The Joy of Books

Today I'm shattered. Observant readers (the implication that I have any is a tired joke) will have noticed that this is the first post not to have been written during a weekend, and that is because Sue and I, with the help of many others, have been busy organising and running our church's annual book sale, and we have then had our three grandsons to stay while our daughter and her partner spent some time in London. Add the nervous exhaustion induced by Arsenal's late winner at Hull and there's probably every good reason for me to feel I could do with an easier day or two, not that there's much hope of that. But this short, belated post is just a little thank-you to Gutenburg, one of Strasburg's two greatest sons (Wenger, durr!), for the portable packages of pleasure, information and opinion that he made possible. Strictly speaking, it was a Book and Media Sale, the media bit reflecting an extension of our previously tome-based fund-raiser to include CDs, DVDs, audiocassettes, videocassettes and records, but which some chose to believe covered bric-a-brac and entire years' worth of magazine tat. Apart from the obvious aim of fund-raising (our takings were well over £200 up on last year's), the event was a success in terms of outreach, co-operation and social interaction. It was also an enjoyable way of redistributing books at low prices. The beneficiaries, apart from the church, include those who wanted to get rid of books, those who wanted 'new' ones - and some seemed never to have been read - , book dealers who could buy cheap and sell at a big profit, and charities, who received leftover books in their shops and can sell them at prices a little higher than ours. All in all it was a

good thing, and although I'm relieved that the next one is a year away I shan't be sorry when it comes.