The pub in which we met our friends last night had a gothic theme, including the carcasses of old books stuck on the walls to form a fake library. This included several sets of Chambers' Encycoplaediae, which gave me a particularly spooky feeling, as my masters thesis was on W&R Chambers. I always have a mixed feeling about this type of decoration anyway, and, on the one hand, I enjoyed the flush of recognition of seeing familiar spines around me, but, on the other, it's sad to think that these books have been ripped apart quite violently in order to satisfy a whim of interior decoration ...