The Secret Garden

Well when it comes to childhood favourites, The Secret Garden features in the top 10. It is a brilliant book that I must have read over and over again. I have a well worn copy sitting on my book shelf and it is one of the few that survived the book cull that took place when my mum insisted that it was time to pass on my books to younger cousins. 

For those of you who have never read The Secret Garden- firstly, where have you been! Secondly, here is a very short summary...

The book is about a girl called Mary who is sent from India to live in England with her uncle following the death of her parents. Mary slowly befriends the gardener and some of the other servants and she also discovers a secret garden. Along the way she loses some of her spoilt and bad natured tenancies. She then learns of a boy, her cousin Colin, who is hidden away in the house- ill and unable to walk. They form an unlikely friendship and Mary lets Colin in on the secret of the garden, with the hope that its magic will help him. 

The other day I popped into the Waterstones with the intention of not spending a penny- my bank balance can't handle it at the mo! But I made a beeline for the reduced section and my eyes fell upon this. It is a beautiful cloth covered hardback version of The Secret Garden to celebrate it's 100th anniversary. It also has lovely illustrations and I couldn't believe it when I saw it was reduced from £25 to £5. The book has no damage- I can only assume that it was a display copy! 

This was one of those purchases that left me on a high for the rest of the day and I know that it will remain in my book collection for a long time- I definitely won't be passing it on any time soon!

Have you found any bargains recently? Does The Secret Garden feature in your childhood favourites?

Eilidh

A good bargain

I am always on the lookout for a good bargain- as I am sure most of you are too! When I am looking to get a good deal on books I tend to go straight onto Amazon or down to my local charity shop. Waterstones is often the last place I look as there are rarely reductions unless you want to partake in their buy one get one half price deal (which I often do). But recently I found myself browsing the shelves in my local Waterstones and I found a 'clearance' shelf. All the books were slightly damaged and massively reduced, it was an opportunity that I wasn't going to pass up!

First of all I found a hard back copy of 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland' by Lewis Carroll which was originally sold for £16.99 but I managed to get it for £8. On the bottom right hand corner you can see where a bit of the book sleeve has been ripped- this does not bother me at all! The book is full of beautiful illustrations and at £8 it's a steal!

Next I managed to find a copy of 'Hansel & Grethel & Other Tales' by The Brothers Grim. The only damage I could see when buying this is a little bit of damage to the top of the spine. Again it had beautiful illustrations and I managed to get it for £8 down from £28.99!

Finally I managed to pick up 'Heracles to Alexander the Great' which I was particularly excited about because I study Classical Studies at university. It am excited to read it and other than the scuffed edges on the front and back cover, I can see nothing wrong with it! It was reduced to £10 from £25!

Have you managed to find any good deals recently? What are your views on buying damaged books?

Eilidh