10 Oct 2011

Multi-Coloured Swap Shop


I’m showing my age here by bringing up Noel Edmond’s Multi-coloured Swap Shop but it was a bit of a Saturday morning institution when I was a kid (I still have the scarf in a box somewhere). I soon swapped to the more entertainingly anarchic Tiswas when it finally went national but that doesn’t work as a link into today’s post.

The Guardian recently announced their National Book Swap. As a voracious reader I love this idea. It’s really easy to get stuck in a rut with your reading. I go through phases of only reading non-fiction (currently reading Bill Bryson’s At Home). Then only historical novels (Wolff Hall was excellent). Then it’s all about Sci-Fi for a while. (Neal Stephenson’s Anathem the best I’ve read this year).

The idea of coming upon a book you’ve never read before or swapping books with someone (see Bookcrossing) who has a very different taste in genre is really appealing to me. It broadens your horizons. Which can only be a good thing, right?

A version of this first posted at http://ftmf.info/

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