On Second-Hand Bookshops

The Gerts have been long patrons of libraries. My first ventures into the great City of Melbourne on my own at the age of ten introduced me to a wonderful library and a librarian who had my best interests at heart. But as my reading became all consuming, I realised libraries had a habit of culling their books every few years. Out with Barbara Euphan Todd and in with Enid Blyton. As I grew up I was forced to also patronise second-hand bookshops. Stephen Leacock, S J Perelman, P G Wodehouse; you couldn’t get their books in libraries. True, our father had many of them on his shelves, but I wanted to have them for myself. And the habit has continued.