SUCH a fun blog, Nicola! A fun "battle" name story is that Both Napoleon and Wellington named their favorite horses after famous battles. Napoleon's dappled grey, shown in David famous painting of the emperor, was Marengo, and Wellington's chestnut mount was Copenhagen,

Susan (waving hi madly!) thanks for sharing your library experiences. I'm not surprised we enjoyed so many of the same things. I agree that browsing the bookshelves of libraries is something I really, really miss. I will cherish it even more when we are able to so again!

That's a great story about your father bringing home books he chose for you. Really, really special. It's funny, I ,too, can visualize the library I went to as a kid. I can see the table in the children's section where I used to sit . . . Nice memories!

That's a really wonderful story of your lifelong love of libraries, Annette. Thank you so much for bringing reading to so many people's lives! What a difference you've made in their lives! And you're so right about libraries being doorways to the world. They open up a whole universe of wonder and possibilities.

What a treat to see the trinity College library, and the Book of Kells, Teresa. I've seen photos, and it's spectacular. I hope to visit it some time. So glad you enjoyed the post!

Margot, what wonderful story, and memory of your father making books for you. No wonder you have a love of them, and libraries. My local libraries have done a great job in the very very complex job of opening safely. Books are quarantined between check-outs, etc. The community is grateful for all the hard work of our librarians and volunteers are doing to keep reading a part of our lives. In my books, they are all heroes!

So glad to hear that, Mary! One of the ways technology is a very positive force in our lives.

What a fabulous story of becoming a research librarian (thank you to another Wenchly librarian!) I can imagine how helping student and professors track down material would be a whole education in itself! How exciting. Like you, I often just browse library shelves, looking for an unexpected treasure to catch my idea. I miss physical bookstores for the same reason. I love browsing the new releases table on history. I've spotted so many arcane and interesting research books that way.

So glad you enjoyed the post, Keira. That sense of wonder and joy when you get a get a new book and settle down to read never gets old, does it!

Mary, what a lovely memory of the weekly walks for books and an ice-cold Coke! I'm so sorry your arthritis keeps you from browsing, but as library websites get more robust, and feature easy searches and highlights of new books, I hope you are still able to keep reading full steam ahead!

What a lovely story about your friendship. Yet another way libraries enrich our lives! E-books have been SO important during the pandemic when physical libraries were closed. So glad yours are open again. As I said, we have a few hours each day, and still no exploring in the stacks. But I think we'll soon be expanding that.

That's another wonderful story. What a fun assignment!I bet you built a fabulous core collection!

Ha, ha on the maxed-out card, Kareni! Tell you hubby he should consider himself VERY lucky . . .for a variety of reasons. Yes, it's always a fun moment when the librarian knows you by name! That's a scary story about the calculator, Luckily you were smart enough to know not to accept gifts from a stranger.

Ha! It doesn't surprise me that you were an avid reader as a kid, Sue! I totally relate to that joy getting new books, and trying to time things that you always a pile at your fingertips!

Another Librarian here! Hugs to you, Beverly, and many thanks for enriching so many lives. So glad you are starting to re-open, too. It makes a big difference for communities.

That's so wonderful Kay! Hugs to all you librarians. In our town the library is hugely important—and appreciated—by the community. So thank you for all your work! Zoom events are a silver lining to the pandemic. They open up a larger range of possibilities. We've had some big-name authors do programming with our libraries, and there are craft classes too, showing you how to knit, quilt, etc. Such fabulous resources for everyone!

Donna, so glad this conjured up good memories! And how wonderful that you got a library job! I have to smile at your doing the check-out pre-computer era. One of my local libraries is a 19th century building that still has beautiful wrought iron and wood shelving in his stacks (along with several Tiffany stained glass windows. And when you check out a book, they thump the due date on one of those old white lined paper flaps with a hand stamp. It makes me smile every time!

Lil, my walk every day after school would definitely have included a stop at the library! I totally agree with you on how intimidating it is to have to to submit slip to request books. I love browsing, and always discover unexpected treasures. In college, our main library had open stacks . . .I could have been lost for a semester!

I read the "other" packhorse Library one (by the author who accused Moyes of plagerizing her book) for a book club. It's a fascinating story of a very hardscrabble existence, especially for women of that time and place. I wish we had read the Moyes sory because I was disappointed with the writing of the one I read.

Thank you, Teresa! So glad you enjoyed it. And am sending hugs.I hope you're feeling better. I find books really do help lift the spirits. This has been a hard time for everyone.

Isn't that a great acronym, Anne! Ouch! I'm loving the comments, too. As I read more and more about the EIC, the parallel to Amazon, et. al. really struck me. because of their economic clout, they were a huge force in all aspects of life, including politics. Most Americans probably don't realize that the EIC monopoly on the tea trade, and the taxes Britain put on tea to help recoup costs of the Seven Years War, was a cause of the Boston Tea Party, and our American Revolution! It also made me think of how history does repeat itself. We sometimes tend to think the challenges we face are unique. But most of them have been around before, just dressed in different guises.

Christina, how fascinating that you had an ancestor over there—though it must have been a very difficult existence. As you say, it was a challenging place for Europeans, what with the very different culture, the brutal heat and new diseases. I find the "nabobs" very interesting too. The more I read, the more it became apparent that an ambitious, clever young man of modest birth could become very successful, since it was more of a "Wild West" ( Wild East!) atmosphere. Definitely not for the faint of heart!

Jenny, I'm really enjoying the comments, too! I'm so sorry you're having trouble with pre-ordering Murder on Queen's Landing. It's definitely showing up as available on both Amazon and Kobo when I check. Are you outside the U. S. Maybe release dates are a little different in other territories? Alas, I have absolutely no control on how my publisher sets the release schedule. Hopefully you were just experiencing a temporary glitch.

Glad you enjoyed the post, Kareni. Yes, the EIC was a very formidable global power. Frighteningly powerful! There's much good to the internet. I've loved my zoom get-togethers with good friends during the pandemic, I get to research in fabulous museums around the world. But the scams, the deliberate agitation and hate mongering is so dangerous. At some point, the world is going to have to reckon with it.