Managing the madness

I've had a bit more time to think about how to approach my challenge in the last couple of days. I said quite early on that I don't want to buy TOO many VMCs, for financial solvency reasons, but I have already bought a few - about half of the ones on the shelf above were bought in the last week, and some have been removed from my TBRBC (to-be-read-book-case). I'm hoping I'll be able to pick some up on Amazon (I found one on the for sale shelf in the library for 20p!) and in charity shops, but otherwise I'll stick to the library and borrowing them.

I was undecided as to whether I wanted to stick only to the green editions; I wonder how others feel about the new non-green editions. In some cases I really like them - I love the new editions of Daphne Du Maurier and Antonia White. But in other cases I remain unconvinced. I'm not going to be fussy; the only criteria is that I must read the book in a VMC edition, not a Penguin or otherwise...

I'm planning to proceed mainly in an author-orientated direction. This is going to enable me to blog most easily about the VMCs which I have already read, bringing titles together as I did for Antonia White. I shall be finishing off Elizabeth Taylor (just need her short stories), Daphne Du Maurier (ditto) and Muriel Spark, and Barbara Pym in the next few months in this way, and also writing about Rosamund Lehmann. I then intend to look at Nina Bawden, of whom I am a big fan.

I shall probably also do some thematic reading... Cassandra at the Wedding was read because I was at a wedding, and I've ordered Vita Sackville-West's book Signposts in the sea to read at the seaside this summer.

I will also try to keep up with those which are being republished, and am looking forward to getting the new edition of Pym's Some tame gazelle.

I've bought from Amazon several titles which have particularly attracted me with their synopses, and I am sure that I will be easily distracted as bloggers recommend books to me, and I see other blog posts on VMCs.

My only rule is that I must read at least one VMC each week, and blog about it, and until I am done with "catch-up" posts, I must write at least one of these each week. I shall also blog about recent acquisitions sporadically!

I'm also hoping that fellow VMC-phile bloggers might like to write some guest posts for the blog. I don't really want reviews, unless it's a book that I'm reading or have already read - because I need to keep the blog about my journey through the VMCs, but I'd love to hear about people's collections or thoughts to do with VMCs.

Anyway, that's all for now - I need to get on with my next VMC, which is Stevie Smith's Novel on yellow paper.