Obsessive-Compulsive

Over the summer I went to a few fairs and car boot sales, and always ended up browsing through the second-hand books. I’m a keen Sci-Fi reader, and something that struck me is that you never see any Sci-Fi books at these events. I’ll happily pass on books I’ve read to friends, not expecting to get them back again, but I have a problem giving them away to charity shops, school fairs etc. If I’ve read and enjoyed a book, I want to pass on the book to someone, saying “this is great – you should read it” rather than just chuck it on a charity shop shelf (mind you, if you see a Harry Turtledove in Kingston’s Oxfam it was probably mine, I couldn’t get it out of the house fast enough).

I’ve also come to the conclusion that gamers and Sci-Fi fans tend towards OCD, and this is why you never see anything decent at second-hand stalls. There are copies of Trivial Pursuit that have lived their entire lives on bring-and-buy stalls. Then again, maybe they are like me, and only pass the trash they’ll never read again on to these fairs. Something has to explain why they’re knee-deep in Jefferyy Archer and Jilly Cooper.