When I was in high school, I wished having my own private library where I could pick up a book from the shelves and read it anytime I wanted to. I even had my father add it to his architectural plan when he was building our home in Manila. That obsession grew stronger as I got older. When I moved to the United States in 1967, I began buying books and slowly but surely began to build my own book collection. I started with the classics. My first purchase was The Good Earth by Pearl Buck from the International Collectors Library where I bought few books. Then I joined the Literary Guild and the Book of the Month Club. I also bought accounting and finance books, cookbooks, gardening books and memoirs. By the time, I got married in 1970, my book collection had grown tremendously. The best part of it was that I got married to someone who had a huge book collection of his own plus some inherited from his parents – civil war books, Great War books, sportman’s books and much more. My most expensive books came from the Easton Press.
Today, my library is about 3,000 volumes, give or take a few. I have not really counted them but my house is packed with books everywhere – downstairs, upstairs, on the hallways, in the kitchen where my cookbooks are and on the coffee tables and side tables. I have books with multiple editions. I haven’t stopped buying books. Since I can’t go on vacation because my husband is having dialysis everyday, I immerse myself in books during my free time. I have several bookcases around the house. Nothing on the floor yet. Give me time. I should call my home The Library.
I decided to list my books here as I take inventory of them. It might take me a while to list them all but I plan to list them all here. I will start downstairs and then move on upstairs. I’ll number them later so I can take a good count.
Credenza by the Back Door:
1 Atlas of America, Our Nation in Maps, Facts, and Pictures – Reader’s Digest
2 Home Town Long Island – Newsday
3 Long Island – Our Story – Newsday
4 Empress of the Garden – G. Michael Shoup
5 Great Gardens of Britain – Peter Coats
6 Gardens of Eden – Edited by Robert B MacKay
7 One Hundred English Gardens – Patrick Taylor
8 The Garden at Highgrove – HRH The Prince of Wales and Candida Lycett Green
9 Beautiful American Rose Gardens – Mary Tonetti Dorra
10 The Gardens of Gertrude Jekyll
11 Complete Guide to Flower Gardening – Better Homes and Gardens
12 The Complete Flower Arranger – Pamela Westland
13 Castles in Wales – Forward by His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales
14 The Book of Classic Old Roses – Trevor Griffiths
15 Roses – Ortho Books
16 All About Roses – Ortho Books
17 Flower Arrangements to Copy – Tat Shinno
18 Roses for the Scented Room – Barbara Milo Ohrbach
19 Garden Ideas A to Z – Elvin McDonald
20 The Book of the Rose – Laura Cerwinske
21 Successful Perennial Gardening – Lewis and Nancy Hill
22 Perennial All Stars – Jeff Cox
Bookcase near the Back Door:
23 For Whom the Bell Tolls – Ernest Hemingway – Easton Press Edition
24 The Sun Also Rises – Ernest Hemingway – Easton Press Edition
25 A Farewell to Arms – Ernest Hemingway – Easton Press Edition
26 The Old Man and The Sea -Ernest Hemingway – Easton Press Edition
27 To Have and Have Not – Ernest Hemingway – Easton Press Edition
28 The Dangerous Summer – Ernest Hemingway – Easton Press Edition
29 Across the River and Into The Trees – Ernest Hemingway – Easton Press Edition
30 Islands In The Stream – Ernest Hemingway – Easton Press Edition
31 Winner Take Nothing – Ernest Hemingway – Easton Press Edition
32 A Moveable Feast – Ernest Hemingway – Easton Press Edition
33 The Garden of Eden – Ernest Hemingway – Easton Press Edition
