You know what it’s like, Christmas is over for another year and the cold, dark days of January loom ahead like a tunnel with no light at the end. Your credit card is in intensive care and you’ve promised to give it a month-long period of rest and recuperation. Then a book catalogue drops through the letter box. You know you should throw it straight into the box for recycling paper but you can’t / don’t and you find yourself flicking through its pages.
Postscript books specialise in ‘high quality overstocks and out of print books’. I’ve bought books from them before, but not for a while, you have to admire their persistance.
I’m irritated to see that the catalogue includes ‘The World’s War’ by David Olusoga. Irritated because this book shouldn’t be appearing in a pile of ‘remaindered’ titles, every last copy should have been sold, but also because this handsome hardback can now be had for £4.99 and we paid, an already heavily reduced, £10 for our copy two years ago. Resisting the urge to hurl the catalogue into the bin, I identify a dozen or more titles that look really interesting.
But the house isn’t getting any bigger, the walls aren’t magically expanding to accommodate an ever growing trove of books and so I narrow my selection down to just two: ‘Caribbean Volunteers at War’ by David Johnson (£19.99 from Amazon but on offer from Postscript at just £7.99); and ‘Caribbean Roots’ a double CD of poetry, read by the poets themselves, from the British Library archive (Amazon price: £15.94, Postscript price: £5.99).
I find myself apologising out loud to my credit card but, I explain, even allowing for postage, I am ‘saving’ £20. I know my card understands.
If you would like to join me in my folly, here is a link to Postscript Books eclectic, something for everyone, catalogue: https://www.psbooks.co.uk/?gclid=Cj0KCQiAyZLSBRDpARIsAH66VQKgzN6IVn-59MaEWH9fq9H1D61s2PAYsUNbAQdLnydhWC-r8euwiMMaAln2EALw_wcB
I’m sorry if I am leading you astray!