On the other hand book tokens are a safe gift for them to give me and a welcome gift for me to receive.
Today with $100 worth of book tokens in my hand I made my first bookshop visit of the year, to the wonderful, small but perfectly formed Village Bookshop at Matakana which is only a 10 minute drive away from our holiday cottage.
One hour later I emerged with the following:
The Selected Works of T.S.Spivet - Reif Larsen - Vintage (this is a novel)
Lovesong - Alex Miller - Allen & Unwin - another novel from the Miles Franklin Award winner (he has won the prestigious award twice - so far)
and a pack of six Penguin reprints (bargain price - NZ$56) of famous cookbooks:
A Book of Mediterranean Food - Elizabeth David - first published 1950
Italian Food - Elizabeth David - 1954
Summer Cooking - Elizabeth David - 1955
English Food - Jane Grigson - 1974
Seafood Cookery English - Rick Stein - 1988
Real Fast Food - Nigel Slater - 1992
Real Fast Puddings - Nigel Slater - 1993
A Celebration of Soup - Lindsey Bareham - 1993
The book tokens didn't quite covetr the total so I stumped up some extra cash but what a wonderful bag of books I carried home.
Happy reading, and to all those who received book tokens fro Christmas gifts, enjoy spending them!
5 comments:
Let me know what you think of Lovesong..as I loved it. A grand way to start the New Year, supporting an small, independent (?) bookseller. Sounds like you'll be doing some cooking at the cottage.
You have bought well; I bought the Slaters and Bareham when they were first published and still have them (and use them) on my shelves. If you haven't already you must also read Slater's memoir "Toast".
Anyone would think you had a fondness for cooking. I made Nigel Slater's Christmas Stollen last year (sounds so wierd when it was little over a week ago!) It was terrific.
I've been intrigued by the Reif Larsen book - I'll be interested to hear what you think of it.
Thanks for your comments and yes Penelope I have read TOAST. I reckon Nigel Slater is one of the great food writers.
Now we'll all have to rush up there for similar bargains!And I will be later in the month, despite the fact I've conquered the loading process on my Sony reader. A lovely way for booklovers to spend their leisure time.......Yes, it does seem strange that we did all that cooking and now life is so laid back that the meals are coming from memory and invention - but we wouldn't be able to invent so well if we hadn't read all those cookbooks and followed the recipes properly. i made stollen for the first time this year [without marzipan, yuck]. It was lovely and worth repeating - and I made a raw, slightly frozen cake too - took some of the pain out of cooking on a hot day.
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