"This is the Best Trip" and unearthing little gems

Hope you've had a good day. Boxing Day has a bit of an "after the Lord Mayor's show" day feeling for some, but in many ways I actually prefer it to Christmas Day. Certainly been a very pleasant day here at Stortbooks Towers. The weather's been so mild I've even spent some time trying to weed the area we've set aside for a vegetable patch - well it was actually set aside some years ago, but that's another story..

I started one of my Christmas present books last night and it's "This is the Best Trip - Chasing the Tangerine Dream" (Scratching Shed Publishing 2011) by Ian Chisnall, which is an account of Blackpool FC's remarkable season in the Barclays Premiership 2010 -2011. Author Ian, BBC Radio Lancashire's sports broadcaster, is the Dad of two of our good friends Craig Chisnall (Deputy Editor of "The Football League Paper") and Dean Chisnall who is currently appearing in "Shrek The Musical" at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane (and who takes over the lead role of "Shrek" himself in February 2012) - so much talent in one family!!

I've only read the first couple of chapters but already this book's got a good feel to it. Review to follow in due course...

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One of the most exciting aspects of running a used bookstore is when you are asked to go out and look at a collection of books that someone no longer has room for, such as the time I was asked to go and see if I was interested in buying a collection of books from a lady whose father had recently passed a way. The gentleman obviously enjoyed his books and there was a wide variety of 900 books. This was the collection of someone who simply bought what he liked - not someone who collected expensive books, but who bought new books as they were published and the collection spanned a period of around 45/50 years. I did not go through the books in any detail at the house, but the lady was happy  to just make some room and I paid her £1 per book.

Back at Stortbooks I found there were some really interesting books but on delving deeper into the boxes I found a very unimposing looking, black hardback which was a little bumped on the corners - in fact it was quite scruffy. It turned out to be a first edition of Casino Royale by Ian Fleming - no dustcover, and a little tatty, but it still fetched £900.00 at auction - if it had had he original dustcover intact too, then it would have been a five figure sum, but still not a bad return for a book that cost a pound!

Certainly it's still occasionally possible for the collector to unearth a gem for very little outlay, but one place you are less and less likely to find one is at your local charity shop. Some years ago charities became wise to the fact that quite often they had been selling books for 50 pence that would then be resold on by an eagle eyed collector for many times that amount, so it is now standard for most of the main charities to have the books that are donated to them valued by an expert employed by the charity.. and of course no-one can blame them for doing that.