Monday 22 August 2011

Charity shop buys

I seem to have been reading three books at once over the past couple of weeks and thus, no reviews. I did finish one last night, my reread of Howards End is on the Landing by Susan Hill. Delightful... even more so than the first read I think. I'm also pretty certain that I'll return to this one over and over without it getting at all boring. My two other reads... well I'm halfway through The House at Sea's End by Elly Griffiths, book 3 in her Ruth Galloway series, and it's excellent. And halfway through Barchester Towers by Anthony Trollope which is also wonderful. I'm so pleased that his output was prolific as I feel I'm going to be quite a fan.

Anyway. On Friday I hit a couple of charity shops in Exeter with my daughter and grand-daughter. Haven't done this for ages so didn't feel too badly about picking these books up quite cheaply:



From the bottom:

Armchair Traveller edited by John Thorn and David Reuther. This is an anthology of travel stories and I was attracted to it by the variety of authors: Margaret Atwood, Peter Benchley, Noel Coward, Florence Nightingale, Evelyn Waugh, plus the usual kind of author you find in this kind of collection, such as Paul Theroux, Redmond O'Hanlon, Gerald Durrell, Bruce Chatwin etc. An unusal mix and I couldn't resist it. Not that I tried all that hard...

The Last Chronicle of Barset by Anthony Trollope. I could, and probably have (can't quite recall), put this on my Kindle but I couldn't resist this lovely paperback copy for £1. It's book six in the series and I'm only on book two but I like to be prepared. :-)

The Political Animal by Jeremy Paxman. I've read two of this other books, The English and On Royalty and like his style and humour so this was another no brainer.

The Mephisto Club by Tess Gerritsen. My next read in her Rizzoli and Isles series. I just grabbed it and cleaved it to my bosom. No more comment needed than that.

The Bird in the Tree by Elizabeth Goudge. I can remember reading her Green Dolphin Country many years ago. I loved it but have never read anything else by her. I looked at the cover of this...



... and couldn't leave it behind. *Beautiful*

I also bought four Tamora Pierce books for my grand-daughter. At 20p each how much more of a bargain could you ask for?

So those are my ill-gotten gains for now. Very pleased with all of them and they cost me the princely sum of £4.60, so hardly any guilt involved at all. None if you think it goes to charity.

And lastly, my RIP pile seems to have taken on a life of its own. I swear I didn't put all of those 22 books there!


~~~oOo~~~

13 comments:

DesLily said...

wow! Great finds from the charity shop! It's impossible to leave without books when they are so cheap! Even if you hadn't intended on reading them..you look and go.. "well for the price, maybe I'll try it" ..and that's all she wrote! lol

Ahhh the grand rip pile! Mine is big too! Thankfully you have a few smaller books mixed in so you will do well!.. I've read only two from your group..drood and little stranger... I need to take pics of the rip pile too.. if I also took out the 3 dickens books I have and lord fauntlaroy and a few others I have the pile would be huge..but I am not including them..too many books to put away again LOL

Yvonne @ Fiction Books Reviews said...

Hi Cath,

I knew that you wouldn't be able to come back with nothing ... but all those books for less than a fiver is fantastic value!

I guess that your great haul won't stop you from your regular venture into the library though?

I'm frightened to take pictures of my bookshelves, it looks a little like a very busy corner of Waterstones! Say no more.

I picked up a great boxed set of 8 Daphne du Maurier books the other day for a fantastic price. Mother-in-law encouraged me to buy them, by offering to split the cost if we could both read them. Honestly you would think she would know better than to encourage me!

Kailana said...

I am really looking forward to RIP. I have been thinking about my books and I think I might post a list for this challenge like I did for Once Upon a Time.

Cath said...

Pat: Yeah, and for that price if you don't like the book it's not too much of a hardship to take it back to the charity/thrift shop for them to resell.

Yes, some of my books are small and are also short story books so I probably won't read all of those but pick and mix for the short story weekends. I'm determined to read at least 4 books off this pile though and maybe more! Trouble is, I troll around to other blogs to see what they're reading................

Yvonne: LOl... yes, I went with the intention of getting something. And the charity shops in my daughter's part of Exeter are very reasonable price-wise. The FORCE shop there sell their books for under £1 mostly and the Devon Air Ambulance for 50p. As charity shops go, I realise that's cheap.

No, no... I'll still use the library. LOL.

Eight DdM books sounds like a good buy to me! She's a brilliant author. I love Frenchman's Creek and The House on the Strand.

Kailana: I think having a list and crossing books off helps me to actually get rid of something off the tbr mountain. Even if I don't read the whole list.

DesLily said...

oh yeah i know what you mean about checking out all the other blog reviews and finding even more books you want!! *sigh* I keep saying I"m not going to do that... heh.. yeahrightsure!

Jodie Robson said...

Oh lucky you - I love The Bird in the Tree! One of my very favourite books but I don't have a copy at the moment. I've got the last of the series, The Herb of Grace, but I must get round to finding the first two again. That's a lovely cover, too.

Jodie Robson said...

Sorry, Herb of Grace is the second - The Heart of the Family is the last, I always get that wrong. That copy of The Bird in the Tree is selling at £18 on the interwebz, so you should feel quite smug!

Vintage Reading said...

I've been meaning to read Green Dolphin County for years but the size of it has put me off! If you recommend it I'll give it a go.

Cath said...

Pat: Yeah right... you and me both. LOL! And the American books always seem much more interesting than the Brit ones... that doesn't help.

GeraniumCat: £18! Gosh. Mine was... *cough*... 80p. Had no idea I'd found such a bargain. It's also nice that you like it so much as I know we have similar tastes in books.

Nicola: It's years since I read Green Dolphin Country but I can remember liking it a lot. Beautiful writing and part of the book (the most interesting imo) was set in New Zealand.

Audrey said...

Hi, Cath! Nice to meet you. I am glad in the end that I did read The Warden...definitely worth it!
Audret

Cath said...

Audrey: The Warden certainly goes into a lot more background detail that various explanations in Barchester Towers, so I too am very glad that I read it first. I'm certainly loving Barchester Towers though. Beautifully written and wonderful characters.

Susan said...

Oooh, I just did a charity shop run on Friday too, and have to post about it! I love your finds, especially the Rizzo and Isles (sp?) which I am just about to finally start - The Surgeon I had to special order in, and I got it in time for RIP! I'm excited! I love your pictures of both, too. It's so much fun to see what we can find at a charity shop, isn't it?

Cath said...

Susan: Oh! The Surgeon is perfect for RIP... far more scary than many supernatural stories, imo. Edge of your seat stuff. Can't wait to hear what you think!

Yeah, it's huge fun in the charity shops and nice that you're not spending mega-bucks but helping charities too. And you just never know what you might find! Hope you post about your finds.