General Chat

On Friday I was talking in the office about a book I had just had delivered and was saying that I was really pleased as it only cost 21.00 instead of the publishers price of 30.00. (A family history book of course). The young junior could not believe that I had paid 21.00 for a book but has just paid her mobile phone bill for the month of 136.00....!!!!!!

Christine - LOL! I can't go into Waterstones without buying at least 3 books. My monthly outlay on my mobile is about £5!

I'm exactly the same! I love my Smiths points. When they have the buy 2 get third free or as at the minute get second one half price I cann't resist. I always have a small pile of books ready. I panic if I think I won't have one ready for when I've finished the one I'm reading. And I must be the only one among my friends who loves going to markets whereever I visit just for the cheap book stall. The only problem is what to do with all these books once I've read them. I can only keep so many! Jane

Me too!! Books are definately my thing. I'm waiting for Anthony Adolfs(?) one that has just come out. Reminds me I must chase up Amazon. I need another room really for my books and family history, what bliss that would be. I've only had two top ups since February on my phone, my daughters is anything between £50/£80 a month. Diane

Me too - a book freak! Jane, I also panic-buy to make sure I don't run out lol. And I spend less than £10 a month on my mobile. Yep, definitely showing our age! Mandy :)

I think I last topped up my mobile sometime last year for £10. I don't know how much I spend on books a year and I don't care either. I love rummaging round bookshops, secondhand bookshops/stalls, book sections in charity shops, and libraries. I am aiming to cover the walls in books so we never have to decorate again!!! nell ps books you family researchers might enjoy: I've just read "FAMILY SECRETS" by Derek Malcolm, who used to be the film critic for the Guardian. It's about how he discovered (by looking in a book, of course) that his father had been tried for murdering his mother's lover. He was acquitted and his parents stayed unhappily married for the rest of their lives. I am currently reading: HOME by Julie Myerson, which is about how she traced all the people that ever lived in her house (and also went back to her childhood home). and ALL QUIET ON THE HOME FRONT an oral history - the authors interviewed lots of v. elderly people who gave their recollections of wartime childhood, together with v. grim statistics about poverty then. Apparently in 1914 the average workingclass woman had 10 pregnancies, miscarried 3, lost 2 children in infancy and raised 5 children. 1 in 4 children died before the age of 5 from disease/starvation. nell

Don't forget to use your library - you can get all the new books and it only costs about a pound to reserve them in advance - then you can use all that money you are spending on books, to buy certs or subscribe to ancestry etc etc !! Maz. XX

LOL One of my work colleagues cannot understand why I should buy old books. Surely, if I must buy them they should have a nice glossy cover? My pre-war Baedeker, my 1970s Kellys, a wonderful book on Devon by WG Hoskins...... And just to make you jealous, I review books for my local family history society, so I have to read the latest books absolutely free. Brenda

jane, donate your books to the library if you can't pass them down lol. i do it with mine and they really appreciate it. melinda

I too love books and like Jane I panic if there's not a new one to read when I've got one finished. I tend to buy mainly paperbacks now (always look out for the offers though) and use the library quite a lot. My five year old is the same - really loves his books and cannot sleep without a story (or six!!) at bedtime. He memorises whole paragraphs and races to say them before I do. I find that sometimes I am really enjoying a book (usually mysteries) that I really want to get to the end but on the other hand I don't want the story to end. Elfxx

Two possible destinations for your used books :- charity shop - my Mum works in one and they can't get enough, books sell very well. book stall in market - will often accept good quality used books and pay a percentage of the original cover price.

I'm very lucky as in addition to WHSmith, my town has a proper bookshop and two second-hand ones, one of which is very well established and has books on practically everything. Plus a bookstall in the market and several charity shops. Oh, and the library, plus a lot of like-minded reading friends. nell

Dorothy What a stupid reason that the Library gave you after all all their books go out on loan so could be equally contagious or do they sterilise them when they are returned? Pat

Wasn't there a book called." How to spread the Plague", by Black Rattus-Rattus..... Bob

Try your local hospital - The Friends usually run library service within the hospital. My daughter always used to swear that when she got a home of her own - there would not be a book shelf in it as she was fed up with her brother and me. But genes will out - her daughter has been an avid reader from a very tender age!!

Some of the books in our hospital probably do carry the plague: they're certainly old enough!

Speaking of mobile phone bills.......I often wonder how the people making what seem like unnecessary calls (right in my ear, on the Metrolink) pay for them, it costs a fortune per min during peak times! I just use mine for emergencies although did use it for business up to retiring.........but the firm paid for most of my calls!

Dorothy, I work in a library and we accept donations of books all the time. If we don't need the titles then we pass them to another branch in the borough that does. I have never heard anything so ridiculous - your library has obviously not got the same funding problems that we have here! Maz. XX