There are people who visit op-shops because they have to, and then there are people who visit them because they like to. The reasons for visiting may vary, but in the op-shop, we’re all searching for something. We’re all rummaging side by side.
I am a dedicated op-shopper for books; firstly, because there are no more bookshops around, and secondly, if there were any, they would only stock mainly trashy pulp fiction which turns over quickly, and none of the books that I am interested in, such as that rare book, "The Epic Voyage of the Seven Little Sisters" - click here - which, with the instinct of a truffle-hunting dog, I unearthed at the local Vinnies shop a few days ago.
Having devoured it in one short afternoon, I am now on a quest to find out more about its author, William Willis, a German-born American who, at the age of fifteen, left his home in Hamburg to sail around Cape Horn.
He wrote four more books, some of which are available on the internet but, given their rarity, at prices which make me hesitate to press the BUY-button (the killer is usually the postage cost but I shall keep searching).
As for all the other books I have purchased from op-shops, I fully intend to read them all and am on schedule to have done so by my 235th birthday!
