At the weekend Dom and J-M were staying so we all went over to our favourite Charity Shop, Emmaüs. We had some clothes and odds and ends that we didn’t sell at the last Brocante (boot/garage sale) in September and J-M’s old TV.
Having handed in our donations we then went to the shop and proceeded to stock up with more ‘junk’, mainly books.
My pile consisted of:
The Penguin Book of English Short Stories
The Second Penguin Book of English Short Stories
Angel Pavement by J.B. Priestley
The Centaur by John Updike
A Fanatic Heart, selection of stories by Edna O’Brian
Selected Poems 1957-1981 by Ted Hughes
Marlene by Marlene Dietrich
The Client and Playing for Pizza, two books by John Grisham
Average price 1€ (1$32/£0.83) for each.
While I was looking through the books when we got home, I found a voucher for a free aperitif at a Chinese Restaurant in Bordeaux – wonder if it’s still valid?
The funniest part was that I recognized the name written in the front of the first Penguin book. I also knew that that person was living in the North of France back in the 70s. One of the retired ladies who come to the house for English conversation has an unusual name and I know that her daughter studied English. When she came to the house on Tuesday I showed her the book and yes, it was her daughter. It was the year she went to London as an au pair. What a strange coincidence!
I have started with Playing for Pizza. I know nothing about American football. Surprise, surprise, I’m really enjoying it
3 comments:
I have very few collections but when it comes to books... I'm an addict. I especially love to haunt used bookstores and yard sales. Books were my very first friends as a child. :)
Love love LOVE Emmaus as they have an outlet in Geneva too. So far, they're the source of around 95% of my English-language books and are about the only 'bargain' (apart from wine and chocolate) to be found in this part of the world.
Tawnya: I keep them all; All of the bookshelves two books deep now. I understand, I used books as a refuge when I was young.
Kath: it's great, wish ours had somewhere where we could have coffee too. I have a horrible feeling we will be buying back more than we give.
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