Old books save money

Of course I was exaggerating yesterday. My edition of The Newcomes is only 648 pages long. It took me weeks to read it because this was during one of those rare busy times at work when I’d come home gibbering to myself, too tired to do anything except eat and watch telly.

Every morning and evening for several weeks I’d read about five pages of closely typed Thackeray on the train. When I had time, I’d also read 20 pages at lunchtime.

This was quite economical reading. I paid three dollars for my 1907 hardcover edition at a charity sale at least ten years ago. That works out to be 0.46 cents per page. I usually read a book a week so if I was reading new books for the same length of time, I probably would have read five of them and spent $150. Yay for me. Now I’ve just started reading Thackeray’s The History of Pendennis: His Fortunes and Misfortunes, His Friends and His Greatest Enemy which I found lurking on a shelf at home. I paid six dollars for it somewhere ages ago. It’s 504 pages long with very fine print. This might take me until Easter to read. By then I’ll save enough from not buying new books to get some FABULOUS shoes.