Sometimes it isn’t that I really need a particular book that makes me add to my Project 24 list – sometimes it’s just that it’s been too long since I went to a bookshop. So on Saturday I went to one of my favourite secondhand bookshops, and certainly the nearest good one – in Wantage. As usual, there were a lot of books I might have taken a gamble on if I weren’t under Project 24 restrictions. As it is, I came away with these two…
The Patience of a Saint by G.B. Stern
I had a bit of a flurry of reading Stern last year, and still have some of her non-fiction left to read – but this novel seemed extremely up my street. Here’s a bit from the dustjacket copy that persuaded me that The Patience of a Saint (1958) had to come home with me:
It is the unshakeable conviction of Lady Eileen Francis that on the millenary of his martyrdom, St. Cedric of Hallowbridge will appear again. And he does – but not quite in the way she expected.
Why I’m not a Millionaire by Nancy Spain
My shelves already have a Spain novel and a memoir that I’ve not read, but I’ve been keeping an eye out for this one for years – not assiduously, because I might have then noticed it was reprinted a couple of years ago, but I’m still keen to read it. Why? Because of the pages that Ann Thwaite refers to in her biography of A.A. Milne, where Spain meets him. And I’m hoping the rest of it will be interesting, of course!
I’m still one book in hand, given that I could have bought six by now. (Have I read any of my Project 24 books yet? Er, let’s not ask.)
I admire your restraint – and am surprised by my own. Thus far, I’ve bought seven books, three in one fell swoop (by post) from a Lincolnshire bookseller. He was offering Murder by Accident by Joan Sutter, a forgotten English writer who became a forgotten Canadian writer. Looking around his online offerings I spotted a couple of inexpensive books by Grant Allen and Robert Barr, two 19th-century favourites.
Thus far, I’ve read one of this year’s purchases. Do not be impressed; I read it for work.
I’m amazed at how well you’re doing! Last week saw many arrivals, but then a lot of them were review copies! I would have picked up the Spain too – I bet it’ll be entertaining!