I haven’t bought any new books in a while, primarily because when I moved house in the autumn my parents were like “Holy shit, have you actually read any of these?” so I’ve been doing a bit of catching up. Well, actually, I haven’t been doing that much catching up really because I’ve mostly been reading about how cultural policy and marketing the arts via social networking (yawn) but it’s Christmas break now so I’m hooking myself up to some Updike for a few weeks. And buying more books… Things I have learnt about Leicester’s charity shops in the last week: Oxfam is stupidly expensive. Someone donating to The YMCA Shop either really loves of fucking hates Joanna Trollope. British Heart Foundation need more shelving units. Unlike Manchester, not every charity shop contains more than five copies of How To Be Good by Nick Hornby. Maybe it’s not that bad after all. So, despite all my sociological research, I only actually bought a couple of things in the end. I got the Tennessee Williams collection because I quite enjoyed The Glass Menagerie at the Royal Exchange a while ago, I read Streetcar back in March when I was hiding from my auntie’s overwhelming wedding, and I’m one of those annoying over-enthusiastic types who wants a career in the theatre so I should really start reading some fucking plays once in a while, right? The Augusten Burroughs book, I bought because it’s a “hilarious” tale about recovering from severe alcoholism, and I met someone recently who’s doing just that. Also, because what sort of a fucking name is Augusten Burroughs anyway? I just looked him up on Wikipedia and it’s not even his real name. He fucking chose the name Augusten. The world has gone mad etc etc. To be fair, Tennessee is a pretty strange first name, but we kinda come to terms with strange names when they’re super-famous strange names. Cormac is weird too, in a frontiersman kinda way. Tennessee Williams - Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore, The Night Of The Iguana (1982) Augusten Burroughs - Dry (2005)

I haven’t bought any new books in a while, primarily because when I moved house in the autumn my parents were like “Holy shit, have you actually read any of these?” so I’ve been doing a bit of catching up. Well, actually, I haven’t been doing that much catching up really because I’ve mostly been reading about how cultural policy and marketing the arts via social networking (yawn) but it’s Christmas break now so I’m hooking myself up to some Updike for a few weeks. And buying more books…

Things I have learnt about Leicester’s charity shops in the last week:

Oxfam is stupidly expensive.

Someone donating to The YMCA Shop either really loves of fucking hates Joanna Trollope.

British Heart Foundation need more shelving units.

Unlike Manchester, not every charity shop contains more than five copies of How To Be Good by Nick Hornby. Maybe it’s not that bad after all.

So, despite all my sociological research, I only actually bought a couple of things in the end. I got the Tennessee Williams collection because I quite enjoyed The Glass Menagerie at the Royal Exchange a while ago, I read Streetcar back in March when I was hiding from my auntie’s overwhelming wedding, and I’m one of those annoying over-enthusiastic types who wants a career in the theatre so I should really start reading some fucking plays once in a while, right?

The Augusten Burroughs book, I bought because it’s a “hilarious” tale about recovering from severe alcoholism, and I met someone recently who’s doing just that. Also, because what sort of a fucking name is Augusten Burroughs anyway? I just looked him up on Wikipedia and it’s not even his real name. He fucking chose the name Augusten. The world has gone mad etc etc.

To be fair, Tennessee is a pretty strange first name, but we kinda come to terms with strange names when they’re super-famous strange names. Cormac is weird too, in a frontiersman kinda way.

Tennessee Williams - Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore, The Night Of The Iguana (1982)

Augusten Burroughs - Dry (2005)