Force of Circumstance

One of the things that I regret on a regular basis is getting rid of books. Sometimes this has been forced upon me by the break up of circumstances (it's usually better to run for your life than ponder what books to take with you) or by the occasional misplaced desire to declutter, streamline, minimise, whatever. I think I'm a bit wiser now.....I never get rid of books entirely, the extended personal loan is a favourite strategy of mine. Some long-gone books continue to haunt me by their absence: a well-thumbed childhood copy of The Wind in the Willows, a lavishly illustrated volume of Tutankhamun's treasure, a Penguin set of Simone de Beauvoir's autobiography with matching Matisse blue figure covers. I managed to replace three of the latter (two sadly with different cover photos). Why did I ever get rid of them in the first place? A university friend of mine did much the same thing, dumping all her medieval literature after the end of her course, only to bitterly regret it later. I guess some books need time and distance to truly appreciate them. Anyway, I intend eventually to replace the non-Matisse ones, thus recreating my teenage reading experience. I have however, just ordered the third volume 'Force of Circumstance' from an Amazon subsidiary - for 44p! Funnily enough, I'm not entirely sure that I ever possessed this one in the first place, which seems a bit of an omission...but I can't recall anything about her in the mid-forties to mid-fifties. Oh well....we'll see....