So, in terms of actual day job work, as opposed to being an author, I’ve been unemployed since the middle of December. Hopefully, that won’t be true for much longer, but it may go some way towards explaining how I’ve managed to read 33 books since the start of the year. This might also explain why I’ve gone hog wild on the bookshopping since we came to the UK: even taking into account my many birthday monies and vouchers, the fact that I spent all of them exclusively on books is noteworthy. Thus, my alphabetised shelf of Things I’ve Read In Scotland –
– and my current TBR pile:
That is all.
shattersnipe: malcontent & rainbows 
Hi Foz – I am one of your random friends from Goodreads. You have a terrific assortment of books to read. I am curious about something. Some of the books appear to be (possibly) used copies. It was my impression authors were uncomfortable with the idea of reselling books and that has always made me feel terribly guilty whenever I stroll through a used book store. Do you have an opinion one way or the other? Cheers!
Huzzah for random Goodreads people! Honestly, I’ve never heard of any author having a problem with the idea of second-hand books – true, it’s a parallel economy and we don’t get any money from it, but given that someone must have bought the book firsthand at one point, I really don’t see it as a loss on our part so much as being equivalent to what would happen if the original owner just lent it out to a friend, and either way, if someone does pick it up, we get new readers. As for me, I’ve always adored second-hand bookshopping – in fact, it’s how I discovered virtually all of my favourite authors as a teenager. With a few notable exceptions, I’ve often found it hard as a genre reader to rely entirely on public libraries: many series are often incomplete or unavailable, or, if not, you’re frequently put in competition with other readers for whatever volume is next on your list. Don’t get me wrong – I love libraries. But hunting for the next book in a series in secondhand bookshops had always been one of my favourite things to do. And the thing is, I still buy quite a lot of firsthand stuff, either because I simply can’t wait to read it, or because it’s a less well-circulated story that I’d have a hard time tracking down secondhand. So please, don’t feel guilty about buying secondhand: at the end of the day, I think most authors are just happy to reach new readers.