Retirement blog about retirement and books and Amazon

This retirement blog suggests that, if there is a constant throughout my life, and by that I mean all through my working life and unchanged into my retirement, then it is … books.

In an era where it is fashionable, and some would say, sensible, to read books on a screen in digital form, I have remained steadfast in my devotion to proper books. It’s true that putting the light on to read at two o’clock in the morning (on those occasions when sleep will not come, can be disturbing to Mrs Summerhouse. Maybe lighting up your screen is equally selfish. I don’t know as I’ve never tried it).

Inevitably, when it comes to spending money and living off of a pension, my finances are often a cause for concern. Should we be spending money on hotels? On garden sculptures (more of which in a later retirement blog); on restaurant meals and visits to the pub etc.?

Admittedly, the qualms aren’t massive – I’ve worked all my life and why shouldn’t I enjoy my retirement? That kind of thinking pervades. But there’s no denying there is a degree of guilt at my spending. Mrs Summerhouse isn’t a big spender or, if she is, she covers it up well which is all you can ask for in a partner. So that helps.

But spending regularly and without guilt on books, that doesn’t and has never bothered me. It’s like a whole different set of rules apply to books and only to books. Quite why this should be I’m not sure. All I can say is that it’s always been the case.

I try and spread my book buying between local bookshops, charity shops and car boot sales and, whisper it, the dreaded Amazon. With whom I am not too impressed just at this moment in time. I casually spent £34 on three books from Amazon recently. Haunted churches, weird I know I think of it as my winter reading. It’s so easy to spend money on-line isn’t it?

The books arrived a day earlier than they said. You might think that this is a good thing. Problem was we weren’t there to receive them because we had expected it a day later. Because we weren’t there the deliverer left it on the doorstep. Second problem, it was raining, so the cardboard envelope was sodden and with it partially one of the books.

We used to tell them to leave it in our ‘safe place’ – the porch, but since our attempted break-in, when we are away for any length of time, we lock the porch. We have put a letter box on the wall for mail but I suppose the package wouldn’t fit in there. So he (assuming it was a he) left the books on the door step. Maybe it wasn’t raining when he left them. Maybe.

I was so irritated that the next thing I ordered from Amazon – sticky safety non-slip tape for the decking steps – I had delivered to the local post office. This was a first for me. What could go wrong I wondered – idly. Not much except when I arrived to collect the tape, the Post Office was closed for lunch. Hmm, didn’t think of that. But small annoyance. I collected tape, took it home and immediately stuck it on the slippy steps. And rather good it looks too. But I digress.

Back to what may be the topic of this retirement blog. If there is a nicer place to be than a second-hand bookshop with a café, then I don’t know what it is. Maybe an old railway station with a café, possibly an art gallery – with a café. Or just a straight café. Anyway the point is that I need no encouragement to enter second-hand bookshops. If they can be found. Certainly in Leeds, as I’ve written before, they are increasingly rare.

Mostly you can buy cheaper these days from car boots or places like my jazz venue – Heart in Headingley. Probably why there are very few bookshops now. All books £1 but the selection is inevitably a little limited. In the photo above you can compare the books I bought for £3 from Heart with the 3 books I bought from Amazon at 10 times the price. And don’t tell me one set is paperbacks because 2 out of the 3 from Amazon are also paperback. The hardback turned out to be a children’s book. No harm in that you say except I didn’t want a children’s book and I didn’t think Amazon made that clear that it was. But I’m rambling.

I do that when I have no idea of what I’m writing about. One point I’m making is that Amazon need to shape up (perhaps the new collection method might help) because I’m getting annoyed with them. They’re constantly trying, deceptively I feel, to get me to join Amazon Prime or failing that to pay postage for delivery when there’s no need because I rarely need the item immediately. They’re not ridiculously cheap either.

I think I have written before in other retirement blogs, that there are quite strict rules to my book reading. No reading in bed or in pyjamas out of bed in the morning. Only reading non-fiction is permitted before the second dog walk (usually about 2 til 3 in the afternoon). After that any form of fiction (usually crime novels) is allowed. Ditto reading in bed before we go to sleep. Works well but not, as above, in the middle of the night when I can’t bloody well get back to sleep after a visit to the bathroom.

Considering we, at this point in our lives, own somewhere around 3,000 books, (not massive by many people’s standards but for us, quite enough), we’re running out of places to put them. True the Derbyshire cottage could take a few more but I’m reluctant to over fill that property in case we decide to sell it.

That’s the one downside to books, they do take up a lot of room. Oh, and they’re very hard (and heavy) to move if you do sell a place. Two things. That and they collect a lot of dust. Three things. But then what have the Romans ever done for us?

Despite the odd disadvantage, books remain a constant and considerable source of pleasure in my retirement and how many things in life would deserve this label? Well, you tell me.