Buying Books

As Keynes apparently said “Of course I’ve changed my mind. When circumstances change, you change your mind. What do you do?”

Which is a consolation when I occasionally feel guilty about the amount of money I spend on books. I’ve always bought books. I have thousands of them, and know for certain that most have virtually no resale value, so my kids will inherit a huge store of knowledge which will be more of a pain than a profit. Five years ago, I sort of decided I wouldn’t buy any more books, unless I really had to.

Then Covid came along. I went to a ton of zoom poetry events, often featuring poets at the other end of the country, totally new to me but writing stunning poems. And how could I best support them? Answer: by buying their books online.

The worst of Covid has gone, for now, but I continue to want to support poets, and the easiest way to do that is to order their work from the local independent bookshop, Pengwern in Shrewsbury. And when I get there there’s often something tasty which I haven’t heard of, but award myself as a freebie, for supporting the good cause. Which is how I came across “The Music of Time”, by John Burnside. It’s a stunning survey of European poetry over the last hundred years - an incredible display of knowledge and enthusiasm. I’d never heard of it, but feel privileged to have come across it, and share that buzz by lending it to friends