Friday, January 09, 2009

When You Long To Kick Yourself

Only a short-ish blog today as have a mammoth one arriving for you all tomorrow but a promise is a promise and my promise was to blog daily, I also thought some of you might empathise with my woe’s today. The other day when I went and bought rather a few too many classics I had also seen a couple of books that I had wanted to buy as well. One was Arthur & George by Julian Barnes which I read a few years ago but lent to someone and never saw again, this also happened with Winter in Madrid by C.J. Sansom in case anyone wonders why I don’t lend books out ever! I honestly can’t remember who I lent it to which is the other problem as would ask for it back. Lesson learned though.

The other book which I picked up and looked at three times during one long perusal of the shelves was Ferney by James Long. Now I don’t know why but I just couldn’t decide if I really wanted it or not. I also couldn’t work out why I knew the name of it so well and where I had heard of it before. Bags filled to brimming anyway I went home and googled it. I was so annoyed that I hadn’t picked it up as it sounded fascinating, not just the story itself which deals with soul mates and previously lived lives from what I gather, but also the story of the book itself. The book was originally published in 1998 and won over quite a cult following. It then went out of print only to be re-published in recent months. Something about this fact only made me want to read it all the more. Then reading Cornflower Books I saw that Karen had read it and completely loved it, my mind was made up, and I would get up this morning and make my way down to the charity shop pronto.

I have just come back and it’s gone (along with Arthur & George) and I am completely gutted. I know I have a massive TBR that is slowly overtaking the house, but when a book captures you, well in my case, you want to read it now or at least have it in stock in your home so you can soon. I have learnt my lesson but am still kicking myself. Has this happened to anyone else and if so what was the book?

P.S I do know I could by it from a shop or the internet today but am slightly sulking and refusing ha, ha, ha.

2 comments:

Sarah said...

Dovegreyreader was also enthusiastic about Ferney, so if you want to rub salt into the wound you should look at her review.

I hate it when you don't buy something and then when you next go to do so, it's gone. Admittedly this doesn't usually happen to me with books (as my bank balance proves!).

However, I'm always lending and then losing books although most of them I still hope to get back someday. Eg Claire Tomalin's bio of Thomas Hardy, Ruth Park's Harp in the South trilogy, A Room with a View.

At the moment, I'm ticked off as I'm re-reading Trollope's Barsetshire books. My copy of book #3, Doctor Thorne, has mysteriously gone walkabout and until I can get to the bookshop I'm bereft.

Cornflower said...

How vexing that you were too late. Arthur and George is terrific,too.