This week I was out looking for reference books for kids, as ever on a really tight budget, so I trawled the local charity shops and then I passed WHSmiths.
I’m not usually a fan of WHSmiths — aside from a bit of 1970s nostalgia, really, they’re neither cheap nor funky. But this time I just felt I should look, and I found The Times Concise History of the World for £6 (which I have to say is a bit of a bargain — it’s a really nice hardback).
I picked it up, flicked a few pages, and yeyy! They were upside down! I checked the pile, and it turned out that the only one with upside-down pages was the one in my hand — I’ve never bought a book so fast in my life. I LOVE quirky books.
So this book’s one for my home library. My home books, unlike those I buy for the local school, are a selection of weird and wonderful, often dilapidated books, full of handwritten comments, missing sections, ARCs with typos and unfinished covers, and now one with upside-down pages. Welcome home, little Times weirdo — to the one place you really fit in.
Do you have any odd books?
TM Upchurch 