A Book Collector's Guide to Moving House, or, Bloody Hell I Don't 'Arf Own a Lot of Books

And we're in. The move to the new house – still in Lewes, for those who've asked – was successfully accomplished on Friday, and the new place is currently littered with boxes and bags and in the living room a pile of chipboard flooring waiting to be hefted up to the loft (we're currently using the chipboard as a huge coffee table). All in all the move went pretty smoothly, but I'm afraid, what with one thing and another, normal blogging service won't be resumed just yet; there are various visits by various sets of parents and relatives to deal with first, not to mention Rachel's impending birthday, plus I've yet to finish unpacking and shelving all of my books.

Speaking of which, I thought it might be instructive to give you a sense of what moving house is like for someone who, to be frank, owns a fuck of a lot of books (and comics, and records, and CDs). Indeed, it was those books which prompted the removal firm we hired – the excellent Martins Removals of Newhaven – to mark the job down as a three-man endeavour rather than the usual two. And once the books were all boxed, I began to see their point...

You can just glimpse a comic box peeking out behind the amusingly named ("Weener"... uh huh huh huh), specially provided books boxes in that second pic; there were around a dozen of those as well (and there are still more in my mum and dad's loft in south London). Handily, Rachel came up with a simple yet effective system for keeping track of what was in each books box:

She scrawled the names of the authors on the top of each one. This innovation became crucial once the boxes were removed...

...and deposited in the new house:

Pick the bones out of that little lot. Which was precisely what I proceeded to do, and which in the event proved oddly enjoyable, as it afforded me the opportunity to shelve the books in a different order. To wit:

A work-in-progress bookcase, with some of Rachel's books on the top shelf (it seemed only fair to allow her a little space...); Anthony Price and Kingsley Amis next shelf down; then Adam Hall (Elleston Trevor), P. M. Hubbard and Geoffrey Household on shelf number three; and Len Deighton and John le Carré on the fourth shelf down (and a Stieg Larsson box set and a couple of strays underneath). And over on the other bookcase...

We have Patricia Highsmith, Gregory Mcdonald and Donald Hamilton on the top shelf; Ross Thomas and Graham Greene next shelf down; Andrew York, Dan J. Marlowe, Richard Price, Charles McCarry, Joe Gores and Donald E. Westlake's Dortmunder novels underneath those; and more Westlake/Richard Stark and Dan J. Marlowe, plus Peter Rabe, on the fourth shelf down. Once again, the lower two shelves are TBC, but I'm making headway on those on both bookcases:

Things are bound to change around a bit, but I'm reasonably pleased with the results thus far. Of course, there is yet another bookcase in a separate room, into which some of my non-fiction will be going, along with a selection of graphic novels, the remainder of those heading up to the loft (once it's floored) with the comics. However, I can't show you that bookcase, because it's currently housing books which I've yet to blog about, and I don't want to spoil any surprises. Mind you, if you take a close look at the above photos, you might be able to spot one or two other novels which I'll shortly be blogging about – some of which will also be making it into my Beautiful British Book Jacket Design of the 1950s and 1960s gallery...

Be seeing you.