Today I was lucky enough to do a school visit as part of my travels. I was treated to a music performance, some singing, and then as a special bonus, one of the school pupils read me her book (in English) 'The Little Match Girl'. She read it brilliantly, and we talked a little bit about it afterwards. We agreed that the story was a little bit sad, but she explained that it had 'touched her heart'. I commented that she'd picked a very good book by a very famous author, and we borrowed a phone from the school head to look up online some of the other stories he had written, and sure enough, she knew some of them as well.
Saturday trip to an Oxfam bookstore and could have come away with more, but thankfully I managed to get online (via N hotspotting me) and so avoiding buying a bunch of duplicates. Pleased to spot the two Rivers of London novellas. I thought that I was doing well with getting these, as this brings me up to nine, but it turns out that I am a tad out of date as we are up to 16 now. Oh well, I will keep plugging away. As for the Jane Gardam, loved Old Filth and have started to pick up her books when I spot them. This is one of her earlier novels, and was nominated for the Booker, so much hope. Lee Child - 20 short stories - they will get devoured! A Sebastian Faulks paperback. I have the first edition, but now I have a reading copy too which was missing from my paperback shelf, as evident from the photograph. I've just finished his 'Fires Which Burned Brightly' which, as a series of essays, I picked up and put down over a quite a while. More of that another time.