Sunday, 31 July 2011

My purchases this morning - and I'm as pleased as Punch!

Every year around this time there's an open market here on the sea-front in which local charities set up their stalls to flog off items they've been donated. I go every year for an annual book-buying binge. Today I got a bumper crop - no less than 35 books (all second-hand, of course) at an incredibly low total outlay of just £28 (about $50 American). I needed 4 bags in which to carry them all back home, but could have bought even more were it not for the weight.
    Particularly pleased about getting the first and third novels in the Stieg Larsson trilogy ('Girl/Dragon Tattoo' + 'Hornets' Nest'), a Peter Ackroyd 1400-pager on Dickens and a couple of Stephen Kings I didn't have.
  I tend to give a wide berth to the stalls run by religious charities but gravitate towards those concerning sickness, disease, ageing, homelessness etc but most of all to the animal charity stalls.
    Now with these purchases, together with the dozen or so books I already had but haven't yet got round to, they should keep me busy for a while - maybe even until Easter.
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7 comments:

  1. 1q2331 July 2011 at 10:56

    I am similarly addicted to certain authors who write for what is laughingly termed 'the teenage market'. Really what this means is 'books that are adult but we call 'teenage' in the hope that some 'teenagers' might read them. 'Just look at the success of H. Potter' they cry.

    'Bugger off' I retort - although kids of all ages (except teenagers) read and watch HP, his biggest fan base is surely with the pre-teens.

    So I look mostly at Amazon to continue my flirtations with the likes of Alex Rider and the kids of the Power of Five and those time travellers of Alex Scarrow - not to mention the 'Gone' novels of Michael Grant.

    Each to our own, eh? Enjoy!

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  2. Raybeard31 July 2011 at 11:29

    Micky, you've just made me feel that my horizons are too close. Scarrow & Grsnt? Who they? Time to explore, methinks.
    I go to Amazon too occasionally, but usually for a purpose rather than to browse.

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  3. Craig31 July 2011 at 12:12

    Be prepared to be out of commission for a couple of weeks. When I started on the Stieg Larsson trilogy I had no idea that it would take over my life for about 2-3 weeks - I'm a slow reader! Poor Clive thought that I had emigrated. I hope you enjoy them... I thought that they were brilliant.

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  4. Cubby31 July 2011 at 14:50

    Would you read aloud to me someday?

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  5. Raybeard1 August 2011 at 00:01

    Craig - thanks for the warning but that shouldn't happen to me as I'm a pretty fast reader. I picked up 'Dragon Tattoo' because I was at a stall when I overheard an elderly couple (as old as me!) talking about Larsson. I asked if they'd recommend this one. They were united - "Absolutely!". Then later I bumped into them again and they said that they'd just seen 'Hornets Nest' at another stall so I went and picked that up too. So, with yours and their recommendations (and several others) I'm really looking forward to the read.
    Btw I'm currently reading only my second-ever Le Carre, largely because of YOUR mentioning it in my blog of difficult reads a few weeks ago. Unfortunately I chose one of the longer ones, 'The Honourable Schoolboy', at nearly 700 pages. I see what you mean. It's very complex. Perhaps I should have got one of his shorter novels (of which there aren't that many), but I do like his writing style. However, I'm now a third of the way through this one and shall proceed undaunted.

    Cubby - Naughty naughty! You meant in BED, didn't you? Come one, admit it!

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  6. Ur-spo1 August 2011 at 20:19

    I can think of no other pleasure quite like the feeling of coming home with a bunch of new old books.

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  7. Raybeard2 August 2011 at 01:04

    We are absolutely together on this one, Spo. It's a truly wonderful feeling of anticipated pleasures to come.

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