34 True at First Light – Ernest Hemingway – Easton Press Edition
35 In Our Time – Ernest Hemingway – Easton Press Edition
36 The Fifth Column – Ernest Hemingway – Easton Press Edition
37 The Torrents of Spring – Ernest Hemingway – Easton Press Edition
38 Death in the Afternoon – Ernest Hemingway – Easton Press Edition
39 Green Hills of Africa – Ernest Hemingway – Easton Press Edition
40 The Snows of Kilimanjaro – Ernest Hemingway – Easton Press Edition
41 By-Line Ernest Hemingway – Ernest Hemingway – Easton Press Edition
42 Men Without Women – Ernest Hemingway – Easton Press Edition
43 The Making of the President 1960 – Theodore H. White
44 The Hobbit – J. R. .R. Tolkien
45 Miracle at Philadelphia – Catherine Drinker Bowen
46 The Jungle Book, The Second Jungle Book, Just So Stories, Puck of Pook’s Hill, Stalky & Co., Kim – Rudyard Kipling
47 Complete Works – Edgar Allan Poe
48 Gone With The Wind – Margaret Mitchell
49 Vanity Fair – William Makepeace Thackeray
50 Les Miserables – Victor Hugo
51 Don Quixote – Cervantes
52 The Complete Works of William Shakespeare – Volume 1
53 The Complete Works of William Shakespeare – Volume 2
54 Captain Horatio Hornblower I Beat to Quarters – C.S. Forester
55 Captain Horatio Hornblower II Ship of the Line – C.S. Forester
56 Captain Horatio Hornblower III Flying Colours – C.S. Forester
57 Plato Selected Dialogues – The Translation of Benjamin Jowett
58 To America – Personal Reflections of an Historian – Stephen E. Ambrose
59 The Travel Diary of a Philosopher Volume One – Count Hermann Keyserling
60 The Travel Diary of a Philosopher Volume Two – Count Hermann Kerserling
61 Kobbe’s Complete Opera Book – Edited & Revised by The Earl of Harewood
62 Treasury of World Masterpieces: Pride and Prejudice, Northanger Abbey, Persuasion, Enna – Jane Austen
63 The American Revolution Vol I Part I – Sir George O. Trevelyan
64 The American Revolution Vol I Part II – Sir George O. Trevelyan
65 The American Revolution Vol II Part I – Sir George O. Trevelyan
66 The American Revolution Vol II Part II – Sir George O. Trevelyan
67 The American Revolution Vol III Part I – Sir George O. Trevelyan
68 The American Revolution Vol III Part II – Sir George O. Trevelyan
69 The American Revolution Vol IV Part I – Sir George O. Trevelyan
70 The American Revolution Vol IV Part II – Sir George O. Trevelyan
71 The Military Novels – Jack Hinton I – Charles Lever
72 The Military Novels – Jack Hinton II – Charles Lever
73 The Military Novels – Harry Lorrequer I – Charles Lever
74 The Military Novels – Harry Lorrequer II – Charles Lever
75 The Military Novels – Charles O’Malley I – Charles Lever
76 The Military Novels – Charles O’Malley II – Charles Lever
77 The Military Novels – Tom Burke I – Charles Lever
78 The Military Novels – Tom Burke II – Charles Lever
79 The Military Novels – Arthur O’Leary – Charles Lever
80 The History of the Rebellion I – Edward Earl of Clarendon
81 The History of the Rebellion II – Edward Earl of Clarendon
82 The History of the Rebellion III – Edward Earl of Clarendon
83 The History of the Rebellion IV – Edward Earl of Clarendon
84 The History of the Rebellion V – Edward Earl of Clarendon
85 The History of the Rebellion VI – Edward Earl of Clarendon
86 The History of the Rebellion VII – Edward Earl of Clarendon
87 The History of the Rebellion VIII – Life of Edward Earl of Clarendon I
88 The History of the Rebellion IX – Life of Edward Earl of Clarendon II
89 Courtiers & Favourites of Royalty – Madame D’Epinay I – Versailles Edition
90 Courtiers & Favourites of Royalty – Madame D’Epinay II – Versailles Edition
91 Courtiers & Favourites of Royalty – Madame D’Epinay III – Versailles Edition
