Visiting a second hand shop and coming back with 17 books
- thecontentreader
- May 2, 2023
- 2 min read
Well, these things happens. I had collected some clothes from my wardrobe to give to a second hand shop. While there, and since you get a voucher for a coffee and a cinnamon bun if you give things away, I did look around the shop. They have recently moved to a bigger place, and they had decorated the shop in a very nice way. I did take a tour around the whole place before entering the book section.
I really did not intend to buy anything special, but while looking through the books I discovered so many books I wanted to read, so I just had to buy them. Maybe because I started with the section of old books, classics in other words. There I collected the first five books.
Arsène Lupin by Maurice Leblanc
The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo
The Prisoner of Zenda by Anthony Hope
The Courier of the Tsar by Jules Verne
The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy
Next I found two travel guides from the Lonely Planet. One for Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania and one by Hungary. Always good to have in our camper van when the roads lead us to these places.
I think I have mentioned that I am reading through all Agatha Christie books. What happened when I came to the section with English books? I found seven books by her. The temptation was too much, so down they went into the basket.
The Seven Dials Mystery
The Listerdale Mystery
Appointment With Death
N or M?
Destination Unknown
The Clocks
At Bertram's Hotel
They are perfect to bring with me in the van. Once read, I can leave them at the book shelves of the camping. Always nice to give some enjoyment to other readers.
The last three are random books. The first one was a nice coincidence as well. I am reading a biography of August Strindberg. Once of his most famous books, a sort of memoirs was The Defence of a Fool. It was first published in French, Le Plaidoyer d'un fou and then translated into Swedish. I could not believe my eye when I discovered it. Not so available these days. Another one was a Swedish book by Gunnar Fredriksson 20 filosofer (20 philosophers). I want to read more philosophical authors so also a suitable find. The last one was a thriller and what attracted me from the beginning was the title: The Dante Club by Matthew Pearl. Sounds literary enough for me. Have you read it?
I think, in principle, all of them will go to a new owner once I have read them. They will therefor not take up a lot of space in my book cases.
So many books, that's brilliant.
Good selection, well done!
Nice haul! I have not read The Dante Club, though it's been on my radar. But I have read a bunch of your list, especially among the first titles listed. The most intriguing is The Scarlet Pimpernel, in the sense that it feels it's one of these rare French Revolution novels where the nobles are the good guys. At least that's how it appeared to me. I loved the book. They say the rest of the series is not as good, so I didn't read the others Emma @ Words And Peace
Oh dear, you sound like me! Well done with the Christie collection. I'd love to read the Lupin -- and I've never read Scarlet Pimpernel. I confess, I did similar last weekend. I went to an estate sale and ended up with five. And I could have bought more but I wondered if and when I'd read them all! Three of mine were royal bios and one a bio of Winston Churchill by Vilet Bonham Carter, so more personal than historic. And Devil in the White City because I love Erik Larson's writing and never read this one! ~ jeanie
Who could resist these tempting books?