Dead Lions

Just before lunch I polished off Dead Lions, the second of Mick Herron's Slough House series. While it was good, it was maybe a bit of a comedown from the first one. No matter, the series still holds water and they merit reading. I just won't rush off to get the next one next week. Instead, I have added it to my list of things to buy (all of them books), which is maintained for me free of cost by the largest online purveyor of goods in America if not the world, at which Mackenzie Scott was one of the first employee.

One reasonable question that arises at this juncture is whether I should hold onto the book now that I have read it or whether I should return it to circulation by taking it to a bookseller and allowing them to buy it from me cheaply, mark it up and sell it. Jamie Fiocco of Flyleaf Books -- who recently took a turn as President of the American Booksellers' Association -- told me that used books provided Flyleaf with higher margin than new ones. 

Then again, after we had some built in bookshelves put in downstairs before our event for Josh back in December, I now have some emptyish bookshelves. They are actually mostly filled with office supplies and crap I bought from Home Depot but never used because I was too busy reading and writing, but they yearn to be occupied by books. If I don't cull my collection at some point, it will just evolve into a problem for our kids in the future. Then again, they are resourceful kids, and if one of them decides to occupy this house when we leave it sometime in the future, they can just keep the books and grow the collection over time.