92 Courtiers & Favourties of Royalty – Joseph Fouche I – Versailles Edition
93 Courtiers & Favourites of Royalty – Joseph Fouche II – Versailles Edition
94 Courtiers & Favourites of Royalty – Charles Maurice Talleyrand I – Versailles Edition
95 Courtiers & Favourites of Royalty – Charles Maurice Talleyrand II – Versailles Edition
96 Courtiers & Favourties of Royalty – Henry IV – Versailles Edition
97 Omar Khayyam – Edward Fitzgerald
98 Sagen Des Klassischen Altertums – Gustav Schwab
99 A Royal History of England – The Middle Ages – Antonia Fraser
100 A Royal History of England – The Wars of the Roses – Antonia Fraser
101 A Royal History of England – The Tudors – Antonia Fraser
102 A Royal History of England – The Stuarts – Antonia Fraser
103 A Royal History of England – The House of Hanover – Antonia Fraser
104 A Royal History of England – The House of Windsor – Antonia Fraser
105 One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
106 84th Writer’s Digest Writing Competition Collection
107 Three Greek Plays – Edith Hamilton
108 The Pilgrim’s Progress – John Bunyan
109 My Lady Pokahontas – John Esten Cooke – 1885
110 Harold Nicolson Diaries and Letters 1930-1939 – Nigel Nicolson
111 Harold Nicolson The War Years 1939-1945 – Nigel Nicolson
112 Fall of Giants – Ken Follett
113 Winter of the World – Ken Follett
114 Edge of Eternity – Ken Follett
115 World Without End – Ken Follett
116 The Pillars of the Earth – Ken Follett
117 Hawaii – James A. Michener
118 As the Crow Flies – Jeffrey Archer
119 Out of Order – Sandra Day O’Connor
120 Encyclopaedia Britannica Vol. 1
121 Encyclopaedia Britannica Vol. 2
122 Encyclopaedia Britannica Vol. 3
123 Encyclopaedia Britannica Vol. 4
124 Encyclopaedia Britannica Vol. 5
125 Encyclopaedia Britannica Vol. 6
126 Encyclopaedia Britannica Vol. 7
127 Encyclopaedia Britannica Vol. 8
128 Encyclopaedia Britannica Vol. 9
129 Encyclopaedia Britannica Vol. 10
130 Encyclopaedia Britannica Vol. 11
131 Encyclopaedia Britannica Vol. 12
132 Encyclopaedia Britannica Vol. 13
133 Encyclopaedia Britannica Vol. 14
134 Encyclopaedia Britannica Vol. 15
135 Encyclopaedia Britannica Vol. 16
136 Encyclopaedia Britannica Vol. 17
137 Encyclopaedia Britannica Vol. 18
138 Encyclopaedia Britannica Vol. 19
139 Encyclopaedia Britannica 1976 Book of the Year
140 Britannica 1973 Yearbook of Science and the Future
141 The American Horticultural Society A-Z Encyclopedia of Garden Plants
142 The 2000 Philippines Yearbook – Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation
Bookcase on the Living Room left side facing the Kitchen:
143 New Arabian Nights The Dynamiter – Robert Louis Stevenson
144 The Wrong Box The Ebb Tide Island Nights Entertainment – Robert Louis Stevenson
145 Master of Ballantrae Weir of Hermiston Poems – Robert Louis Stevenson
146 Inland Voyage Travels Amateur Emigrant Silverado Squatters – Robert Louis Stevenson
147 Virginibus Puerisque Memories and Portraits Men and Books – Robert Louis Stevenson
148 Kidnapped David Balfour – Robert Louis Stevenson
149 Treasure Island The Black Arrow – Robert Louis Stevenson
150 St Ives The Misadventures of John Nicholson Story of a Lie Body-Snatcher – Robert Louis Stevenson
151 Merry Men Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Prince Otto – Robert Louis Stevenson
152 The Wrecker – Robert Louis Stevenson
153 Little Dorrit Vol. 1 – Charles Dickens
154 Little Dorrit Vol. 2 – Charles Dickens
155 Martin Chuzzlewit Vol. 1 – Charles Dickens
156 Martin Chuzzlewit Vol. 2 – Charles Dickens
157 Dombey and Son Vol. 1 – Charles Dickens
158 Dombey and Son Vol. 2 – Charles Dickens
159 Pickwick Papers Vol. 1 – Charles Dickens
160 Dickens’s Complete Works – Pickwick Papers Vol. 2 – Charles Dickens
