Two books from the second hand hospice stand.

[KG Christopher]

So I went out shopping last Saturday, and there was this guy, he offered to pay, who's the hunk, I said to myself, for so many years I'de been left on the shelf, an old boiler ....

Sorry, wrong introduction (5 marks if you can guess the song and band).

Today. I went shopping for a few things (water, yoghurt, curly kale, plumbs, orange juice). I passed the local hospice stand, selling books and I got two.

Cold Mountain - Charles Frazier
About A Boy - Nick Hornby

Not bad for the sum total of 3 swiss francs.

I also bought a book a couple of years ago, probably 5 years ago called 'The House Of Saud' in a Geneva flea market, and stuck in the middle, probably as a book mark was 500 Afghanis in 100 Afghani notes? I wonder who had the book before me? was it bought in Kabul? how did it get to Geneva? a spy? a terrorist?

We all like a second-hand book stall, any surprises? have you bought anything unexpectedly?

 

[Carol Rose]

I have a copy of Out of Africa that's signed by Isak Dinesen. I found it in a bookstore in Franklin, Tennessee and only paid $30 for it. Was floored to have found it, especially for that price, signed by the author.

 

[KG Christopher]

I have a copy of Out of Africa that's signed by Isak Dinesen. I found it in a bookstore in Franklin, Tennessee and only paid $30 for it. Was floored to have found it, especially for that price, signed by the author.

Thats lovely, a real gem

 

[Robinne Weiss]

No exciting finds at the secondhand bookstore, but I do have a secondhand gem. Was reminded of it the other day and pulled it out because my daughter needed to do a presentation on a family taonga (treasure). An original (1859) edition of Wood's Natural History. It was my grandfather's grandfather's book. The writing--style and information--is so deliciously dated, it's like peeking into the past.

 

[Matnov]

Another aficionado of second hand books as well although the demise of the second hand book shop has been painful to witness. Always grateful to charity shops and so on but they are not the same. But I digress.

Of late, my own focus has been on looking for books with any kind of inscription on the inside cover by way of a note from somebody who originally presented the book as a gift to another. Not sure why but such jottings invoke something inside of me that I cannot articulate and it makes a book feel like something more than just a book. Almost as though you are handling a small slice of somebody's personal history and relationships, provoking all sorts of questions that can never be answered.