Every single red book I own · Rainbow Bookshelf Tour

[Music] hello if you haven't been here before my name is lena and i'm really into books in a big way one of my most frequently asked questions is a bookshelf tour and that is a pilgrimage i am taking very slowly colour by colour yes i am one of those wankers who organizes my shelves by color but it's generally just how i know what my books look like like if i'm wondering where that book is i'm generally more inclined to know the color of the book than the name of the author which might say more about like the way i collect books but whatever we're moving on um this week we are doing red books we've done pink and purple we've done yellow and now it is red um i don't own as many red books as i thought i would it's actually kind of a bit of a controversial color to choose for a book as a publisher i think i think it just it like says like nobody's really sure what it says is does it is it danger sex romance it's something strong and a lot of the time i think with the way books look you want to make them look intriguing and slightly ambiguous red already has an opinion red already has a style so it's probably my smallest shelf actually the red shelf but i still have some gems i want to show you first i'm going to give you the little bookshelf tour and then we're going to get into a few maybe three or four books um that i have more to say about and this series is also just for me picking off books off the shelf that i don't usually have an excuse to tell you about um so here's the bookshelf tour and then we're gonna talk about the books so welcome to my red bookshelf the color of revolution periods lust communism brilliant let's start so let's start on the top this is actually a book that i finished quite recently i'm going to pick the first book am i allowed to just pick the first book i pick up as one i'm going to talk about i'm going to talk about this this is about great source of stress to me about where i should put it because it feels like the spine is very ambiguous color wise but the red was the most eye-catching but then also it's got this amazing side bit so i'm like well obviously gotta be this so that's going on the pile i don't know what my thing is about buying books with titles that i already know the answers to but like that's the book that i'm gonna read this is a book called the tenants um it's just a short book that i picked up from work that has a really interesting premise you can look it up if you want but i'm gonna read it i'm gonna read it this is the housekeeper and the professor which is part of the vintage japanese classic series um the premise of this sounds very like in the mood of elegance of the hedgehog or something and it sounds like it's really up my streets i'm really excited about that this is a book that you can't buy i've done some work with and support english pen who protect like writers and uh journalists from abuse and discrimination around the world and this is a short these are like some lectures that famous people like all these people have given published by faber and faber but it's not actually it doesn't have an isbn it's not actually available i think it's just for people who are uh involved with them so i'll let you know how that goes this is the book of belongings by sue monk kidd she wrote the secret life of bees and this is her book about the wife of jesus so on board china dream by maijan i was gonna read this before i went to china and then i started it and it freaked me out but i still intend to read it and now i know a lot more about the situation in china right now um i think it would be even more interesting to read about this is the reinvention of martha ross by charlene alcott which is one that i read the first couple of chapters on in a video where i was doing a video on first chapters and i still really need to read i don't know why i have this book but at some point i think it will come in useful for a video blueprint for revolution how to use rice pudding lego men and other non-violent techniques to galvanize communities overthrow dictators or simply change the world so there's i this is a meta fiction book uh that i read some of when i was at uni and i mean to read but this is like weirdly a christmas version of it um if on a winter's night a traveler five rules for rebellion is one that i hauled at the beginning of lockdown it's a new one from sophie walker who's a famous activist these are postcards very creepy postcards that i send to gumption club members i'm so sorry if you've got one of these from me they're very strange they're all like houdini related sure i've shown this in the video before it's a republished out of print and women's fiction classic uh published by the british library this is a horror book about the underground i picked up from a charity shop that i have yet to get the spa to read although now i don't actually have to ride the underground right now it's probably a good time to read it release the bats is actually a really the first part of it was a really useful um guide to how to write and got me out of a real writing rut but i don't know if i'd recommend it overall because it got quite slow at the end and then it kind of just like has one tip per page at the end but it was quite useful and really well written i've shown this before in a video but this is a special edition of dead man's trousers by evan welsh that i kind of keep for the production value really from a publishing point of view i think it's like a masterpiece look at this look you've got to see hold on oh my god it's so beautiful and that's that's a photograph as well i've actually seen these puppets in real life these puppets exist this is a nice edition of the twits that craig got me for my birthday the twits is my favorite of the roald dahl novels look at the inside cover oh my god uh this is unwritten caribbean poems after the first world war i've dipped into this quite a lot i haven't i wouldn't i haven't put it on my goodreads as finished because i haven't finished it but it's all about the residents of the caribbean who fought in the first world war up here we've got some more if you've watched my other vlogs you'll know that i have a lot of these uh graphic guides this is a graphic guide to empiricism they're like