Charity shop book haul...another five for a pound haul.

Last Friday, I got another five for a pound haul of books from the charity shop that keeps on giving.

Let's see what I got this time.

All the ratings are from the Goodreads website.

1) QI Second Book of General Ignorance by John Lloyd and John Mitchinson. 3.91 average review rating. This is one of those factual books that you can dive in and out of as and when it suits. Originally published in 2010 it has hundreds of individual bits of trivia like what did Cornish wreckers do, and what is a brass monkey? Like the BBC TV series, many of the answers are not so obvious.

 

2) First Man In by Ant Middleton. 4.02 average review rating and 705 GR reviews (as of writing). The memoir of a Special Boat Services sniper and a No.1 bestseller, which you might be forgiven for thinking that this is a man's book, yet quite a few of the reviews on Goodreads were from women. Maybe because it is about the secretive world of conflict and war, I assumed it would be a “man” thing. GQ describe it as “fist biting fun”, I suspect that at the time it wasn't always fun for the writer.

3) Spectacles, A Memoir by Sue Perkins. 4.02 average review rating and 846 GR reviews (as of writing). Another Sunday Times bestseller. Always interested in what it takes for a memoir or biography to become a bestseller. I suspect it helps to be a celebrity or being famous for something. Fame sells.

 

 

4) This Is Going To Hurt by Adam Kay. 4.02 average review rating and a whopping, 19521 GR reviews (as of writing). An award-winning million copy bestseller about the secret diaries of a junior doctor.  Obviously, not so secret now.  Given the state of the NHS in the UK, you can probably see why there is so much interest. This was actually first published in 2017, long before the current NHS crisis, and Kay himself left the profession in 2010.

5) Home Stretch by Graham Norton. 4.11 average review rating and 1755 GR reviews. I mentioned in my last charity shop haul post that most of the books I had bought were non-fiction. Well, I finally found a fiction book to read! Actually, there were many to choose from, but I tend to get drawn to the non-fiction. 

I picked this one up simply because it was written by someone well known, a celebrity, just to see why they think they can write a book.  Many celebrities do tend to write fiction books and do very well out of it.  Is it again a case of their celebrity helping them to get published? Would they get published if they were just another average Joe or Joanna, sending in a speculative manuscript? I suspect that fame helps. There again, an average GR review of 4.11 suggests that he can tell a story and buyers liked it.  That's all that really counts when you think about it.

I may read and review in due course, but it is now on a long “to read” list.