A very elderly relative has recently moved in with me for good, and now I find myself accompanying her to places I have not bothered to go to much before, like tearooms, herbalists and amateur productions. We are also going to local jumble sales, car boot sales and charity shops which I have not bothered with for ages.
But they have changed! Where are all the non-fiction books?
Danielle Steel, Jackie Collins, Catherine Cookson, Wilbur Smith, Steven King, a’plenty ( hardly ever see Solzhenitsyn anymore! ) but very, very little non-fiction at all, and most of what there is are soppy biographies and auto-biographies – Jordan, Cocky Spice, Robbie, Vinnie Football, Colleen McSomething, the Beckhams, etc!
No, they are not what I’m after at all!
Loads of Andy McNabs too, are they fiction or non-fiction? A bit of both I suppose.
At one recent, excellent car boot I did find biographies of Lord Denning and Ann Widdecombe, and a huge and lovely coffee table book of Sir Earnest Shackleton’s legendary expedition to the South Pole, complete with wonderful photographs. But that was it! Oh – apart from a book on radio circuits (well it might come in handy when Star Wars starts and all the satellites fall down) I have recently bought someone’s old CB radios! Just in case!
No other textbooks at all though, very few language books, dictionaries and thesauruses. Nowt on law or psychology – just as well perhaps! Are they fiction? Sewing and knitting books were thin on the ground too, I tend to snap them up when I see them.
Hardly ever see a Holy Bible nowadays either! Shame!
Weirdly, there are often many books at car boot sales about
Loads and loads and loads of cookery/recipe books, and quite a few gardening books, enough of these two subjects to build a tower to the moon!
Home made beer and wine – a bit old-fashioned now but I reckon I could do that! I really must look out for books on that kind of thing! And Teach Yourself Dentistry!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9n98SXNGl8
www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzD0YtbViCs
Obviously many books end up on Amazon or Ebay.
Also, more people get much of their info straight from the internet now so do not purchase books in the way they once used to. The interesting books are just not there at the jumble sales and car boots as they once were. But then, every so often, someone does a bibliophile’s house clearance and all sorts of interesting titles, perhaps now out of print, could turn up, but this will happen less as time passes.
I will continue my treasure hunt in these quirky places. I had forgotten how much fun this is.
I need new bookshelves now!