I've written about the lives of secondhand books on several occasions on Rogue Strands. They never cease to bring surprises.
The latest case was a beat-up Penguin copy of Orwell's Homage to Catalonia. I purchased it at St Wilfred's Hospice Shop in Chichester and brought it back out to Spain. On opening the book last week, I noticed a sheet of glossy paper slipping out and falling to the floor: it was an advert for a bullfight in Mijas back in the 1980s.
How many hands have held this book? How many lives has it touched? How many journeys has it made? Will it ever make another one...?
The title is a translation of an idiom from both Hokkien (chiak hong) and
Malay (makan angin) for going on holiday or relaxing. Suyin du Bois has
Chinese-M...
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