The Enid Blyton Society

IceMaiden wrote:It wasn't a tongue-in-cheek suggestion, it was lroper advice from an interior decorator to make the room look tidier! Having looked a bit further, it's an actual craze, known as 'backwards books' . As one comment I saw made said "I bet the sort of people who do this have put all the tins in their kitchen cupboards on their side too so the ends look neater than the labels!" .

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IceMaiden, that's a very weird article, very controversial I dare say.
What a strange way to look at books and to decorate apartments!
For centuries people have collected books and built up beautiful private libraries and all this shall be a thing of the past in just one generation of e-books?

Of course we still need physical books, because e-books still have not figured out a way according to my husband who reads lots of e-books to attach illustrations and photos (autobiographies).

I've read more than 5.000 books in my life and do re-read about 1.500 of them on a regular basis plus many new novels from the public library in-between (I wish I had more time to read). Luckily I still discover books that I enjoy so much that I purchase a used copy from amazon only to be able to re-read it.
I wonder why this blogger only re-read 20 of her books?
What a dull life she must be leading!
Sure, there are many boring books out there, but there are many compelling books out there as well and it's hard NOT to find them.

Through all those 52 past years since I've discovered EB and the joy of reading, I've considered books my friends and when I enter one of our rooms filled with books it's like seeing old friends...it puts me in a good mood.
So how could I turn around the spines and not recognize anylonger at which books I'm looking? Doesn't make the least sense at all to me. Sorry.

Rob Houghton wrote:I have my EB books displayed on shelves in both our front and back rooms, and people have often commented about them and if ever I mention Enid Blyton, people's eyes generally do light up - rare that her name meets with a negative reaction in real life, I've found!

Rob, how many EB books do you have?

I haven't counted them lately - and I guess some are 'repeats' as I have story annuals from the 1970's, and Dean versions of books I also have in original editions, and paperback Famous Fives, Adventure series, Barney etc, as well as the hardbacks - so I never know whether to count the duplicates or not! I will have to have a proper count, but I'd say (without duplicates - just my original hardbacks) probably about 250 - 300.

I still can't get over the messiness of the books in the fireplace photo. I'm trying to work out what its trying to achieve...? Is it supposed to look cluttered and messy and a bit shabby? Maybe that's the look the designer was going for? Or was it meant to look like an eccentric's book collection just piled up willy-nilly? I think it would have looked 100% tidier if the books had all been on shelves with their spines facing outwards. They would have looked less obtrusive then.

Wow! That is a lot of EB books Rob! You are so lucky!
At home Enid Blyton is the author from which we have the most books which I would say is about 70 books. I'm quite proud of that

I'll have a proper count later!!

Rob Houghton wrote:I haven't counted them lately - and I guess some are 'repeats' as I have story annuals from the 1970's, and Dean versions of books I also have in original editions, and paperback Famous Fives, Adventure series, Barney etc, as well as the hardbacks - so I never know whether to count the duplicates or not! I will have to have a proper count, but I'd say (without duplicates - just my original hardbacks) probably about 250 - 300.

Rob, I just counted mine which was easy as I have a large book case dedicated to EB books only.
It's 241 books, not counting the many print outs of continuation stories of the FF, FFO & Dog, Adventure, Secret Seven and R series (which are stored in 3 large boots boxes).
It includes the books on Enid Blyton's life, the German and French translations plus I have quite a few (over 30) FF continuation books by Claude Voilier etc.
If I skip the German and French translations, I count 111 original English books.

Machupicchu14 wrote:Wow! That is a lot of EB books Rob! You are so lucky!
At home Enid Blyton is the author from which we have the most books which I would say is about 70 books. I'm quite proud of that

Maria Esther, Wolfgang has even more EB books.
I hope he'll post his number, too.

okay...so I did a full count and I was way out, lol. Altogether, including paperbacks, reprints, modern reprints and new editions etc, I have 944 Enid Blyton books (including some with Blyton contributions, like the Daily Mail annuals etc).

Some of these are in the loft on shelves etc. Downstairs I actually have a total of 561 on display on my main book shelves - which includes all the original edition hardbacks. Most of my paperbacks are in the loft, as well as Pictorial Knowledge books, Teacher's Treasury etc

The grand total doesn't include the full sets of Enid Blyton's magazines I have from 1956, 1957, 1958 and 1959 or the half-sets of Eb Magazines from 1953, 54 and 55, or the numbers of Adventure comic, or Noddy comics, or Sunny Stories that I have.

I also didn't count the books I'm currently selling on eBay - which amounts to another 94 Enid Blyton books.

On top of the books I also have full sets of the Secret Seven Whitman jigsaws, full set of the Whitman Famous Five jigsaws, full set of the Whitman Find Outer jigsaws, plus a Bestime Famous Five jigsaw, and some more modern ones, plus the Famous Five Treasure Quest game and also all the Pepys card games - two versions of the Famous Five card game, the Secret Seven card game, Faraway Tree card game, Find Out card game, Noddy snap, and Noddy Happy Families.

Plus loads of Noddy stuff - too numerous to count including games and toys from the 1950's to the present day.

So you see...quite a lot of books etc!

And I certainly don't display them with spines to the wall!!

An impressive collection, Rob.
As for that fireplace of books, it is simply awful. I'd set fire to it.

John Pickup wrote:As for that fireplace of books, it is simply awful. I'd set fire to it.

I agree - it would be useful in cold weather!

You could curl up by it and read Fahrenheit 451...

Rob Houghton wrote:okay...so I did a full count and I was way out, lol. Altogether, including paperbacks, reprints, modern reprints and new editions etc, I have 944 Enid Blyton books (including some with Blyton contributions, like the Daily Mail annuals etc).
Some of these are in the loft on shelves etc. Downstairs I actually have a total of 561 on display on my main book shelves - which includes all the original edition hardbacks. Most of my paperbacks are in the loft, as well as Pictorial Knowledge books, Teacher's Treasury etc

What an impressive collection, Rob!

And only 56 more to go before you reach the magic 1,000...

It does reach 1000 if Rob includes the 94 books he sells and all the magazines.