Book Hunting …

I received two £10 book vouchers to spend which I was awarded by my old college for the highest A Level results in Textiles and Photography that year.
I pondered what to spend the vouchers on for weeks, regularly visiting WH Smiths and Waterstones, browsing their somewhat limited collections. During this time I spotted a PKD novel I had vaguely heard of, probably read something in passing on the internet. ‘The man in the High Castle’. I pondered upon it for a while … The cover had struck me with its powerful imagery of the Star spangled banner … but a mass of swastikas burned out at the viewer as opposed to the stars. Having studied Nazi Germany in History when I was at school and frequently watching programmes on WWII, I read the blurb. ‘This is the next one.’ I could instantly tell that this was what I wanted to read next. But at £8.99 it struck me as very expensive for a paperback … and it was rather tatty considering that it was brand new. I considered what else I would buy with my vouchers to accompany the book, but unable to find anything else I desired, I glumly put the book back on the shelf and departed.

Over the next few weeks I regularly visited book stores, searching for other interesting books to spend my vouchers on, but alas I found nothing. Until one day I spotted ‘Tales from the perilous Realm’ by JRR Tolkien ‘This wasn’t here last week’ I thought, and picked up the book. I also spotted something Id never seen before, a Tolkien map book, full of discussion about the land of middle earth and a large map, it struck me as a dainty, desirable book (I am somewhat of a Tolkien enthusiast and it is a little dream of mine to one day collect as many different published editions of his works as I can). Finally, I had something to accompany ‘The man in the High Castle’ in my purchase. When returning to the PKD section much to my surprise two new books had arrived, both ‘The Man in the High Castle’. I eagerly took the book from the shelf. It was a SF Masterworks edition, which pleased me as I’ve taken it upon myself to collect these editions where possible. It was a hardback, and shockingly it was cheaper than the £8.99 Puffin paperback. Needless to say, I raced to the till, finally a happy shopper.