Books

Haven't been updating my book acquisitions here.

A varied assortment can turn up in the charity shops of the quiet Cornish backwater where I live.

Last Saturday's acquisitions were:

The Pianist. Wladyslaw Szpilman

Big Chief Elizabeth. Giles Milton

Last week, on the same day:

The Painter of Modern Life and other essays. Baudelaire

Coming to You Live. Dennis Norden et. al.
Smashing anecdotes on the early days of TV.

Biting the Wax Tadpole. Elizabeth Little
A short humorous book on linguistics. The Wax Tadpole is a literal translation of Coca Cola.

Last Month, various days:

Americans in Paris. Charles Glass
Not a charity shop item but from The Works cheap bookshop in town. An account of the lives of the American nationals living in Paris who decided to stay on through the German occupation. Bought for the account of Sylvia Beach's life in the original Shakespeare and company.

Paris Peasant. Aragon
Surrealist literature

Terror by Night, Classic Ghost and Horror Stories. Ambrose Bierce
by the author of The Devil's Dictionary

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Hunter S Thompson
With Ralph Steadman's illustrations.

Charles Lamb and Elia. Charles Lamb

Library. Matthew Battles.

The Essential Alan Coren. Ed Giles and Victoria Coren

Echo of the Big Bang. Lemonick

Elizabeth 1. Anne Somerset

Diary of a Cotswold Parson. Ed. David Verey
I am going to some of the places mentioned in this book. About 200 years after the diarist.

Minima Moralia. Adorno

The Battle. Richard Overy

Most about £1, some two for 99p

All I need is expanding shelf space! The joke used to be that I would buy the empty house next door and turn it into a library!

But I always bear in mind the fact that books are one of the few pleasures in life that the government don't tax. I bet e-books are taxed. Quick Google reveals they are.

Also because I buy in charity shops everybody benefits.