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Charity shop book haul

When I visited the charity shop on Friday I knew they must be getting in a lot of new books because they were giving away books, which is what they always do when they still need shelf space after having had a book sale. I was strong and didn't pick up anything, but when I was coming home from work yesterday my "book sense" went all prickly when I drove past the charity shop, and so I stopped by. And look at what I got (gloat, gloat):



I decided to only buy books I knew I wanted to read or own, and so I bought noting on speculation (which is what made my TBR so epic in the first place). This meant passing over several tempting YA urban fantasies, a couple of mysteries and half a dozen other vegetarian cookbooks.

The Madhur Jaffrey book alone is worth 6 times what I paid for the whole lot. I generally don't read celebrity biographies, but the Gene Simmons book was irresistible - Kiss was my first favourite rock band and still has a special place in my heart. As for the others, I collect historical cookbooks, like sewing, and hate borrowing big, thick books from the library since they shortened the lending time to 3 weeks.

The Mexican cookbook (bottom) is in such a condition that it really should be declared a health hazard, but I couldn't pass it up because of all the lovely, lovely Mexican recipes. It has clearly been much used and is stained and spotted and just a little bit greasy. I may photocopy it before I start using it, or I might take it apart and encase the pages in plastic pockets to prevent any contamination from spreading from the book to the food. I will also have to store it in a plastic bag so it will not get grease and possibly bacteria on my other cook books.
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Anonymous said…
That Egyptian cookbook looks interesting!
June 02, 2011 1:00 pm
Bibliophile said…
It is. The recipes are modern ones using ingredients that were available during Pharaoic times and which are depicted in art and mentioned on writings from the era, so they are really guesses, but still interesting.
June 02, 2011 1:56 pm
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