Typographical Errors (Badly Bought Books)

Posted on November 11, 2019 Updated on November 13, 2019

Here’s an odd admission to make on a blog about books: I hate buying novels.

Although I’m no bibliophobe – I love books! – I have a fear of ‘what books may do,’ as Holbrook Jackson puts it. Not all books, mind, just new-release novels.

Let me explain.

Buying books is risky business. A new novel hardly ever lives up to the hype, which says more, methinks, about the way books are marketed than about the books themselves. And then what?

Reading a novel is no one-night stand. Unlike a mediocre movie, a bad book stays with you; it crouches on your shelf, glaring at you like the picture of Dorian Gray, with ‘eyes of a devil’, a reminder of your profligacy and poor judgement.

Here’s another admission: I hate selling my books, even the bad ones. My ‘typographical errors’, you see, must never be known.

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This entry was posted in daily 12-dozen and tagged blogging, books, novels.

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‘Yes, yes,’ said the therapist, briskly. ‘It’s an open-and-shut case. You’ve lost your identity and the new you doesn’t need teeth.’

She cast an eye over the wolf’s lithe figure.

‘Just out of curiosity, what do you eat?’

‘Shakes, mostly,’ said the wolf. ‘It’s a complete diet, only minus the children.’

‘Might be worth a try,’ murmured the therapist. ‘My sister’s getting married next month, you know, and I’d like to be looking my best.’

‘You go grrrl,’ said the wolf, giving her knee a squeeze.

From A Tale With Teeth (Part 1): Putting the Bite Back into Fairy Stories (November 9, 2014)

timm in type

Home to a man of his words