An awful day tempered by a flying visit to Hay on Wye - O little town of books!

I try and avoid the personal on this blog, but today I'll start on a tangent again - the last one was hammy, this one is book related.  It concerns a late afternoon visit to Hay on Wye, book buying and some tips for bargains as well as book investments.

First thing this morning panic and stress rocked my day when I discovered the car had a fuel leak (for the fourth time in its history of my ownership).  I dumped the preposterous excuse for a vehicle at the dealership and took a hire vehicle managing to at least complete a couple of the planned and needed tasks for the day.  And then came three o'clock and three thoughts: the hire car is one I'm thinking of exchanging the demon lemon for; I might manage to make Hay in an hour and have an hour or so's browsing time; I promised someone I'd help him find a book he's looking for and Hay is where I need to go.  So with the chance to kill two birds with one stone - a test drive and a book browse - at a certain roundabout I turned left instead of the usual right.

But I did say that this was an awful day at the start, didn't I?  Another slump or two in proceedings came when I wondered why someone flashed me.  I turned left and went around the bend and "Ah yes, it's a police van, the sort that takes pictures of vehicles speeding".  Turning left was wrong, wrong, wrong, too.  I should have gone right.  I went all the way to Builth Wells and back.  But it is a very scenic drive, I'll have you know.  (If you want to know exactly where, ask in the comments and I'll post the details at a later date.)

Finally on the right route, time was pressing, but I thought that if the shops closed at 17:30 I'd still manage to visit three bookshops, and I only wanted one particular book anyway.  If that book was there...

And what do you know?  At the first book shop I visited, they had one copy, hard back at that, and in excellent condition, of the said tome.  (More later, as this one's an investment.)  I bought it immediately and moved on to shop two in the plan, seeking a second copy if available.  No luck there.  Then I took a major diversion across the street into two other bookshops, starting to regret the waste of time.   No luck in either, again, so I moved on to shop three. 

Shop three is a remainder store and I hadn't expected to find the book there, but as everything is a pound, a browse is always on the cards.  The "browse" resulted in the purchase of twelve books.  One was to replace a fantastic novel that I dropped in the bath after finishing it, (it now looks like a loofah), plus a second copy to offer as a prize in a future competition (as I've decided to do these approximately monthly, from now on).  Four were copies of a novel I believe that others on my psychotherapy course might like, so I'll hang on to them for the right moment.  The rest were assorted novels from authors I'd heard of but not yet read, even if I already own a copy of something else by them, which sits in my TBR pile.

Now for the biggie of the day... the tome I simply had to buy if in any store, and managed to purchase at my first shop stop.  In no other shop visited did I see any of her novels in hard back or paper back.  So I returned to my first stop and bought the rest, all in hard back, making up today's purchase of sixteen novels in all.  I had one copy of her second novel; two copies of her third, one of which was signed.  The "buy of the day" and tranquiliser to my vehicular caused stress was a copy of "Killer Instinct" by Zoe Sharp.  Secondary doses of said tranquiliser were administered courtesy of one copy of her second novel "Riot Act" and two copies, one signed, of her third novel "Hard Knocks".

It was at the Hay Festival, and the words of Minette Walters at the festival two years ago, to be precise, that led to me into thinking that the books on my shelves may have more worth than I had attributed to them.  She said there that her first novel "The Ice House" was selling at about £1,000 for a first edition, having had a print run of only two or four thousand (I'm sorry, I don't remember the exact quote now).

Both my friend Chris and I met Zoe Sharp at Harrogate this year as she'd come along to enjoy the experience, as had so many (Sue Walker had done the same, and it was good to meet her too!).  Margaret Murphy introduced me to Zoe Sharp and Dreda Say Mitchell one evening.  And Chris High had been enthusing to me about reading Zoe Sharp's novels both before and during Harrogate.

Chris (the friend I talk about, as opposed to Mr High who is also a friend), being the first to seek this backlist out, told me that copies of Sharp's debut "Killer Instinct" were hard to get hold of and selling on eBay, Amazon Market Place, ABE and Alibris at prices around £200, and that was for a paperback!

All Sharp novels I managed to obtain today were in hard back and all came in at under £10 each.  I checked ABE earlier and found that Sharp's first edition hard backs are currently on offer thus:

Killer Instinct:  £81.72 - £217.92 (with only four on offer)

Riot Act:  £36.35 (unsigned) - £108.96 (signed)

Hard Knocks:  £108.96 (signed) - £190.67 (signed).

The copy of "Killer Instinct" I obtained today is well preserved and obviously unread.

After the comments of Minette Walters two years ago at Hay, I still enjoy my books for various reasons; but now, I look on emerging author novels with a different eye.  All these books need to be preserved as well as possible, as well as signed, if the situation arises.  Who knows what they may be worth in a decade or so?

As for Sharp's novels, they are not merely an investment, but an exploration of the works of a new author to me.  Zoe Sharp was wonderfully friendly and down to earth at Harrogate, and I have since read her biography on her site.  It's always interesting to see where the inspiration for a novel might come from - I don't know in this case, but the woman has had an interesting life to date, I can tell you!

And I'm still chuckling.  If you look at Zoe Sharp's website, she comes across as "hard woman not afraid to don a gun or mess with you".  The evening I met her, she was in a very feminine and floaty summer dress and wore it more than well.  That tells me so much - this is woman who is out there and keenly observant.  I'm looking forward to reading her novels!

So there you are: books are more than simple enjoyment, they can also be a major investment, if the need arises.  Take care to look at your stocks and preserve well!

Comments

[crimeficreader]

Thanks Zoe for "the balm" and for taking the time to make a comment on here. So pleased you found the site! (And "all who drink from here"??)

[Zoë Sharp]

Glad to have been able to contribute some small measure of balm to a stressful day! And well done on finding early copies of my books at such a good price. I always feel incredibly guilty if anyone's had to pay a lot of money for a copy of Killer Instinct. I'd rather it had been 'well-thumbed' rather than 'well preserved and obviously unread', though!

It was a pleasure to meet you - and Chris - at Harrogate and I hope you enjoy the books when they finally work their way to the top of your TBR pile.

[crimeficreader]

Chris, I shall continue to keep a look out for you and I'll no doubt be visiting Hay again in the future, very likely before Christmas!

[Chris]

Well, I wish Hay was within my driving range! At least it did become a productive day...Zoe was delightful when I met her at Harrogate, so much that I purchased three of her available books in the Ottakar's shop and she was kind enough to inscribe each with different notations. Now I just need to find killer Instinct to read the series in order!

[crimeficreader]

Thanks May!

[May]

What a nice chronicle of your day!

[crimeficreader]

A quick trip, but it was enjoyable when I got there!
For the first time, I noticed a fudge shop on this visit, but was too busy with the book shops to take a look. Hopefully next time I visit I can browse all day...

[Karen M from Euro Crime]

I don't get to Hay as often as I'd like but my first stop is the £1 shop (Bookends?). Other must does are buy coffee cremes for my mum from the fudge shop (as I can't find them anywhere else) and munch coffee and cake in the lovely cafe whose name escapes me. Glad you had a successful trip!

[Clare]

All's well that ends well! I hope so, anyway. Amazing the prices of those books...