Sorting out the library

It is always fun to look through books, especially those that have been in storage for a long time. 

So far the library has sections for Art (including Architecture) which by far forms the biggest part of the collection. This is closely followed by Textiles and Costume, then Natural History - split into Plants, Animals and Birds, Adventure and Travel, a section that moves into Prehistoric People and Human History, and Fiction. Along the way there are some small sub-sections - Engineering and Science has brought to light a couple of rather wonderful volumes with tooled leather covers in green and gold, and some more obscure items such as a descriptive index of clouds and a little book about the colours of the pollen that colour honey-bee legs!

A Mirror Garden - A Memoir is in the travel and adventure section. Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian was born in 1924 in what was then Persia. She had an adventurous life with two marriages and lived in America and Iran. Trained as an artist, she travelled in her home country to explore neglected folk art and along the way explored her own creativity through traditional forms and geometry to become world-famous. This is going to be a fantastic read, I am sure, and it is wonderful to have these treasures, long in the waiting, out on shelves ready for us to read and re-read. Long live libraries!