Over the last five or six years I have accumulated a ridiculous amount of book tokens from various sources. Some have been birthday presents from colleagues, some were prizes from school awards evenings, others are so old that I have simply no idea how I acquired them. The problem is, much as I read, I never ever buy books for myself. Well, I buy German language books when I am abroad out of the sheer excitement of being able to obtain them, but as a rule for English books I rely either on presents or the local library. I enter bookshops chiefly to buy presents for other people, or to use the travel section as a reference library, and so for ages these vouchers have lurked in the bottom of my sock drawer and gathered dust. (more…)