Waiting for books to come in the mail is exciting, and so is wondering if a special childhood book is still going to be special.

I have ordered 3 books from Amazon. (Amazon owns TBDepo now anyway, and were cheaper even with postage, fyi). I don't feel too guilty about online retail because I doubt 2 of the books are easily available off a physical bookshelf anyway. But I do like  and support book shops in principle.

Now I am in that happy waiting place. The thing I like about online shopping is that you pay and then ages later you get the thing, so the buying process is all separated and it's like you've given yourself a present! I am expecting Snuff by Terry Pratchett (which is a huge exercise in self control because I already have the audio book but want to read it first) and a book on typography and a book I remember from my childhood, only read once at the library but I remember being enchanted by it, The Ordinary Princess.

This isn't the cover but I like it. melindart.blogspot.com

Childhood books can go either way. Some are such high quality that you re-read them as an adult and still enjoy them, or enjoy them even more. Winnie the Pooh fits that class. Some you realise are perfectly written for kids and totally boring for adults. Enid Blyton fits that class. Mum thinks she's awful. When I was a child I gobbled up all those books about children and hideouts and torches and dogs and ginger beer and macaroons and smugglers and saying "smashing". Now I don't even know how an adult could write them. The Arther Ransom books like Swallows and Amazons are the same sort of content but still just absolutely brilliant and it's a pity nobody reads them. So anyway I'm wondering about The Ordinary Princess.

Sigh. The single post view bug is still chewing up jelssie. I don't know why.