comic book style guides to big ideas a really nice copy of the night circus this is actually a children's edition but i much prefer it to the adult edition it's way more pleasing really clever really like almost kind of art nouveau-e this is something i dip into while i haven't really got on with a lot of angela carter's fiction uh her collected journalism and essays are really cool and i've read a couple of them and found them really really helpful so that's something again that i would never swear to have read the whole way through but do dip into are we going next oh my god okay let's let's talk about the stopping places because i read that a while ago but i haven't had a chance to talk about it properly i'm gonna put that on the pile defoes oh my god also i have a very emotional connection to this i should see it's even falling apart um this is my copy of marxism a graphic guide as one of the first graphic guides i um bought i think this is my secret weapon it's a book by vintage which is called when love speaks poetry and prose for weddings relationships and married life i pull this out whenever i'm asked to do a reading at a wedding or people are like [ __ ] i've got to do a thing about valentine's day we need to write a blog post about valentine's day i'm like got you covered it's literally just an anthology of old poems about love that's it bit of a questionable cover but whatever oh my god one day i'll tell you the story of this book but there is some publishing drama around this book and i consider it uh a piece of publishing history this is um a we go to the gallery which is a comedy book satire around puffing classics but published by dung beetle there is nothing in this room john is confused susan is confused mummy is happy there is nothing in the room because god is dead says mummy oh dear says john new words god dead confused john c is the big vagina that's a big vagina says john big vagina's a feminist says mummy john is scared it makes me laugh there is oil on the floor says john the oil is all the blood shed by the us government in its illegal war says mummy golly says john new words oil government blood well it's my sense of humor this i've talked about before i again keep it for very aesthetic purposes because i think it's the perfect example of a perfectly published book but like look at this every pencil has like the title of the book on it and then it's got some long long pencils on the spine i don't know why but this is like one of my favorite book covers i've ever seen this is the playscript for fleabag it's really good to just read i like reading plays so that's the thing that i do this is craig's book an artist of a floating world i'll be honest and say i tried to read this when i was like 20 and didn't didn't get into it but craig likes it uh this is a practical joker's handbook that i used to use to prank my brother with when i was like seven and i keep it on hand just in case craig gets you know outline banter uh rape of the lock which is actually like one of the classic poem story book things i don't hate it's by alexander pope and it is like regrettably very good i resent you alexander pope for this terrorists at the table which is a book i bought from a charity shop i think uh because i was just really interested in like i don't know what to tell you uh interested in negotiating with terrorists i guess anyway i'm just interested in like official peacekeeping methods so i did read some of this and i highlighted it but then it actually did kind of lose me towards the end so i kind of keep it in the hopes that i'll become cleverer but it's a bit of a questionable i don't know i'm not recommending this book i'm kind of just interested in it as a piece of as a artifact rapture by carol and duffy this is one of the first poetry collections i ever bought myself in fact it has a sticker with my old address on it from home and it's very special to me i want to read this book just because i'm very curious about all of the um cultural phenomenon around it and it sounds kind of like a bit crazy but um i borrowed it from my mom and i do want to read it because i don't know i kind of really like to read like i read the game and i've read 50 shades of grey and i've read the the biggest stuff out there i'm always really curious to see like why it captured a moment why it captured people's attention even if i don't agree with it this is a book of craigs a curious guy to london because he likes learning london facts this is another copy of this book why have i got two i'll keep that and give it to a close friend i guess who i know will appreciate it we'll see a history of britain in 21 women by jenny murray um jenny murray is of course famous for women's hour i keep this because i want to learn more from it but i'm i kind of like started reading it and recognized like how i don't know i think i disagree with her in quite a few points i mean margaret thatcher's in there for one thing and also it's like hella straight hella white again it's useful to know because i think there's loads of gaps in my knowledge and say like ada lovelace i wouldn't be able to tell you that much about her i wouldn't be able to say that much about boudicca it's useful to have around even if i know it's not like completely it's not like a complete guide to women gloria steinem thinks it's okay so well what can we do ah this okay we're talking about this we've got to talk about this just just wait on this wait it's not what it looks like um but trust me this is just trust and then finally the moving metropolis the history of london's transport since 1800 yes this is one of the books i own and i am excited about it i should probably pick this up again but i have spent a few mornings like looking through it and making notes so i think it's interesting okay i'm cool i made a mess let's go and talk about those books and i'll put these back so the four books i picked out bar one i don't think i've ever talked about on this channel before we'll start with the one um i talked about a very very long time ago when i was doing breakup books ah 2014. this is one of the most interesting books on my shelf and i'll explain why after i read you out the title important for artifacts and personal property from the collection of lenore doolan and harold morris