on writing spaces

CS Lewis wrote about his brother's study in his two-room hut on the army base: 'The sitting room with stove, easy chair, pictures, and all his French books, is very snug. I notice that a study in a hut, or a cave, or the cabin of a ship can be snug in a way that is impossible for a mere room in a house, the snugness there being a victory, a sort of defiant comfortableness - whereas in a house of course, one demands comfort and is simply annoyed at its absense' (All my road before me, p. 342).

In Isobelle Carmody's Ashling, Fian is borrowing the captain's cabin on the Cutter, because of all the books about the sea the captain has. Elspeth goes to talk with him in that tiny cabin: 'He had to flatten himself against the wall to get the door to the tiny chamber open, but there was hardly enough room even when it was closed. He waved me to the only seat that would fit, and propped himself on the corner of the rickety wooden table piled high with books' (p. 440). Though truly tiny, the cabin sounds comfortable indeed - no doubt, the effect of all those books.

But not only cramped places make good studies, witness this room (found on tumblr):

So that's all for now!