While being a lovely sunny day, there is always time to pop into second-hand bookshops and dig up some treasures from dark and dusty shelves.
My recent finds include "The Practical Way to Keep Fit" (ha!) by Harry Roberts and "How to Write, Think and Speak Correctly" (I know what you're thinking, reader) by C.E.M. Joad. Both are part of Odhams Press Ltd's quaint range of self-improvement books for the Everyman, probably from the 1920s and both have the same lovely endpapers.
Knowing how to write, think and speak correctly is all very worthy (an' all that), but the guide to keeping fit is my favourite of the two, mainly for its illustrations. The text is ponderous and preachy and reminds me of being trapped at a party by a perfectly lovely but deadly dull guest. The illustrations, however, are a bit of a hoot. They range in quality, staying on the dark side of mediocre for the most part, but some are really very bad! Some have quite funny captions and others are just, well, inexplicable.
You're telling me it does!
Well, that's all very well for him!
Not even trying.
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