An Inkling Novel - And a Book Tally

I just finished Looking for the King by David C. Downing. 

The book is labeled "An Inkling Novel." It does indeed merit that label with C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, and Charles Williams all playing prominent roles in the plot and with their own words appearing (slightly reshaped for literary purposes), and with an appearance by Hugo Dyson. Their appearances in this book reminded me of an novel I read a couple of years ago that had some of the same gang appearing, Toward the Gleam by T. M. Doran. Lewis and Tolkien figure in that book, along with Chesterton, Owen Barfield, and others.

Is there a whole genre of fiction featuring Chesterton and the Inklings? 

Downing's book was amusing. It wasn't great, but it was certainly better than a lot of other contemporary books I've read. And it was fun picking up on all the allusions to works of the Inklings circa 1940. So, well worth reading.

I have had Downing's book stuck on a shelf for several years now. I rediscovered it as I was in the process of reorganizing my books.

Part of my goal in reorganizing is to identify books I can give away. Now that I'm retired, I've decided to donate to the library, the parish rummage sale, or my old school books that I will no longer need or use, as well as books that I will not likely ever read or reread. Through this on going process I've culled hundreds of books from my collection in the last couple of years.

A secondary and more recent goal is to collect related books scattered across multiple book cases in the house or in boxes stored in closets or the crawl space. I now have one bookcase dedicated to Chesterton, Lewis, and their friends. That bookcase features works by them, biographies and autobiographies, and studies of them and their works.

Right now, the tally by author:

Chesterton - 77 

Lewis - 27 

Tolkien - 10 

Williams - 11

Hilarie Belloc - 5

The case also contains some 17 books by Joseph Pearce and multiple titles by Dale Ahlquist.

I know these are other books by or related to Chsterton and the Inklings, but I have not not located them yet. There are more boxes in the crawl space ....

I will continue to collect and cull.

And, of course, to read.