Catching up: Some 2nd-hand pre-Christmas reading additions – Part One

So what with the festive period getting in the way and the arrival of a new pup in my household, things have been pretty quiet around here for a couple of weeks. Inactivity is not something I usually make a habit of so if you just consider that a minor glitch and we’ll move on and get RobAroundBooks back up to speed again.

So where do I start? From where I left off I guess and just before the Christmas period began I trawled my favourite 2nd-hand bookstores and picked up a number of bargains, ones which I was hugely excited about adding to my collection. Here’s the rundown:

• A Wild Sheep Chase by Haruki Murakami – One of the first titles I ever put on my ‘50 Novels’ reading list was Murakami’s The Wind-up Bird Chronicle, and since then I became intrigued by the popularity of one of Japan’s premier contemporary novelists. I’ve yet to read The Wind-up Bird Chronicle but I know from reading one of Murakami’s shorts – Sleep (available to read online HERE) and watching a documentary on the man, that he’s something a bit special, definitely my kind of writer. So I was delighted to come across A Wild Sheep Chase, one of his first and most bizarre novels, to add to my collection.
• Dance, Dance, Dance by Haruki Murakami – This title was sitting right next to A Wild Sheep Chase on the bookshop shelf so how could I resist it? I couldn’t, so I was happy to snap up this title as well.

Along with already owning Kafka on the Shore, and the aforementioned Wind-up Bird Chronicle that now gives me four Murakami titles in my collection. Know what that means? A future Murakami Special! Watch this space )

• Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut – I’m not usually a fan of anything remotely sci-fi but having read Slaughterhouse-Five and enjoying it immensely (HERE are my afterthoughts), I’ve become somewhat enamoured by Kurt Vonnegut. It’s not often I see any Vonnegut titles coming up in 2nd-hand bookstores, probably because they are so popular, so I couldn’t resist snapping this one up, especially when its plot centres around the hunt for a deadly chemical that has apocalyptic potential ). It’s a small novel too so it shouldn’t be too hard to slip it in to my reading schedule.
• Catch 22 by Joseph Heller – It’s not often I let out an audible whoop in a 2nd-hand bookstore, well actually it is, but they don’t come much louder than when I discovered this title lurking on a lower shelf in the next 2nd-hand bookstore I visited. This is another title that’s been on my ‘50 Novel’ reading list since the beginning but it’s one, as far as 2nd-hand procurements go, that’s eluded me. Not anymore though and I’m delighted to own it. I can’t wait to read it!

  So there we have it 4 great titles to add to my collection. It may be a small number but it’s definitely a case of quality over quantity, and what makes the ownership of this batch all the more sweeter is the price; all for less than a fiver ($14). You’ve got to love the thrill of hunt, the 2nd-hand book hunt that is )