In Holiday Mode (or Mood)

Well, my addiction to book buying gets no better and in fact is probably getting somewhat worse. You see, I have discovered that it is possible to source second-hand paperbacks from Amazon's subsidiary sellers at ridiculously cheap prices. Starting at 1p (yes, that's £0.01!) plus the statutory £2.75 p&p, that makes a grand total of £2.76 for a paperback. The quality is usually higher than the second-hand ones you get from charity shops (in fact, some are pristine) and c/s prices (depending on where you shop) are quite often higher. Plus serendipity plays a great part in charity shop finds - you get what's there: buying online you can source what you want. I still mine charity shops looking for books, so in fact they don't miss out, because I still buy as many books as ever from them. But the biggest buzz is when the anticipated package comes through the letter-box: I LOVE it!
The Husband was finding the Paul Torday book he was reading a bit of a downer.....poor old Wilberforce obviously has his downhill path mapped out for him, and although he found it a gripping and well-written book, it didn't help the Husband to de-stress at the end of the day, so I picked him up acopy of Bill Bryson's The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid (which he hasn't actually started yet...) blurbed as 'the happiest book I have ever read' on the back cover. Should do the trick!
Having finished Dan Simmons Drood (excellent if weird), I am re-reading his Ilium and have purchased Children of the Night online (for the grand total of £2.76). That's a potential holiday book, but when I went out to lunch with my eldest daughter, we swung by Waterstones and I got a bit carried away at the 'three-for-two' counter (Zafon's Shadow of the Wind, Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber and Alexander McCall Smith's Corduroy Mansions). I actually went in for a book of Carol Ann Duffy's poetry - which I found, and is a thing of beauty in itself - so I spent rather more than I intended too. Hey ho! But the McCall Smith will be definitely accompanying me to Greece in the near future, The Bloody Chamber is just a masterpiece and I've been intending to read The Shadow of the Wind for some time (but had failed to find it in a charity shop).

When I had my last supervisory meeting, we got to talking about how much we enjoyed the writings of Evelyn Waugh, particularly his shorter works, and it occurred to me that a collection of his stuff would be an excellent holiday book. As I read in the Guardian recently, a collection of short stories is a sure-fire winner on holiday when the right book is crucial to one's enjoyment (see earlier posts): if one story fails to amuse, another most likely will. Certain that I'd find a copy - if not in a charity shop - then in a second-hand book shop (of which we have an abundance in York) I set off with Daughter #2 and the Bouncing Babba to dig one out. Sadly, it was an unsuccessful hunt, and not even Waterstones had a copy. I did, however, find another volume of short stories the Penguin Book of Modern British Short Stories, (in the Arthritis and Rheumatism Council shop) which contains a wide spread of 20th century authors from Graham Green to Julian Barnes to Beryl Bainbridge. I'm not sure they're all that modern, but the publication date is 1988 (22 years old!). Looks like ideal holiday fodder, but even that did not stop me buying a second-hand copy of The Complete Stories of Evelyn Waugh online when i got home. And The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold to boot. Ooopsy!

Christmas Passed

Got NO books for Christmas this year, but fair enough - I didn't ask for any!

My Christmas reading matter tends to be on the light side (to give myself a break, and to be capable of being absorbed after a heavy night) and this year I am progressing nicely through The Matchmaker of Perigord by Julia Stuart. It is a very pleasant, undemanding frothy confection in the style of Chocolat, passed onto me by Daughter #1 who likes to de-stress on her train journey home from the Inns of Court.

I still haven't had a chance to look at my new Greek-English New Testament, but I am saving that...I have bought a lovely suade book-jacket for it, which smells just wonderful!

Now that the York Borders store has finally closed, there won't be any spending of my Christmas money there (obviously): Waterstones may get a grudging look-in, but I'll probably get most of my stuff online from now on (except novels - I'll try to source them from charity shops or borrow them from the library).

A Taste of Things to Come?

