Marie has two main interests. The first, and probably her main interest, is reading. She reads all the time. Her reading matter is obtained from her local lending library or bookshops but mainly Amazon. She admits that her extravagance of buying hardbacks on the day of publication is because she hasn’t, in fact has never had, the patience to wait for her favourite authors to come out in paperback. Her library at home is quite organised. Cookery books are in the dining room, travel books at the top of the stairs, art and art history books on the landing alongside hardback fiction. More hardback fiction and biographies are in the second bedroom and children‘s books are in the third bedroom. The study has the rest, a miscellany plus her husband’s golf books. He has a shelf somewhere in there. It goes without saying that she is a great fan of Anthony Powell and his A Dance to the Music of Time series. She agrees with Mr Powell absolutely that “Books do furnish a room.”
Marie never goes out without a book. Therefore her handbags are big, they have to be able to hold a hardback (or two if she is coming to the end of a story). She even takes books to the cinema. After all why waste those minutes waiting for the lights to go down. When travelling she chooses trains for the reading opportunities and she reckons that she will one day buy a car that drives itself – for obvious reasons. And whenever she is asked what she would like as a birthday or Christmas gift she says immediately “A book token please – book tokens are the gift of imagination.” By now though her friends and family don’t ask anymore, they just go to their nearest bookshop where Marie’s gifts are easily sorted out.
She learned a good lesson some years ago when she and her husband visited Venice with the latest Donne Leon which Marie opened, as was her custom, when the aeroplane took off and she had her first gin and tonic of the trip. She had finished it two days later and could not find anything else she fancied in the whole of Venice. So Marie re- read the latest adventures of Guido Brunetti. But the lesson was learned and now, whenever Marie and her husband go on holiday, there are always one or two emergency books in their packing.
Marie’s second interest is looking at other people’s houses. Marie has no wish to move house. She loves her home which is conveniently close to a golf course so her husband would not even give a house move a moment’s thought. They have lived there all their married life. It is where they brought up their two lovely and successful children who still love coming “home” from time to time with their own families. A house move is absolutely out of the question but Marie loves seeing other people’s house choices; some she approves of but some make her shake her head in despair.
Marie loves all the programmes on TV where derelict houses are done up or where fancy houses are made fancier. She never misses an episode of that couple who renovated a chateau in France and she is amazed at all these other people who live in squalor as they try to achieve their dream.
Marie especially loves the programmes where estate agents are followed by cameramen as they sell very swanky abodes. Her particular favourite is Luxe Listings a programme based in Sydney, Australia. Here the estate agents involved live the high life as they buy and sell multi-million dollar homes that have to have a state of the art kitchen and dining area, a magnificent view of the ocean, a pool and a garage big enough for expensive cars. Marie marvels at these palaces and wonders “Where do these people get all this money to buy these houses and cars - and furniture that they didn’t assemble themselves?”
But Marie has grave concerns about the owners of these very swanky dwellings. Are they unable to read? Where is the house reading matter? There is never even a sight of a lone Kindle lying about. This baffles Marie and she feels sorry for these people who have lots of money but don’t seem to spend any of it on literature. Do they watch TV all the time instead? It seems that huge TV screens in every room seem to be the norm in these exotic palaces. That seems unlikely as her reports of TV Down Under have never been positive. In addition, these owners of vast houses certainly don’t seem to eat. Their expensive state of the art kitchens are filled with empty worktops although there might be an expensive floral decoration somewhere on the bland marble nothingness. And these owners must be child and pet free because there is never any mess, there is never a lone scruffy trainer lying on the stairs, there is never a rude poster on a teenager’s bedroom wall or a washing line filled with small sized sports gear. And there is certainly never an impossible - to - remove dog accident in the middle of the Persian rug in the hallway.
All this and the lack of reading matter could be due to the stylists who go in before house is put on the market to make it ready for the sort of person or family the estate agents have assessed as being the most likely potential purchasers? This can involve the removal of much, if not all, of the owner’s possessions and certainly all of the personal stuff such photos which are discreetly hidden away and any evidence of small people is bound to be removed. Are books therefore boxed up and put in the garage alongside the Mercedes and Porsches? How tragic? Why do they do this? Have they not heard of Anthony Powell Down Under? It follows, as far as Marie is concerned, that if books furnish a room therefore the more books in a house will enhance any house sale.
Marie has no time for these stylists. She has a friend who lives in Sydney and when she decided to move house the stylists came on the attack and decided that her lovely home would suit a young family. So all her friend’s fabulous, stylish and expensive furniture was put into storage and the house was filled with furniture that, and a pun is not intended here, to which Marie’s friend would not give house room. Marie’s friend’s house was eventually sold to an elderly Chinese couple who had no family.
But deep down Marie accepts that houses for sale have to become show houses to attract “the right sort of people” and all personal evidence, even including precious books, have to be removed so that prospective buyers can imagine their own personal evidence in that place. What a business?
This is a depressing thought but Marie cheers herself up by pre-ordering from Amazon a crime thriller due out very soon.
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