Ah lovely lovely books!

So, I think there are many Charlotte Mason mammas out there who have the same problem.....books...

one morning's finds

How can you possibly have too many of them?!
I sometimes feel a bit guilty for all the ££ I spend on books, but then again, we read them all, we'll keep them forever and they enrich us......and plus all our clothes are second-hand, so that balances it out, right?!

I found some real gems while wandering round the shops recently, as seen in the photo above:


Tales from Shakespeare by Lamb

An absolute classic book, and recommended by various Charlotte Mason curricula (such as Ambleside Online and Mater Amabilis). (we actually already owned a copy but it didn't have as many stories in as this copy)

And look what's in the front cover of the book I bought; it was awarded as a Prize 'for regular and punctual attendance' to a young girl in the academic year 1908-1909!! Over a hundred years old! Gorgeous!

Next in the pile we have

Kensuke's Kingdom by Michael Morpurgo
A  modern day classic


War Horse by Michael Morpurgo
Another modern day classic


Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson
Another must-have classic for my home library. (and it's on our book schedule for Year 4).


The Adventures of Pinocchio
This is actually on my book list for Year 1, but we borrowed it from the library. It's good to own our own lovely copy.



Then I got 4 books in a series called "People in History" by R. J. Unstead.  If you are in England and see books by him in charity shops, they are WELL WORTH BUYING! Good living books on history. (and not as anti-Catholic as Our Island Story).


Book 1: From Caractacus to Alfred

Caractacus
Boadicea
Agricola
St. Alban
St. Patrick
St. Columba
Pope Gregory and St. Augustine
St. Aidan
The Abbess Hilda and Caedmon the cow-herd
Alfred of Wessex
Alfred the King
Alfred the Great


Book 2: From William I To Caxton

William the Conqueror
St. Margaret
The King and the Archbishop
Richard the Lion Heart and the Crusaders
The Welsh Province
Robert the Bruce
Queen Philippa
Wat Tyler and the Boy King Richard II
Geoffrey Chaucer and the Cantebury Tales
Henry V at Agincourt
William Caxton, wool merchant and printer


Book 3: Great Tudors and Stuarts

Sir Thomas Moore
Richard Chancellor, Merchant Adventurer
The Princess Elizabeth
Drakes' Revenge
Master Will Shakespeare
Sir Walter Raleigh
Priscilla Mullins of the Mayflower
Montrose, the Great Marquis
Mr. Samuel Pepys and the fire of London
John and Sarah Churchill
Lady Nithsdale, the story of a famous escape


Book 4: Great People of Modern Times

Charles Edward Stuart
General James Wolfe
The Story of Captain Cook
Clive of India
Two famous engineers: James Watt & George Stephenson
Lord Nelson
Elizabeth Fry
The story of David Livingstone
Captain Scott
Lawrence of Arabia
Sir Alexander Fleming

Gorgeous books!

Next book in the pile is The King's Men: a Story of St.Olaf of Norway

Which I got because it is in the same series (but not the same author) as Son of Charlemagne, which we are reading right now and is brilliant (as is her other book, Augustine Came to Kent which we read a few months ago). and also we are starting to move onto Vikings, so this will tie in perfectly.



Good Wives by Louisa May Alcott. Another classic. I will read it with M0 one day!



Pandora's Box retold by Mary Pope Osborne.  L4 likes pictures books very much, so this was for him.


The Pilgrim's Progress - audio cassettes. This again has been on our reading list for this year, but we so far just haven't managed to schedule it in. When I saw the abridged audio cassettes however I thought it might be a good introduction to the story, and so help ease us in to reading it over the next few years.
(we convert audio cassettes to audio CDs)




A good morning's finds!

Some ladies like clothes shopping....I like digging through the hidden corners of second-hand books shops for these gems...


As Winston Churchill, another book lover,  said:
"If you cannot read all your books...fondle them---peer into them, let them fall open where they will, read from the first sentence that arrests the eye, set them back on the shelves with your own hands, arrange them on your own plan so that you at least know where they are. Let them be your friends; let them, at any rate, be your acquaintances.”