Top of the Pile

The front page of the Guardian Review supplement today was a picture (extra 1) of a reader sitting precariously on the top of a pile of books. I was really taken with this picture and even more so with the second one inside (extra 2) where the reader is transported into the unknown.

It got me thinking about the power of a book.
 
But it also reminded me of the pile of books gathering precariously in the corner of the room. Books to be read seem to have mingled with books that have been read and with those that have been referred to for various reasons. Although I am wondering whether some of them actually got there all by themselves!
   
So my blip is . . . a pile of books, with the top of the pile being Jane Austen's Emma - read for our village book group. The meeting was last night and what an interesting discussion we had about it. (The pile is obviously not in the best place for photography, against the window. But there was no way I was moving it - I might have had to put some of them back on the shelves in the process.)