I was at a training event in central London on Friday. Although the course didn't start until 9.40, I just went in on my normal train with K___ and consequently found myself with nearly an hour to kill.
I sauntered down Fenchurch Street to Gracechurch Street and headed south towards London Bridge where I knew there was a Books Etc where I could while away the minutes. A bit of a result - the Books Etc had signs up in the window declaring a closing down sale. I walked in to see several tables full of books and labelled 'Everything £1'. To a book junkie like me, those should be fateful words. I had visions of me coming out with a bulging bag in each hand.
It wasn't to be. The sale had obviously been on for a while and the bulk of the remainder were horrific new-age self help crap or very business oriented - being on the edge of the financial centre of the city, they clearly held lots of books aimed at the stock brokers and the like. Not my interests at all. I did find a couple of things. The first was an autobiography by Harry Knowles, the brains behind the rather splendid movie site Ain't It Cool news.
The second was very much on spec. A boxed set of three books by someone called Elizabeth Pantley, called 'Perfect Parenting - The Dictionary of 1000 Parenting Tups'. For a pound, it was worth a punt. I've only dipped into it thus far, but it seems to be pretty sensible stuff and quite useful. A month ago, I probably wouldn't haven't bothered picking up a parenting book. It's interesting to me to see my attention is begining to shift from being almost exclusively pregnancy/birth-focussed towards the responsibilities of being a parent.
I sauntered down Fenchurch Street to Gracechurch Street and headed south towards London Bridge where I knew there was a Books Etc where I could while away the minutes. A bit of a result - the Books Etc had signs up in the window declaring a closing down sale. I walked in to see several tables full of books and labelled 'Everything £1'. To a book junkie like me, those should be fateful words. I had visions of me coming out with a bulging bag in each hand.
It wasn't to be. The sale had obviously been on for a while and the bulk of the remainder were horrific new-age self help crap or very business oriented - being on the edge of the financial centre of the city, they clearly held lots of books aimed at the stock brokers and the like. Not my interests at all. I did find a couple of things. The first was an autobiography by Harry Knowles, the brains behind the rather splendid movie site Ain't It Cool news.
The second was very much on spec. A boxed set of three books by someone called Elizabeth Pantley, called 'Perfect Parenting - The Dictionary of 1000 Parenting Tups'. For a pound, it was worth a punt. I've only dipped into it thus far, but it seems to be pretty sensible stuff and quite useful. A month ago, I probably wouldn't haven't bothered picking up a parenting book. It's interesting to me to see my attention is begining to shift from being almost exclusively pregnancy/birth-focussed towards the responsibilities of being a parent.
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