It may have been obvious from previous posts, but I am a huge fan of collecting reference books. Even in this day and age when the Internet is seen to be the be all and end all of gathering and finding information, in my view, you still cannot beat researching a fact within a good reference book. How many times does looking for one fact in a book lead to the discovery of so many more? I tend not to get that with the internet where it tends to be a more simple find the fact and move on Getting lost in a good reference book is all too common for quizzers!
I have mentioned on a few occasions some of the most useful and enjoyable reference books I have come across and intend on putting something like a top 10 together in the future. But one issue people have raised with me, especially when they see my book shelf, is the cost of acquiring so many. Even though bargains can be found online, buying books new can be a costly purchase. Even second hand retailers online and places like ebay and the amazon marketplace can charge high prices for big tomes of information.
A few months back I decided to try charity shops, mainly hunting for quiz books but discovered many of the high street brands stock good quality reference books. Books that are long out of print, hard to get hold of and usually they have been well looked after and are in mint condition. As someone who never really went into charity shops previously, I was somewhat surprised. I found myself picking up great quality reference books, books I did not know existed too, for next to nothing. You can literally enter a charity shop with a tenner and get together more reference books than you can carry!
I have got the latest Hutchinsons Encylopedia just this morning for £1, mint condition. Other recent finds include Guinness Book of Knowledge for £1, a fantastic AA illustrated guide to Britain for 50p, Trevor Montagues A-Z of Sport for 50p, various quiz books for pennies and other such gems.
This may be old news to a lot of people, but for anyone with a high expenditure on books such as I have, it is well worth hunting down the book sections in your local charity shop to see whats on offer.
Hi Daniel
ReplyDeleteI've sworn by charity shops for some time now. SOme of the stuff you've picked up is pretty useful. I like the Guinness books, - although the book of knowledge is newer than the 10th edition of the Answers book, I prefer the last Answers book myself. If you ever see a copy of the Pears Quiz Companion you might want to pick that up as well. Its old - the Penguin edition which was the last , came out in 2000, but it's a real boon for question setting.
I like Used and New on Amazon as well. Here's a tip, though. If there's more than one edition of the work in question, don't buy the latest edition, buy the previous one. In my experience there doesn't tend to be a massive amount of difference between them, and once an edition has been superceded you can normally pick it up for a very reasonable price.
Hi David
ReplyDeleteYes, I already have the Pears one and its one of my most used books. Not sure what edition it is and havent got it to hand to check. Its got an orange cover with a picture of Madonna amongst others. Come to think of it Im sure I got that from Amazon Used and New