Call me a moaning Minnie if you like but I’m a bit miffed about my purchase.

I’m back in full-on reading mode and have to buy my books as cheaply as possible – so second hand charity shop purchases are it. The other day I dashed into the local charity shop late in the afternoon, when I was in a hurry and the shop was about to close. Neither thing was conducive to browsing for books but I HAD to have some because I’d read the very last thing on my book pile.

So, I knew I’d be on safe ground with the new Marian Keyes and the new Dawn French because both are relatively newly out (hence no danger of buying then having realised I’d read before and let’s face it, anything by Marian Keyes is going to be wonderful) and both were dirt-cheap – second hand books have noticeably dropped in price since Kindles came out.

Then I panicked – two minutes to closing time and more reading matter needed… I lunged at a Maeve Binchy with a title I’d not seen before. In the same way I consider myself a one-woman campaign for all things Scottish music-wise, I consider myself to be the same about Irish writers (see Marian Keyes comment) and Maeve Binchy is up there with the finest of the fine. Her books are so deeply satisfying that I want to cry when I finish one. I bought it, along with the other two, all three together came to a price significantly below one new paperback.

I got them home, polished off Marian Keyes in a day, then picked up the Maeve Binchy. Oh no. On the front cover it had the title – never seen by me before and the only other text apart from her name was “the number one best seller”. When I turned it over two things became obvious – firstly it was a book of short stories. Now I am a bit weird and think the only place for a short story is read out loud on radio 4 while I’m in the car. I don’t really like short stories to read. I always end a story feeling unsatisfied because the experience is over too quickly and going on to a different story in the same book is plain odd. I wanted to weep. Then, to add insult to injury, I realised that several of these stories had already been published in an earlier book, which I’d also bought by mistake.

It’s not Maeve’s fault (and I can’t wait for her last novel to arrive in a charity shop near me) – I made the mistake of not reading the back before purchase. She is a 100% warm heared treasure to be savoured and adored. So, the book will go back to the charity shop, unread by me and I’ll just consider its purchase price a donation to the charity rather than being “short changed”.