including books street fashion and jewelry saturday the 14th of february 2009 new york that's literally the name of the book it's probably the longest title of a book that i own it's kind of like cult famous i think it's got quotes on the back from amy cedaris and dave eggers oh my god sorry i've got to look this up give me a sec oh my god i'm about to lose my actual mind what the [ __ ] so basically i haven't opened this book in i haven't really opened this book in like six years maybe more and since reading this book i have read and fallen in love with the work of sheila hetty i even met her once i just opened this book and i realized she's in it she's in it everywhere and i look to the back and it's like thank you sheila hetty and paul satric so anyway i'll explain why i feel like i'm gonna have to explain the concept of the book before i explain why sheila had to use in this book and then i'm going to lose my mind um so this is a faux catalogue apparently if you're like somebody who frequents auctioneer places i don't know what they're called auction houses um then you might know what these really look like but this is a auctioneer catalogue or it's a mimic of one it's actually a literary book which is why it looks the way it does inside are all these different artifacts and pictures of things from somebody's lives that are auctioned off some of them are actually um worth stuff and some of them are worth obviously nothing each object has a picture and a little catalog entry um explaining a little bit about the thing and the inscriptions on the postcards that they've given each other or like where the rocks are from and stuff like that gives you clues to their relationship for example lenore i'm hoping beyond hope that i'll be back for valentine's keep your fingers crossed the magazine will be fine with everything expect a case of wine in advance for me loving how and one of the next pictures is lot 1186 two bottles of wine it explains what the wines are and how much they cost and at the bottom it says morris sent doulan cases of wine for valentine's day 2015 and no to fix but since lost suggested she moved in with him so like he obviously didn't get back for valentine's day but they did end up moving in together and then you went to the next one it's a valentine's menu anyway it's such a perfectly crafted unusual book that i'll probably always keep hold of it it would probably be like a modern art um artistic statement to just like throw all these different objects together and be like the viewer can work out the narrative but it makes a book because really each object is so meticulously placed that you do end up working out what the love story is and it is quite easy to follow out from what i remember and at the end i had a little cry um i really want to reread this actually i'm going to pull this aside and reread it during lockdown because i think it'd be a nice one when your brain isn't really working um to go through but like i love talking about this book why aren't there more books like this if you know more books like this please tell me in the comments below the next one is a really recent book that i read this is graham swift's here we are um this just about falls into the red category but because the red shelves are quite empty it it's here and it's also in the red category because of this i love a good sprayed edge i really like it when publishers do exclusive copies just for independent book shops as this sticker says and this one is a signed edition and so i think that the red i've only seen the red sprayed edges in independent bookshops which is a really cool little feature i read a book called shuttlecock by graeme swift when i was at university so i kind of like already knew that he had like a good um track record it was actually probably one of the last books i bought before lockdown i bought it from london review of books um near the british museum i bought it because it has a really big font um i was looking for a really short read um it was just a lovely object to have and then also the premise was really interesting what was the premise i don't know caffeine i'm gonna find out okay here's the premise it is brighton 1959 and the theater at the end of the pier is having its best summer season in years ronnie is a brilliant young magician and evie his dazzling assistant atop of the bill drawing bigger audiences each night meanwhile jack is everyone's favorite com pair a born entertainer holding the whole show together as the summer progresses the off-stage drama between the three begins off stage their theatrical success and events unfold that will have lasting consequences for them all rich comic and alive and suffering devastating here we are is a mastery piece of literary magicianship that pulls back the curtain on the human condition sorry i just i feel like i love blurbs for books until the last paragraph and then i'm just like why do we do this i really fancied a trip to brighton i really fancied a retro trip i think i just like i think i've just been watching a lot of like period dramas and i just really fancied like going to the 1950s i really fancy going to brighton and i also really love anything to do with like old decaying theaters old circuses that's like my reading fodder jam um so i was like yes this is the one i really enjoyed this book i don't think it's like stuck with me particularly um but what i thought was really cool is there isn't a while at my back it's like it's a love triangle i'm like not like really about 10 of all the books that say they love triangles i truly love triangles it kind of is but it's also about a boy half of the book is taken up with this beautiful story of this boy who was evacuated in the second world war who turns out to be one of the characters um and he has a horrible home life and he gets adopted by these two parents who are wonderful and have never had kids and he has this magical like moment in his childhood um that literally turns magical when he finds out that his evacuee dad is secretly like a practicing magician and he kind of like teaches them how to be a magician i won't give any more than that away but let's just say that as the plot progresses and the way that people disappear and reappear into each other's lives and all the magic illusions are