feather_ghyll

Here are a couple of links:

From Silver Petticoat Review Why you should read Mary Stewart.

This feature delves into the appeal of Stewart’s romantic suspense books from the perspective of someone who'd just found them. I started reading them as a teenager and return to them as comfort reads, so I have no objectivity, but the points made here resonated.

Wales Online* started the year an article on charity shops and the bizarre and valuable objects that have come in to be sold, and why there are far fewer bargains to be found, although there’s still always the possibility of one. I’ve been going to charity shops since I had pocket money, chiefly for the books – I have to be in the mood to look for clothes, but I have certainly brought many an item over the years. My gravy boat came from a charity shop.

And a couple of days ago, Andy Murray announced he will soon be forced to retire from tennis early due to his hip. Much has been said on the subject of his wonderful career, and I've always supported him since seeing him as a scrawny, talented teenager matching and besting good players. While I've never been a fan of the swearing, like most Welsh and Scottish people, I understood where his 'supporting whoever's playing England' comes from. We saw him work and mature and succeed. While he wasn't quite able to push the big three consistently, and what an era to play in, his achievements: the three grand slams, the Davis Cup, many tournaments and two back-to back Olympic golds are great. Dunblane must be very proud.

As for the Australian Open, I feel the women's side is more open than the men's. Will this be the year Zverev makes his breakthrough in the slams, or is it still too early?

^It's not a great website pop-up wise.

And so the volunteering stint is over for now. Books, which had already been on offer at a blanket price, were put on a better offer: a 'twofer' only more generous. The reason being that there were a lot of books that had been donated in the back room. So much of charity shop activity is based on the donations, which is one of those things that you know, but know better from experience. A lot of people were gleeful about their bargains. For some reason, more books seemed to sell in the afternoons.

There were no books that I wanted to buy, although there were a couple of familiar books I own and love. Is it just me, or do others get possessed of an urge to play with the displays so that their favourites are more prominnt sometimes when you're in a shop?

I went to a town that I don't think I'll name yesterday, an hour's trip on the train. Despite going to all the charity shops there, a market stall and a secondhand book shop, I only brought one book (£3.50 for a thriller that I daresay I will see for cheaper in every shop I go to for the whole winter). There were one or two maybes, but nothing tempted me - the charity shops were nearly all glossy something lit paperbacks, the second hand bookshop's stock was abysmal. The market stall was interesting, because it seemed to have a much more 'what the people' want attitude (it had books that I already owned by authors I would have brought) and I think only sold paperbacks. It was ordered thematically with authors' books grouped together, but not alphabetically, which wasn't a bad way of doing it, I suppose. They also divided the authors by gender nearly throughout. (Nothing will top the Hay bookseller who has a special section for science fiction by lady authors, though).

There was another largeish looking second-hand book shop that was quite near the station and that I mentally marked as worth returning to for a good rummage. Being an idiot, I neglected to squiz at the opening times, and left it until after lunch, when the shop was, of course, closed. I ought to have learnt that lesson by now.

As a couple of possible Christmas pressies are niggling me, I may return to this town and head to that bookshop first, even though I have issues of finding space to store books at the moment, and I haven't read much of anything of late (there was a book that I wanted to review here, but didn't feel strongly enough about to get around to it), so I'm not running short, and I have plenty to reread. Still, shopping for books is too deeply ingrained at this point.

I was back to the charity shop where I'm volunteering yesterday - the skirt that everyone kept picking up but never buying wasn't gone, but the killer red boots that everyone kept picking up but never buying were. 'Twas only a matter of time before a size 3 Cinderella came into the shop. It was busy, but we weren't selling many books. All I sold was a funny book, a classic (a bargain, because it seemed to be a recently published version and in good quality for a quid) and a dictionary. I hope to pick up some books for myself today.

Over the weekend, I read an Angela Brazil. I hope to type up my review soon, I very nearly lost my scrawls out of carelessness. Order marks for me etc. etc. Also - finally somewhere where my excitement is not going to be inexplicable - I got a Dimsie book! Think of a snug one-room shop, thirty seconds away from a seaview. The walls are painted an airy white, but are mainly hidden, because books are piled precariously everywhere, there's no space left on the shelves, making turning or hasty movement an invitation for an avalanche. And there I saw 'Dimsie Head Girl'! I have more Springdales than Dimsies, so I was pretty sure i didn't have it (and have since checked: it isn't a double. That's becoming an occasional whoopsie that I do, having been collecting for around twenty years now.) I got another children's book by a name I didn't recognise and an Ethel Talbot (yes, despite the harsh reviews I've been giving her books. It was only £1.50).

Tills can be terrifying things. Apparently people steal from charity shops.... The mind, it boggles. Apparently most of them are drunk or on drugs. However, those who steal video or CD cases are stuffed, because the videos and CDs are stored elsewhere. I knew that, but I didn't know the scale of theft that goes on. From charity shops.

Speaking of videos, which have been left most graciously to be removed of in charity shops now that everyone has DVD players, my impression was that more of them were sold than books, perhaps because there was a BOGOF offer on them. Of the books that I sold, none were girls own, kid lit or teen lit, and I didn't see any being donated. What sold? A couple of thrillers, one romance, one state of the world now and a non-fictional humourous book. Oh, I lie, I did sell a teach your kids to read with sound effects book. I will go into shock if I ever sell a copy of 'What Katy Did', 'Black Beauty' or 'Swiss family Robinson', because every charity shop I have ever visited has copies of them. (I exaggerate only slightly.)

Actually, I'm wondering whether the issue is more related to the professionalising of charity shops. I went to a Barnado's shop that's enjoyed my custom over the years over the weekend. It had just had a refit - the floor was a light pine laminate thingy, the walls a sharp white, it seemed brighter...and emptier as I looked towards the bookshelves. There used to be an overflow set of shelves, no, two (when they weren't full of videos) on the side walls, and then a set three times as wide, curling along the wall at the back of the shop, next to the hallowed staff only door. Now there is far less space for the books, and in keeping with the snazz up, they're the sort of books you're more and more likely to see at a charity shop - one of the Shopaholic sequels, a Joanne Harris or three and books that came gratis with a magazine once.

All right, so I've been racking my brains and failing to think of a Girls Own classic or genuine bargain that I've bought at that store, but I must have at some point, as I've visited there since the days when I had pocket money to spend. In its previous incarnation, it was closer in spirit to the traditional charity shop, with a little smell of damp, an old lady serving, books priced as cheaply as 20p - written in pencil on the top right corner of the first page, of course. As you pushed open the heavy door, you were aware of the possibility of finding a hardback that had been given to some girl as a Christmas present in the fifties, tales of hockey and sea voyages, coves and Coventry. Now, that sort of book doesn't fit into the glossy experience of the new and improved! bright, airy shops.

You may find such a book at an Oxfam bookshop of course, but it certainly won't be priced 20p, it'll be something closer to what it would be sold for at a second-hand bookshop. And since a friend pointed out that it is those second-hand shops that are hit by Oxfam, I've had to consider issues beyond my expectation that books in charity shops should be sold for under a fiver. I mean, giving money to Oxfam is no bad thing, but is it right that Oxfam should be encroaching on local small businesses' turf with their specialised shops? Not sure if that's so very clear-cut. And I probably should be more diligent about the way that the charities spend their money (eg. how much of a pound goes to good causes). I do tend to think first of 'possibility of a book that's new to me' and its cost over and above other matters.

Anyhow, I didn't get anything from the new Barnado's, except the material for this post :)