Found Items

Level Four Lockdown: Day Seventy-One

Mood:  Good

There's something going on in Richmond. Books keep turning up in strange places around the place.

Last week, a boxed set of Harry Potters, in pristine condition, ended up on top of the letter boxes. I've taken them in, let a note for the other neighbours, but have heard nothing back. The books will be rehomed with a friend once the lockdown is over. Chatting to my downstairs neighbour, she reckons the junkies have been at it again, raiding the Salvos donations, thinking the books were a good idea, and them dumping them. Regardless, there is a nine-year-old girl in Footscray who will love them. 

Then yesterday, I popped downstairs to take out the rubbish. I was about to put the bag in the wheelie bin, looked inside to find the bin full of books.

People throwing out books always makes me feel sad. As I'm writing a book, it feels like a slap in your face to see books in the bin. Okay, if they're damaged, there's a good reason to turf them, but not good books. Give them away. Put them in street libraries. Donate them to the Salvos or St Vinnies. Give them to friends. But don't turf them.

Anyway, the book on top of the bin, the one I was about to throw my rubbish into, was Stephanie Alexander's The Cook's Companion. In mint condition. 2014 printing.  All 1182 pages. Which retails at $90 in the shops. 

I'm not too proud to say that I liberated this from the bin. Many of my friends swear by this. I've often thought about obtaining a copy - well, this one fell in my lap - unmarked from it's adventure in our bins - I'd say it was probably only placed there in the hours before I found it as it was literally on top. 

I see this as a result. 

I can't let good books be treated like that. 

And because of this seeming windfall, passing by Dymocks on the way to the chemist this morning, I had to liberate a few more books. Trent Dalton's All The Shimmering Skies, the new Craig Silvey (of Jasper Jones fame) Honeybee, and Kate Mildenhall's The Mother Fault somehow made their way into my shopping bag. I haven't been into a bookshop in three months.

Things are starting to shatter.

We're hoping some of these restrictions are going to be gotten rid of next week.

We're all going a bit nuts. 

Today's Song: