It's raining books (From Oxford Mail)

It's raining books

4:36pm Monday 23rd March 2009

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I've just been caught in spring rain on my return from Oxford but the downpour could not dampen my spirits because of an earlier books bonus.

One of my colleagues confessed, perhaps rather foolishly, that he had three boxes of old books in the boot of his BMW which were bound for charity.

My eyes lit up - and I begged him for a quick gander before he took the unwanted tomes to a charity shop of his choice.

There were a few old le Carre paperbacks in the boxes but I had already read them.

Following a swift perusal, I extracted a couple of gems: An Actor and His Time, the autobiography of John Gielgud.

The Sidgwick and Jackson first edition came complete with dust jacket (price cut) and a light gathering of dust.

The second volume - which will be well read by me and my boys - was Liverpool: The Official Illustrated History 1892-1995. It's high time to re-cap on the history of the Reds as Torres and team-mates snap at the heels of the Red Devils.

At the weekend, after videoing several hundred morris men parading through Cornmarket, I dropped in to The Book Lover in Woodin's Way, where owner Julian Tester helpfully pointed out his military history section.

I bought Blitz over Britain by John Duncan and Edwin Webb, as I am currently undertaking some research into the Second World War. Mr Tester is also a fine purveyor of comics, both British and American, so I bought the 1984 Roy of the Rovers annual for my eight-year-old and a Beezer annual from the early 1990s for my five-year-old.

I also called in at Arcadia where I bought Pastoral, aNevil Shute novel in Pan paperback, for £1.50.

But I drew a blank at the Helen and Douglas House shop in the Covered Market, where some Everyman Wodehouse editions for £2 looked appetising.

I almost bought a paperback copy of Nabokov's Pale Fire for £2 because it had a useful looking introduction, but I'm not sure this would have been enough to enable me to understand it.

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