In London yesterday I had a little look around the cheap bookshop on the corner of Waterloo Bridge Rd. I don’t need any books right now as I have 4 novels and a biography in the to-read pile, but its always fun to look, just in case there is a bargain.

As it happens there were a couple of bargains: an Ismail Kadare for £2.99 and also for £2.99 a book I had never heard of called Edward Trencom’s Nose ((“A novel of history, dark intrigue and cheese” – who can resist a description like that?)) by Giles Milton.

Much of the shop is full of art and transport books which seem to be specialised to such an extent you wonder how they fill a whole book with it, why, and whether enough people would be interested enough to buy them. I know I wouldn’t, but I do love reading the titles. The best I saw yesterday were At The Controls: The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum Book of Cockpits and The Complete Encyclopedia of Hunting Rifles – a great big thick book!

I always find the art books frustrating.  They are bargains in that a lot has been knocked off the rrp but still they seem expensive for the amount of time they will be read.  A book reduced from £60 to £25 is still a twenty-five quid book.  Not that I am tempted my many of them in any case.  I am sure Moroccan ceramic tiles or Malaysian thimbles or whatever are very nice, but I wouldn’t need a book full of them.