I like books.

Getting the book list for a course and going out and getting them is a really big pleasure for me.  So I downloaded the PDF for Drawing 1 and set about my Amazon account with gusto.  OK it’s not the same as going to a real bookshop, but even the Deansgate, Manchester branch of Waterstones (now without an apostrophe for your ease of spelling pleasure) isn’t what it was – particularly the art section.  I can see it from their point of view though.  It must be a nightmare to have all that cash tied up in stock that people rarely buy.

However, I digress.

Books – Amazon – ordered.  Except for  “The Drawing Book: A Survey of Drawing – The Primary Means of Expression” by Charles Darwent et al. which is apparently out of print.  I spoke to a woman at the publishers – Black Dog – who was very helpful and promised to inform me when it’s reprinted.  If it’s reprinted.

The other book I didn’t order was Gombrich’s “The Story of Art”, partly because it’s only a recommended text and I could get it in the future, but mostly because I’ve already read it.

Last weekend I was in Glasgow for a “do” with my partner’s family.  On Sunday we went up to the Byre’s Road end of town for lunch, and passed an Oxfam Bookshop.  Byre’s Road is student central and so it was likely to be a good Oxfam Bookshop.  In we went, she heading off for the medical section (as she’s a medical herbalist) and I off to the arts section.

And lo there was, sitting on a shelf, an absolutely pristine copy of The Story of Art, 16th edition.  Unpriced.  Thinking it would be the same price as a new copy – in which case I would stick to my original plan – I took it to the desk, to be told it was £6.99!

Right – we’ll have that, then!

I like serendipitous things.  Almost as much as I like books.  Which is where I started.