Ticking over

In an attempt to stop sitting at home and eating all weekend long, I went out to look round the shops. On the Saturday I looked round and bought some sale shoes and quite a lot of toiletries that were on offer from the chemist. On Sunday I walked to a nice Oxfam books and… bought 2 books. Again, the books I bought, I couldn't let anyone else buy them. I had to have them.

The first I spotted was in a card case and caught my eye. It wasn't grossly expensive (as I suspected it might be) and was on a little display stand. It was The Scholars by Wu Jingzi, a satiric novel set in the Ming and written in the 18th century. 

Also, having been searching for any Christopher Hitchens books at all for the last year I am suddenly finding them everywhere. Saw one and bought it. So price of getting out of the house is two books.

43. The Scholars - Wu Jingzi - £2.49 Oxfam

44. The Trial of Henry Kissinger - Christopher Hitchens - £3.49 Oxfam

Interested to read the Hitchens more so because I mindlessly bought On China by Kissinger last year. I waited for it to come out in paperback and have started it but it's pretty dry as a read and it's in my pile of "in progress" books. Now I have the dilemma of reading the "devastating indictment of a man whose ambition and ruthlessness have directly resulted in both individual murders and widespread, indiscriminate slaughter" first or the "modern history as told by someone who was actually in the room". The indictment is shorter so I think I'll probably go with that.