I have had a breakthrough today. I sat my entrance exams for a potentially life-changing career. I passed them both. Phew. I’ve done a tot-up and now only have 5 lectures remaining and then the tuition on my degree is finished. I have one more piece of coursework but that’s not being handed in for two weeks so I have a little tiny bit of breathing space and do you know what? I am going to take the weekend off. I’m not going to do anything towards my degree for two whole days. I can’t remember the last time I could say that.
This book is top of my book pile and I am looking forward to the next few evenings in front of the fire with a glass of the red stuff and this to keep me company. I suspect I could just spend the weekend in a really heavenly place! Not only that but my Mum and Dad are coming down for the weekend – it’s the first time they’ve been here for several months (since before Christmas) and I can’t wait to see them. Woo hoo.
Books are generally “a tiny bit marvellous” aren’t they? I must be honest, I can’t imagine reading using a Kindle even though I completely understand why people love them. At the moment (and never say never) they’re just not for me. I’m sure there are loads of people out there who love theirs and maybe the difference is I never go on holiday or on business overseas because the choice between a suitcase full of books or a Kindle must be an easy one to make in those circumstances.
The thing is, I love the tactile quality of real books. I also love the fact that I can turn down the page corner if I want or write an inscription inside the cover of one I’m giving as a gift. I love my recipe books full of smatterings of grease or herbs, tomato-y thumbprints and other kitchen detritus that shows I actually USE them!
Best of all though, is the fact that I can buy them second-hand – both in a “live” environment such as a charity shop or in cyber space if I choose. Anyway, the key thing is that I prefer the former because I find it really hard to browse for books online where everything is key word search driven. How can you search for something you don’t know exists?
The fact that I can take books back into the charity shop and they can sell them on again is fabulous – it’s a bit like paying for a loan of the book and the charity shop gets multiple incomes from the sales. Believe me when you’re on a limited budget and read “by the yard” the fact that charity shops sell books very cheaply is a real boon. Mostly I like the random-ness of charity shops. I need a new book. I pop into a charity shop. I browse. I may find an unread book by a favourite author but I may not and that is when the magic occurs. In a “normal” bookshop, I’d probably browse along and select something in the mould of what I’ve read before but in a charity shop, the strange eclectic mix means there may well be nothing to which I can directly relate so I have to push my boundaries.
Something weird happens to make me choose one thing over another. For example, last summer I was doing battle in my veggie garden with my solar-powered radio tuned into the perennial Radio 4 and I happened to hear Stieg Larsson’s ex-partner on Woman’s Hour talking about the books and his subsequent death. My interest was piqued so when I was rummaging in a charity bookshop and spotted “The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo” I thought, “well, why not” even though I’d never have bought it in a normal bookshop. Boy did I end up glad of that. I LOVED that book, however violent and terrifying. It was the most exciting, thrilling bit of literature I’ve read in a long time. What a page-turner, despite being the size of the Yellow Pages, I read it in two days and almost didn’t sleep during the process. In a moment of the “chain reaction” of a great new read, I dashed straight out and bought the other two in the trilogy and could not put them down either. I was devastated to realise that I would not have the pleasure of more of this material ever again because of Stieg Larsson’s untimely death. I honestly feel deprived about that.
On another occasion, I spotted “Starter for Ten” and as it’s a standing joke in our house that we have to watch University Challenge now I am a student, I thought I’d better buy that and read it. I loved it too. So, now I have another “chain reaction” that led me to “One Day” in the local hospice shop. I grabbed it thinking it’d be an excellent read. Oh BOY. David came home from work while I was reading it and looked at me saying “are you OK”? I was sobbing. No more to be said for fear of spoiling it for someone else.
Long live charity shop second hand books for all the pleasure they bring and for all the good causes the money spent on them goes towards. You can’t do that with a Kindle.