that life was stored in her home, neglected for years. Considering everything from Macbeth and The Life and Opinions of Tristam Shandy through Virginia Woolf, Dickens and Roald Dahl, Howards End on the Landing charts the journey of one of the nation’s most accomplished authors as she revisits the conversations, libraries and bookshelves of the past that have informed a lifetime of reading and writing.

You know, I adore this analogy of the chrysalis, and the notion that a book appearing as a dead thing has the potential to burst into new life, if only its owner would pick it up and read it. I often meditate myself on the books that languish as unread on my bookshelves, and wonder what hidden treasures they may contain, and to what degree a particular book may enrich my life should I pick it up and ‘bring it to life’ (these meditations always surface again when I’m about to read a book and they form the basis of my ‘forethoughts’ for that book). I’ve never had the ingenuity to come up with an analogy for this ‘sleeping potential’ concept before, but this chrysalis one fits the bill perfectly.

It seems like Hill explores this ‘meditation of the unread book’ to a large degree in Howards End is on the Landing, and that’s definitely why this personal memoir appeals to me the most. However, I also see something else I really like the look of. I see Howards End is on the Landing as a journey through the book collection of a truly passionate book lover; one who is also an accomplished and revered author. That for me is a cordon bleu serving of bookish ‘soul food’.

Profile Books | 15 October 2009 | £12.99 | HARDBACK | 240 PP | ISBN: 9781846682650