Here's a rather worrying thing: Daughter #3 has an accumulation of unwanted books, accrued over the past couple of years of voracious book-reading. They've been to the friends that want to borrow them and, duly returned, are cluttering her bookshelves and bedroom floor. She's largely outgrown that particular genre (magic, mystery, alternative worlds, para-history) and thus is unlikely to read them again. What to do with them? The first thought was to give them to charity, but then I had the idea that the library could probably use them. In the past I've had books that have come up on renewal as 'donations' and I noticed the other day that the library shelves - especially in the childrens' section was a bit sparse. And what better way to recirculate old books? Lots of people could benefit if they were in the system. So I bagged them up and took them to the local branch where I was told that they 'no longer accept donations' as the process of registering them was too difficult. What? Ease of process takes precedence over the acquisition of books? In a library of all things? They'd rather turn down 20 free books (all fairly hefty tomes, in good condition, costing on average £6.99 each new = around £140) than put up with a little inconvenience??!! The world's gone mad! The cart is being put before the horse, surely. I am alarmed for the future and not a little despondent.
The Heart Foundation, however, seemed a little more grateful: they accepted the books with alacrity and a smile. I hope they make a few quid from them.

Sweet Charity (Shops)

I seem to spend my life scuffling about in charity shops looking for books, don't I? Well, that's because they're so cheap there. But I have noticed a price heirarchy even amongst these. Here is my report on book prices in the charity shops of York, starting with the most expensive first.

1) Oxfam: it has two dedicated bookshops in York, plus one general clothes/brick-a-brack shop with a sizeable book section. Good range of books, shelved in categories, fiction subdivided as classics/popular/sci-fi/crime etc, then sorted alphabetically by author. Textbooks/non-fiction tends to be somewhat outdated. Small section first editions/collector's items. Good children's section. The price for a paperback is generally £2.99 -£3.49 depending on perceived poularity.

2) The Heart Foundation: Good selection of popular literature, sorted alphabetically by author; smaller selection of non-fiction, mostly outdated. Some 'collector's items. I bought a fairly tatty Penguin Classics edition of the Dead Sea Scrolls for £1.50 here. Most paperback fiction c. the same price as Oxfam.

3) Scope: I don't tend to go in here much, the books are very run of the mill stuff (Dan Brown, Aga-sagas) plus much outdated non-fiction. And they're always pestering you to buy raffle tickets.

4) Mind: A reasonable number of books at the back, subdivided into basic categories. Paperback fiction about £1.50-£2.99. Never seem to get much new stuff in. Small children's section.

5) Sue Ryder: started off with quite a lot of stock, both fiction and non-fiction, at reasonable prices -about the same as Mind, some of them obviously quite new.. Book shelves are getting smaller though. Pity.

6) The Autism Society: lots of pot-boilers, but redeemed themselves in my eyes by having a sale where all books were 50p. I bought Oliver Sack's 'The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat' and Peter Hoeg's 'Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow'. Still to be read.

6) PDSA: Books generally divided just into paperback or hardback. All books £1 at the moment, except for a few 'collector's items' which are £3. I bought Farrar's 'Life of Christ' here last week.

7) Save The Children: very small shop, but proportionally large book shelf. Good turnover. Prices fluctuate, but fairly decent paperback fiction is generally around the £1.50-£2.00 mark.

8) Age Concern: fusty little section at the back of the shop. Not much stock, but reasonable turnover. Top price seems to be £1.50 for a paperback. Bought an Oxford Classics text of Wilkie Collins 'The Woman in White' for 50p.

9) Help the Aged: seems to have stopped caring about its bookshelves. Lots of dross - romance and war, but the odd gem. Just bought Penguin Classics version of 'The Book of Margery Kempe' for 59 pence. More of this anon.

Also to be mentioned are the Red Cross Shop, The Cat's Protection League, the Woodlands shop and the St Leonard's Hospice shop: they tend to have a small and generally poor selection books. I almost never go in, and when I do there's seldom anything I want.