In search of old Penguins - just one week to go.

Back in November I wrote of my plan to take a break from the pressures of study (and Perth's summer heat) and head to England to spend a few weeks wandering about the countryside visiting secondhand bookshops and charity stores in search of some more old Penguins for the collection. Thank you to everyone who left a comment, or contacted me by email or twitter: I have had so little time for research, so all the information I have received has been very helpful

I'm now counting down the days, with just over a week until I head off on the 25 hour long journey that will get me to Amsterdam. It seems as though I couldn't have chosen a better time: it is hot here in a way which is apparently unprecedented, with the temperature forecast to climb above 40 degrees every day this coming week, and not dropping far enough during the night to bring much relief. I cannot wait to feel cold.

(The books I brought back
from my last lone trip.)
When I wrote that post I was planning to travel on my own. This was partly because no one I know is so keen on books that they would devote an entire overseas holiday to searching for them, and partly because the youngest children came with me last time and it is too expensive to think of taking them again, and partly because some of my most enjoyable days have been in foreign cities when I was by myself. There is something about being alone and unknown which is liberating; no one expects anything of you.

But then plans can change. Pam, a collector from Tasmania (and the source of many of my recent books), wrote and asked if she could join me on the trip. And so although we only know each other online, we are heading off to search for books together. We have just under three weeks, and an itinerary taking in Amsterdam, Newcastle, Liverpool, Llandudno, Hereford, Hay-on-Wye, Bristol, Exeter, Axminster, Lyme Regis, London and Oxford. Unfortunately, Portmeirion proved too difficult to get to by train, and has to wait for the next trip. But there is so much else to look forward to: a visit to the Penguin archive at Bristol University, time with friends I haven't seen in a while, and lunch with Simon in Oxford.

So my posting on this blog may be a little erratic through February. I hope to still post a review of an old Penguin each week, but I always travel light and only read books I serendipitously come across when I am away from home; I find it creates wonderful memories. Perhaps we'll have success and find interesting book shops full of Penguins, and then I may write of that as well. And I'll document the books I find on my other blog Vintage Penguins, and perhaps post some photos to facebook.

Ill be visiting the southern suburbs of London a little as well, to see friends near Sutton, and to go to Maryon Wilson park out near Woolwich, so if you know of book shops in that area I should visit, please mention them.

Best wishes,
Karyn


Addyman Books, Hay on Wye. Photo source: Eifion on flickr