161 David Copperfield Vol. 1 – Charles Dickens
162 David Copperfield Vol. 2 – Charles Dickens
163 Dickens’s Complete Works – Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
164 Dickens’s Complete Works – Uncommercial Traveller – Charles Dickens
165 The Winter of our Discontent – John Steinbeck
166 The Short Novels of John Steinbeck – John Steinbeck
167 The Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck
168 War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy
169 Paradise Lost and Other Poems – John Milton
170 A Farewell to Arms – Ernest Hemingway
171 Homer – The Odyssey – Translated by Robert Fitzgerald
172 Paradise Lost and Other Poems – John Milton
173 Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert
174 The Travels of Marco Polo – Translated by William Marsden
175 Seven Pillars of Wisdom – T.E. Lawrence
176 The Age of Fables – Bulfinch
177 The Way of All Flesh – Samuel Butler
178 Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austin
179 Collected Sonnets – Edna T. Vincent Millay
180 Courtiers & Favourites of Royalty – Duke of Richelieu I – M.F. Barriere
181 Courtiers & Favourites of Royalty – Duke of Richelieu II – M.F. Farriere
182 Courtiers & Favourites of Royalty – Duke of Richelieu III – M.F. Barriere
183 Courtiers & Favourites of Royalty – Empress of Josephine I
184 Courtiers & Favourites of Royalty – Empress of Josephine II
185 Courtiers & Favourites of Royalty – Marmontel I – Marmontel
186 Courtiers & Favourites of Royalty – Marmontel II – Marmontel
187 Courtiers & Favourites of Royalty – Cardinal de Retz
188 Courtiers & Favourites of Royalty – Madama Du Barri I – Translated by H.T. Riley
189 Courtiers & Favourites of Royalty – Madama Du Barri II – Translated by H.T, Riley
190 Courtiers & Favourites of Royalty – Madama Du Barri III – Translated by H. T. Riley
191 Courtiers & Favourites of Royalty – Madama Du Barri IV – Translated by H.T. Riley
192 The Good Earth – Pearl S Buck
193 Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte
194 The Naked and The Dead – Norman Mailer
195 From Here to Eternity – James Jones
196 The Caine Mutiny – Herman Wouk
196 Almayer’s Folly – The Works of Joseph Conrad Vol I – Ltd Edition #641 Signed Copy
197 An Outcast of the Islands – The Works of Joseph Conrad Vol II – Ltd Edition #641 Signed Copy
198 The Nigger of the “Narcissus” – The Works of Joseph Conrad Vol III – Ltd Edition #641 Signed Copy
199 Lord Jim – The Works of Joseph Conrad Vol IV – Ltd Edition #641 Signed Copy
200 Youth – The Works of Joseph Conrad Vol V – Ltd Edition #641 Signed Copy
201 Romance – The Works of Joseph Conrad Vol VI – Ltd Edition #641 Signed Copy
202 Nostromo – The Works of Joseph Conrad Vol VII – Ltd Edition #641 Signed Copy
203 The Secret Agent The Inheritors – The Works of Joseph Conrad Vol VIII – Ltd Edition #641 Signed Copy
204 A set of Six – The Works of Joseph Conrad Vol IX – Ltd Edition #641 Signed Copy
205 Under Western Eyes – The Works of Joseph Conrad Vol X – Ltd Edition #641 Signed Copy
206 A Personal Record – The Mirror of the Sea – The Works of Joseph Conrad Vol XI – Ltd Edition #641 Signed Copy
207 Twixt Land and Sea – The Works of Joseph Conrad Vol XII – Ltd Edition #641 Signed Copy
208 Chance – The Works of Joseph Conrad Vol XIII – Ltd Edition #641 Signed Copy
209 The Shadow Line – Within the Tides – The Works of Joseph Conrad Vol XIV – Ltd Edition #641 Signed Copy
210 Victory – The Works of Joseph Conrad Vol XV – Ltd Edition #641 Signed Copy
211 The Arrow of Gold – The Works of Joseph Conrad Vol XVI – Ltd Edition #641 Signed Copy
212 The Rescue – The Works of Joseph Conrad Vol XVII – Ltd Edition #641 Signed Copy
