Yesterday (saturday) I went to newcastle shopping. I bought the years of rice and salt first edition hardback for 12.99 GBP (thats 4 quid off the RRP). I had decided to buy it now at the reduced rate rather than wait until I'm likely to read it (June) and pay full-whack.

I then pottered off to a little end-of-line book shop called 'the works' which tends to sell off old paperbacks that nobody wants at low, low prices. I found Memory of Whiteness and Escape from Kathmandu both for 1.99 GBP each, but they sold me the two for 3 quid. Thats a net saving of 9 quid for these two paperbacks, and 13 quid overall on the RRP of the books.

Some people think that buying hard backs is a complete waste of time, because the paperbacks are generally out in a year and much cheaper. Well, I tend to stick to paperbacks (truly, I buy quite a few second hand books) but now and then the feel of a hard back book is a nice luxury. This particular one looks really beautiful.

In case you are wondering, these three books are all written by Kim Stanley Robinson, a favourite author of mine. The years of rice and salt (read a review!) is supposed to be pretty interesting in light of the 09/11 incident.