Braman's Wanderings

I am really jet lagged tonight, so just a quick post.

For years now I have been slowly acquiring books of the Penguin Popular Classics imprint. I first started picking them up in my early trips to Germany and most recently I scour the classic paperback section of any used book store that I visit. Since they are a European imprint they are a bit hard to find. However, I now have about 70 titles from the series.

I like the way the books look on the shelf. This is an older picture of the first shelf of the bookshelf I keep them on. Before I left on my trip the top shelf ended with Lord Jim by Conrad, and now it ends with The Woman in White by Collins.

While taking  A Walk Around Cambridge during my recent trip I stopped by a used book store to see what might catch my eye.

I was able to find a couple Penguin Popular Classics that I didn’t have so decided to buy them and cart them home. The first book I picked up was The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte. This is one of my favorites of the Bronte novels. Another Bronte favorite is Agnes Grey which is also by Anne. I really like the way the book starts:

All true histories contain instruction; though, in some, the treasure may be hard to find, and when found, so trivial in quantity, that the dry, shrivelled kernel scarcely compensates for the trouble of cracking the nut.

See First Lines for a few more of my favorite starts.

The other book that I picked up in Cambridge was The Warden by Anthony Trollope.

The Warden was the fourth novel by Trollope, and more importantly the first successful one. It was also the first of the Chronicles of Barsetshire novels.

I had not read The Warden, but I soon added it to my list of books that I have read. However, it was not the first from the series that I had read. I have read The Last Chronicle of Barset which is the last of the series. I now need to read the rest of them.

I also had another book by Trollope with me on the trip. I have been trying to read The Prime Minister for quite some time and finally got it done. It has been on many trips with me, but it finally became the one I read on a trip. It is number five of the six Palliser novels. Now The Duke’s Children will go with me on my next trip.

Well, the quick post got a bit longer, but my mind wandered a bit.

Have you read any of these books?

Steven