NORMAN WALLIS  continues his story about some of the books he found in four boxes at an old charity store somewhere on the east coast of Australia, the whereabouts of which he refuses to disclose…

There were a few of those old Penguin novels with the two orange stripes on the cover. These were the original orange- striped Penguins, if you will. Not the new titles, with the retro covers trying to add a little cache. 

The Death of Grass by John Christopher, still with its four shilling price tag stuck to the cover. It was a science fiction novel about the transformation of England when the balance of nature is upset. Published 1958.

Mr Weston’s Good Wine by T.F. Powys, a novel first published in 1927, this edition 1957.

Quartermass and the Pit, a sci fi script by Nigel Kneale, published 1960.

The Brave Bulls by Tom Lea, a novel about the bullfighting industry in Mexico and Spain, published 1953.

The Lotus and the Wind, by John Masters. One of a series of novels he wrote about India. Published 1953; this Penguin edition 1958.

And there were some other novels like A Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Defoe. And The Gouffe Case by Joachim Maass, the story of a fascinating wanton – Gabrielle, the depraved, the damned. Translated from the German. Corgi edition published 1962.

And there was one of my purchases: Wanderers of Time, a collection of long short stories by John Wyndham, published 1974. The original price tag was still stuck to the cover: 35 cents. Which was in the area of what it cost me almost 50 years later. So I would recommend browsing through a charity store if you want to find something really interesting, cheap and good quality to read.

-readersvoice.com