08 December 2011

Death by Deco - Guest Post - Helen

Thank you to Helen for this guest post, take a read and then please take part in her poll in the side bar.. 

I seem to have a little bit of a Deco problem which I thought you could help me with. My lovely husband bought me a ruby Deco for Christmas last year, and I use it as a Book-o-fax. I do read a lot of books, about 40 a year, and after each one I write my reviews for my blog and keep them in my Ruby Deco to look back on.

Earlier this year when I saw the Ebony Deco on sale at half price lovely hubby encouraged me to buy it as Book-o-fax Volume 2. I then had a bad day at work and discovered that Conduit Street had the Ivory Deco on sale... an email and phone call later and it was winging its way to me as Volume 3. It doesn’t stop there, I’m ashamed to say.

Lovely Hubby took me for a day out in London for my birthday couple of weeks ago and we visited Conduit Street where the Amethyst Deco was on sale... I now have Volume 4. It’s a good job they only made four colours.

I have been giving some thought about how to best use these beautiful Filofaxes. I am reading all of Agatha Christie’s books in order of publication in my GreatAgatha Christie Challenge.

I have decided that one of my Decos should become my Agatha-Christie-o-fax, just for recording my challenge. It may morph into a Golden-Age-Of-English-Crime-Writing-o-Fax (natty title!) as I am also reading a lot of other crime fiction from that era.

So, this is where I need the help of the great Philofaxy community, which colour should be my Agatha-Christie-o-fax?
  1. The Ruby – Deep red, reminiscent of the pool of blood left on the vicar’s desk after Colonel Prothero was shot in the vicarage study (Read The Murder at the Vicarage).
  2. The Ebony – Deep black, reminiscent of the darker side of the Human soul which leads to murder, and of the shadow of darkness used to cover the bungled shooting of Leticia Blacklock (Read A Murder Is Announced).
  3. The Ivory – Truly deco in colour, and reminiscent of the famous missing pearl necklace clue in Death on the Nile
  4. The Amethyst – Poisonous purple, reminiscent of the poisons used by subtle and patient perpetrators of that most awful of crimes, and used against Mrs Inglethorpe of Styles (Read The Mysterious Affair at Styles).
So, dear Philofaxers, which of the Decos is up to the job of recording over 80 novels and short stories containing crimes of passion, jealousy and greed?

Helen 

24 comments:

  1. I don't know but passion, jealousy and greed describes what I'm feeling right now seeing your complete and beautiful Deco collection!!!!! Gorgeous!!

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  2. I agree Laurie! Wow what a collection! Definitely red for blood for me.

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  3. Actually this has given me an idea. I love to read personal development books - it would be great to extract the main points from each for me and store them somewhere. A personal review would do the trick - I'll have to dust off a binder for this!

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  4. ivory! i <3 agatha christie! wish i had the time to read all of them..
    xx

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  5. I vote for the ivory. It is the most innocent looking and the one you least expect to hold tales of treachery, deceit and crimes of passion.

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  6. Red for me :o) It`s beautiful. I have question for Deco users. Don't you have problem with the clasp? I`m always throwing my filo inside my bag and I`m worried that I would scratch my bag and other stuff inside with the Deco clasp.

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  7. Katka, I keep mine in a soft cotton pouch in my bag - I was worried about scratching the Deco clasp! (Mine is chocolate.)

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  8. My Filofax has a list of books I want to buy and another of books I own that are in my reading list. I've always read voraciously and that means about 120-150 books a year. In 2005 I started recording them in an Access database and it is inexpressively wonderful to be able to dive into the database and access a wealth of memories just from knowing what I was reading on a certain date. I wish I'd started the database years earlier.

    Will you be organising your notes alphabetically by book or in publication order?

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  9. My vote is for the Ruby. But really, you can't go wrong with any of them! They are all gorgeous!

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  10. Wow that looks amazing!! I vote for the Amethyst and it evokes the 20's glamour to me (although I am biased as I do own one!) Such an amazing collection am most jealous

    Lx

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  11. Helen,


    I would choose the ruby.

    Dick

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  12. I would use the ebony for the evil of murder and saved the red for stories of love and romance.

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  13. Ruby, for the color of blood obviously.
    Am in awe of your reading speed. I love to read but am often frustrated with my very slow reading speed. I would love to read 40+ books a year and also have time to make organised notes on them.

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  14. Wow! Thanks for all your comments, it will be interesting to see which one comes out on top.

    @Alison - using a binder to record aspects for books you have found useful is a really good idea, a nice twist on the book journal.

    @Saffy I love the description of the ivory!

    @Katka - my decos rarely leave the house as they are not everyday filos in that respect. If they do leave, they go in a soft pouch like lowtech uses.

    @Ray - I just organise them in the order in which I read them. You are right, it is lovely to be able to look back and see what you have read.

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  15. I'd go for amethyst the colour of money, the root of all evil and at the heart of crime.

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  16. Wow so many lovely Deco's in one place! I love the idea of using one of them for your Agatha Christie reviews. I've voted red!

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  17. I vote for the Ivory as well as it has a look of innocence to it. They do all look so lovely and elegant grouped together like that. What a nice husband you have!

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  18. Ditto what Laurie said. Enjoy them all:D

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  19. Love the picture of all four sitting next to each other in their endless gorgeousness! And I vote Ruby (as in blood) for your Agatha Christie series. Speaking of which: I read them all when I was in my teans. Or my parents would say: I ATE them all. I had a serious AC addiction. Started of in German, and soon switched to English, which was even better (for all the obvious reasons). I also was a huuuuuuge fan of those old Miss Marple movies with Margarat Rutherford, who IMO was the best Miss Marple ever! (Angela Lansbury was just too young and smooth looking, although I liked her in Murder-she-wrote).

    That being sad, I feel an attic browsing session coming up. Must find my AC-books. It's been long enough to start all over again....

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  20. Jotje - Joan Hickson is my favourite Marple. You should definitely go and hunt out those books, you can join me on the Agatha Christie Challenge if you like. It is the Sittaford Mystery next... :)

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  21. Oh I think they are ALL beautiful. You have certainluy made me very green! hahaha

    I think Ruby would be perfect!

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  22. The Final Poll Results where:

    Ruby Red: 78 (50%)
    Amethyst: 33 (21%)
    Ivory: 22 (14%)
    Ebony Black 22 (14%)

    Total Votes: 155

    Thank you to everyone who took part.
    Regards
    Steve

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