really cleverly woven in um to how the characters are feeling there's this really strong sense of place and synergy and it's a really just like well-written like meticulously written book it's probably not going to make it into my top books of the year but that's not really anything to do with the book it's more just to do with me i guess but i think it's just i'd really like to read some more from gray and swift because i think he's like very of his time somebody who knows like that period of history really well and the like inner psyche of that period of history really well so i'd like to read more from him for that reason i think and i'll probably just keep this edition because it's so beautiful it's such a beautiful little piece of art in itself i think the third book that i wanted to talk about i have very fond memories of and it's marxism a graphic guide now when i was at university i didn't had never heard of marxism nobody had ever taught me about oh [ __ ] hell i broke it b do be careful with the spines on these ones some of them are a little um vulnerable if you haven't heard of the graphic guide series uh they're the graphic guides to big ideas and they're drawn like graphic novels but they're actually unpacking big political ideas that you might not be able to get your head around um the lecanne one i remember really helping me like when i was doing like a psychology module at university i was just like i'm never gonna understand this then i read the le can graphic novel and i was like the sun has come out so yeah marxism was another term that i hadn't really heard until i got to university and was a bit like what the [ __ ] is this do i really remember completely what superstructures are and what dialectical materialism is no but i do feel like i have a better overview of marxism and i definitely keep this on myself for something to top up my head if i ever want to kind of like delve back into that thought process and understand it better and they're also just really entertaining little reads it's really cool if you like i've often like taken these on holiday with me as like a backup thing that's like oh i want a holiday beach read that's like light-hearted but if ever just want to sit and think deeply it's nice to have one of these on hand so i've got quite a few of these just like dotted around my shelves um for reference as well there's a feminism one that's pretty good it doesn't cover everything but i definitely use that as a top-up when somebody's like can you come and talk on a panel about the history of feminism we can can you come and like go on a podcast and talk about this so like they're really great and um i just wanted to highlight them really because i like them the end also icon books was my first publishing job ever so i used to like have to hand sell these all the time uh which was really fun but yeah they're kind of like a sentimental object for that reason as well that's why i keep them and then finally is the stopping places a journey through gypsy britain which has a red spine now there's a criticism i've read a few i've i've delved into the shelving mark that is gypsy history in the uk and i'll say two things for it it's very small and until this book came out i think predominantly written by people outside of the community which doesn't mean they're bad books and actually there's one i was really loving but actually just kind of stopped reading and need to go back to which is called i call i met lucky people which um i really want to go back and reread and maybe i should do that soon i read some of it and highlighted loads but then wanted to go and do my own background research for the rest of the book does that make any sense nerd god maybe i do belong in ravenclaw what is this i was already really interested in the idea of um this forgotten history that we often ignore and i often still see like newspapers that have cottoned on to other kinds of racism being explicitly wrong and maybe you shouldn't explicitly be racist in newspapers not that it stops them from being implicitly racist i still see them being really racist about gypsies in this really open way and i'm like what the [ __ ] the traveller community are really getting it in the teeth like all the time forever and always um and i think we really misunderstand the history of gypsy culture gypsy um sociology and then also like why their rights being trespassed against um kind of brings up a lot of um questions about human rights and what we're allowed to do with land and who owns land and why and i i just have a lot of questions about it and i'd love to do like a whole research thing on it damien labar is an incredible guy i actually got to interview him i'll leave the episode below but he is from this community and he writes from this community and this is a book about him going around and this is a book about him now living a little bit more of a traditional life and going back traditional life what how does that mean unpack that lena what the [ __ ] and this is him now living a more of a conventional house living life doing a kind of pilgrimage around these stopping places which are these ancient encampment sites around britain that kind of are only known to travelers or were only known to travelers and thinking about the whole history of his people how they've been neglected what he's learned from them what people don't see about that community and it's really beautiful and i think it's a really important contribution to those kind of discussions so while not on the face value a red book it is in fact a red book at least as far as my shelves are concerned i hope you enjoyed seeing the red books on my shelf let me know which color you'd like me to do next in the comments below if you'd like to watch the playlist of colors i've covered so far you can click up here and these videos are free to watch but if you'd like to be part of the little community of beautiful people who make them possible you can look into joining the gumption club i'll leave the links to that below thank you so much for watching frog snug out

Channel: leena norms

Views: 22,354

Rating: 4.9897084 out of 5

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Id: pd9JgKxN4VA

Length: 22min 30sec (1350 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 14 2020