Negative News

I consider myself a cynic and I've been accused of being a pessimist, but I would never have expected that a fellow library user would be guilty of stealing my purse ! But it happened this morning, in the public library in town, and whilst I must bear some blame (I forgot to pick my purse up from the counter at the information desk where I had momentarily laid it), I am shocked and hurt that another library user would do something so despicable...

So of course, I've had the great joy of filing theft reports both at the library (once we'd established someone had not picked it up and handed it over as lost property) and at the local police station, and of going to cancel my bank card. My only consolations (and they are small ones) are that the bank card is no use to anyone else as it's not a Debit or cheque guarantee card, it's simply an ATM card and of no use without my PIN - and that there wasn't much money in the purse, less than £20 - although I could have done without losing that as I've not much money left over from paying my rent.

The only fitting word I could come up with for such a person was "guttersnipe" !

******

The other negative news I have to report is that the Independent yesterday reported that second-hand bookshops in the UK are in decline. In three years, the number of second-hand bookshops in UK has dropped from 1,200 to about 600, mainly due to the rise of sales on the internet. I know that I miss Thorntons, which was a favourite haunt of mine for many years whenever I was visiting Oxford (before I became a resident again). I was particularly fond of this Broad Street shop because they always had a good stock of Tolkien-related books.