213 Notes on Life and Letter – The Works of Joseph Conrad Vol XVIII – Ltd Edition #641 Signed Copy
214 – The Rover – The Works of Joseph Conrad Vol XIX – Ltd Edition #641 Signed Copy
215 Bracebridge Hall – Irving’s Works
216 Crayon Miscellany
217 Biographies and Miscellanies
218 Life and Letters 1
219 Life and Letters 2
220 Life of Washington 2 –
221 Life of Washington 4
222 Civilization – Kenneth Clark
223 Reporting America – Alistair Cooke
224 Ethan Allen, His Life and Times – Willard Sterne Randall
Book Box #1
The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown
Angels & Demons – Dan Brown
The Proposal – Mary Balogh
The Secret Mistress – Mary Balogh
The Inn of Rose Harbor – Debbie Macomber
The Lady of the Rivers – Philippa Gregory
The Queen’s Vow – C.W. Gortner
Only Time Will Tell – Jeffrey Archer
Rough Justice – Jack Higgins
Raised From The Ground – Jose Saramago
The Great Silence – Juliet Nicolson
French Silk – Sandra Brown
The Buccaneers – Edith Wharton
The Bells – Richard Harville
Flapper – Joshua Zeitz
Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet – Jamie Ford
Happy Valley – Patrick White
Marley & Me – John Grogan
Howards End – E.M. Forster
Below Stairs – Margaret Powell Inside the Dream Place – Sherill Tippins
Book Box #2 – Read
The Only Way to Cross – John Maxtone-Graham
Leadership – Rudolph W. Giuliani
Folly Beach – Dorothea Benton Frank
Shem Creek – Dorothea Benton Frank
Surgeon Spy – Fletcher C. Derrick Jr.
Order of Darkness – Philippa Gregory
The Right People – Stephen Birmingham
Fatal Inheritance – Catherine Shaw
The Landower Legacy – Victoria Holt
Power of a Woman – Barbara Taylor Bradford
Capital of the World – David Wallace
Wisdom of the 90s – George Burns
Escaping Into The Open – Elizabeth Berg
Black Monday – Tim Metz
Rescue at Los Banos – Bruce Henderson
Mrs. Lincoln Dressmaker – Jennifer Chiaverini
Dorchester Terrace – Anne Perry
Blind Justice – Anne Perry
The Winter Rose – Jennifer Donnelly
Rose Cottage – Mary Stewart
Midnight Runner – Jack Higgins
The Glitter and the Gold – Consuelo Vanderbilt Balsan
Left Side Table Living Room
American Rose Society Encyclopedia of Roses – Easton Press
Impressionist Bouquets – Derek and Carolyn Fell
A Flower for Every Day – Nigel Colborn
Japanese Flower Arrangement – Enchanting Ikebana – Reiko Takenaka
An Eighteenth-Century Garland – The Flower and Fruit Arrangements of Colonial Williamsburg – Louise B. Fisher
Debrett’s The Stately Homes of Britain – Sibylla Jane Flower
Home Collection – Clive Christian
Lowcountry Scenes – Jon Wongrey
Floral Style – The Art of Arranging Flowers – Vena Lefferts with John Kelsey
Refectory Table
Asia The Beautiful Cookbook – Jacki Passmore
America The Beautiful – Reader’s Digest
The White House – Amy La Follette Jensen
The English Country House A Grand Tour – Gervase Jackson-Stops and James Pipkin
Historic Homes Charleston South Carolina – A Pictorial Guidebook
Celtic Fairy Tales – Joseph Jacobs
Upland Game Bird Shooting in America – David Wagstaff, Arthur B Lapsley etc.
The Hudson River School – Bert D Yaeger
Charles & Diana’s First Royal Tour – David Levenson & Trevor Hall
Return to the Philippines – Rafael Steinberg
The Book of Roses – Sylvie Gerard LaGorge
A Heritage of Roses – Hazel Le Rougetel
The Practical Encyclopedia of Good Decorating and Home Improvement – Greystone Press
Japanese Flower Arrangement Notebook – Patricia Kroh
Roses of Yesterday – Dorothy Stemler
Cooking for Company – Ruth Mills Teague
Princess Alice – James Brough
Undaunted Courage – Stephen E. Ambrose
The Renaissance in Italy – Jacob Burckhardt
The Rising Tide – Jeff Shaara
1-50 — Updated – July 18, 2016
51-130 — Updated July 24, 2016
131-181 – Updated Sept. 13, 2016
182-224 – Updated Dec. 10, 2016
