Welcome to this week’s blog, and our roundup of your comments and photos from last week. Again, inevitably, the shadow of events in the wider world has loomed over discussions on TLS. But contributors have also emphasised the importance of seeking distraction and relief. “Maintaining a positive spirit is a way of refusing to be defeated by the monsters,” says interwar.

On that note, MsCarey recommended the mighty Barbara Pym:

It’s been a busy week and I’m still glued to the news channels/papers but there came a point when I had to escape, even if all too briefly, and I plumped for a reread of Barbara Pym’s Quartet in Autumn. Sadder than her other books, with characters that have most of their lives behind them rather than in front, but still a small miracle of writing which celebrates the philosophy of just putting one foot in front of another when all other approaches to life may look too fancy or just plain redundant. That, and the necessity of appreciating all life’s absurdities whatever the situation. Pym never fails me.

Samye88 also wrote movingly about Elizabeth Taylor’s “quiet, sober” View Of The Harbour:

In today’s world that is turned upside down and everyday hysterics are a matter of course, I treasure a small and personal voice like this more than ever. Just hope it doesn’t turn to be too prescient.

More directly relevant to our current politics was a fascinating thread about cults, started by 7sisters who had been reading The Girls by Emma Cline:

7sisters noted that The Girls contained, “great lyrical writing – in fact maybe too great for such a sordid story based on the Manson murders.”

On the same thread, simplicitydrifter made some fascinating recommendations:

Tim Guest’s My Life In Orange is a heartbreaking account of a childhood spent with well-meaning followers of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. His mother, Anne Geraghty, later wrote her own account - In The Dark And Still Moving: A Different Version of What Is Gained When A Paradise Is Found And Then Lost. I found Tim’s far and away the more self-aware, nuanced and revealing account, despite his age having prevented him having the whole story at the time. (I see this as a reflection on their writing abilities and maybe personalities by the way, not as a judgement on anyone’s actions.)

Saïd Sayrafiezadeh’s When Skateboards Will Be Free is worth reading too, although again it’s upsetting. The group his mother is involved with is concerned with politics rather than spirituality, but it’s another less than straightforward story where intentions collide with effects.

Elsewhere, SydneyH asked which books Evelyn Waugh fans like the most. The answer was, naturally: nearly all of them. Recommendations included The Sword Of Honour Trilogy, Scoop, Brideshead Revisited, The Ordeal Of Gilbert Pinfold, A Handful Of Dust, and Decline And Fall. And who would argue with any of those? Certainly not me.

An even more fundamental question came from Yosserian: “do other people sniff their books?” Yes, was the short answer. But the long answer was wonderful and intoxicating; “Only old ones, in which the lignin decomposes giving a smell related to vanilla,” said Machenbach, before adding:

The German art book publisher Steidl commissioned the parfumer Geza Schoen to produce a paper-smelling perfume. Unfortunately for my nose, he seems to have taken the smell of office paper fresh out of a photocopying machine as his base note.

Interwar’s contribution was positively Proustian:

When I was in grade school in the US, every year on arriving in our new classroom just after Labor Day, we would find a small pile of fresh textbooks on each desk. Naturally, the first thing we would do is sniff them all. Each subject had a different smell. As I recall, the geography book scent was always especially exhilarating.

I’m off to smell my own shelves as soon as I can.

One thing before I go. I’m sure you’d all like to join me in thanking the wonderful Marta Bausells for her fantastic work on TLS over the past two years. We’ll miss her. Here are a few words from her:

Hi TLSers! Just a short message to do that dreadful, dreadful thing that is saying goodbye. I am soon off to new pastures, so am passing the TLS baton to the brilliant Sam Jordison. I can’t think of anyone better suited for it, and look forward to watching this community continue to thrive from the distance! I will treasure the experience of having hosted TLS for two years – as well as the gift/curse that is the list of books you’ve all added to my TBR pile – very dearly. I always use and will continue to use TLS as the example for all the things that are right with the Internet. Thanks for being fantastic, generous readers, and for making my reading life so much richer. Keep in touch with me on Twitter, and happy reading! Marta

Interesting links about books and reading

• Yes, there is a website dedicated to giving ebooks the Smell of Books. The jury’s out on whether it’s a joke or not - but it’s funny either way.
  
• Enjoy this tender lament for the bookshop chain Ottakar’s, marking 10 years since it was taken over by HMV media.
  
• Meanwhile, here’s a useful site for London dwellers hoping to support indy bookshops - a one hour book delivery service.
  
• Talking of London, there’s a treasure trove of information about Charles Dickens in the capital on David Perdue’s Charles Dickens Page – a site I mention apropos of nothing much at all, beyond the fact that it’s wonderful.

If you would like to share a photo of the book you are reading, or film your own book review, please do. Click the blue button on this page to share your video or image. I’ll include some of your posts in next week’s blog.

If you’re on Instagram and a book lover, chances are you’re already sharing beautiful pictures of books you are reading, “shelfies” or all kinds of still lifes with books as protagonists. Now, you can share your reads with us on the mobile photography platform – simply tag your pictures there with #GuardianBooks, and we’ll include a selection here. Happy reading!