Gleaning

I am not much of a collector, although I do have a tendency to hoard. Especially things like books.

I read the first three of Louise Cooper's Time Master series (The Initiate, The Outcast and The Master) as a teenager after my sister had been given them as a present by a lad who worked in the local bookshop who had a bit of a thing for her. I can't recall if my sister thought much of the books (or the lad) but I read them over and over and over, buying my own copies when she moved out - I have to add this in case she accuses me of still having her books!!.

Over the years since then I have collected the other two trilogies set on the same world, The Chaos Gate Triology and The Star Shadow Triology, which I have just finished reading. They are not the world's best fantasy SF books, but very enjoyable and escapist stuff, about a land where the gods of Order and Chaos vie for position as the deities of the mortals. I had a bit of a crush on Tarod as I was growing up... who am I kidding, I still do :) and re-read them often. If anyone is interested then The Initiate is the best place to start.

I got most of mine quite cheaply, picked up here and there for a couple of quid each, although the Star Shadow trilogy is out of print and some of the books are quite difficult to find. There are some listed for sale for really silly money out there, but it proves that you don't need to put in the legwork when collecting any more if you have the money.

I had missed out on a bargain when 'Eclipse' came up on ebay and was not happy when someone else got it but managed to get one ( I suspect possibly the same book) for not that much more, which I was prepared to pay when considering how little I paid for most of the others. I felt a bit guilty having ordered that book online and not carried on searching in second hand bookshops for the rest of my days. I like browsing, and there is much excitement to be had when you spot something you're after and gripping it tightly and carrying it around the shop with you in case anyone else should be after your find - despite knowing really that no one else cares. But my desire to own them and after searching (admittedly not hard) without success when I just wanted to read them won out and I paid up.

So I am almost done. There is just one book left. The Lord Of No Time is the short novel from which the Time Master books came into being and is pretty rare so if it wasn't for the internet, I doubt I'd ever find one by myself - and this otherwise impossible to find book will soon be mine for the princely sum of £6. Hurrah!

Now... I need to find something else to collect :)





Edited to add a pic of said book in it's new home. It is a 1977 first edition paperback, bit tatty around the bottom of the spine but otherwise in pretty good nick considering it's thirty years old (ouch!) and doesn't look read.

This pic doesn't quite capture my alarming lack of shelf space....these books are two deep....