Did rather well at the op shop on the weekend. I'd been meaning to read the Sonya Hartnett (Sleeping Dogs for yonks, and for 50c, what's not to like? I read pretty much everything by Noel Streatfeild as a kid - the Gemma books, for instance, which I'm slightly afraid of reading again because I remember liking them so much and would hate to find myself disliking now...This was a nice copy of White Boots, so I invested (another 50c). Angela Carter - haven't read this one, but have read others by her - not always the easiest prose, she's a fearless writer (yup, 50c for Heroes and Villians).
The last one, My Year Off by Robert McCrum (author of The Story of English) was one I hadn't planned to buy ($5). An older man who was also browsing the books turned to me and said, "You should buy that one, it's really good." I don't know what prompted this - the other books I was carrying, or his recognition of a favourite book that he wanted someone else to enjoy, who knows? I sorta couldn't leave it on the shelf, then. He was so enthusiastic about it, in a diffident way, it would have been rude not to respect his recommendation. So, ah well, it's now on my reading pile too. I'm not sorry. It's about the stroke that felled him in his early 40s, and the process of recovery following it.
All up, not a bad haul - there be gold, among the dross, some days.
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3 comments:
I reread Ballet Shoes (another op shop find)recently and I can assure you they stand up to rereading admirably well, especially for something that is now, what, 70 years old??
I like Angela Carter also. Have you read Carol Shields?
Have to love when you get such a great haul. There is something nicer about books that have been passed through a few hands, they seem to take on a bit of history dont they?
Any way ...
You have been tagged!
you can find the details on my blog http://joyfulscraps.typepad.com/joyful_scraps/2008/03/oh-oh.html
Hugs
L
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