Shopping for books is my favourite kind of shopping. I could spend more time in a single bookstore than some girls need to shop for a whole new wardrobe.
However, money is tight, so I often buy pre-loved books. Whether it’s through Amazon, the library sale or a fleamarket doesn’t matter.
As I started this blog at the end of September, I didn’t get a chance to tell you about my awesome 40-book Zöppkesmarkt haul in early September, so I am taking this opportunity to rectify that!
Every year on the second weekend of September, my home town of Solingen in Germany holds a city-wide fleamarket, known as the Zöppkesmarkt. It is named after a local product, a small kitchen knife we call Zöppken in our dialect. We’re the City of Blades (Klingenstadt), you see?
Anyway, every year there are loads of stalls and my favourites are the book stalls (big surprise there). Some take over entire tents or parish halls, and the main ones are pretty established, as in: you know they’ll be there and they’ll be in their usual spot.
I do read quite a lot and consider myself well-read. I am still reading my way through some classic literature, but I’ve got quite a few modern books in my To Read pile as well. Oh, and by the way, I’m reading through most of my books in two languages. While I prefer English (except when the original text was written in German), I do like to look at the translations and note all the discrepancies.
What I love the most about fleamarkets are the treasures you can find in a random box. You know, that gorgeous book wedged between gran’s old saucers and some ice skates. And I do love books that have gorgeous covers.
Here’s my haul for the entire Zöppkesmarkt weekend.
In German:
- Ernest Hemingway: In einem anderen Land (A Farewell to Arms)
- Jonathan Swift: Gulliver’s Reisen (Gulliver’s Travels)
- Victor Hugo: Der Glöckner von Notre Dame (The hunchback of Notre Dame)
- Jules Verne: Reise um die Erde in 80 Tagen (Around the world in 80 Days)
- Thomas Mann: Die Buddenbrooks (The Buddenbrooks)
- John Steinbeck: Wonniger Donnerstag (Sweet Thursday)
- Wilhelm Busch: Illustrierte Sammlung (Illustrated Works)
- Rudyard Kipling: Kim
- Mark Twain: Tom Sawyer
- Groucho Marx: Schule des Lächelns (Groucho and Me)
- Alexandre Dumas, fils: Kameliendame (The Lady of the Camellias)
- Leo Tolstoy: Anna Karenina
- Mark Twain: Ein Kannibale auf der Eisenbahn (Collected Tales, Sketches, Speeches & Essays 1852–1890)
- Bernhard & Michael Grzimek: Serengeti darf nicht sterben (Serengeti shall not die)
- Antoine de Saint-Exupéry: Wind, Sand und Sterne (Wind, sand and stars)
- Edgar Wallace: Der Redner (The Orator)
- Agatha Christie: Mord im Spiegel (The mirror crack’d from side to side)
- Antoine de Saint-Exupéry: Nachtflug (Night Flight)
- Edgar Allan Poe: Der Doppelmord in der Rue Morgue (The murders in the Rue Morgue)
- Edgar Wallace: Der rote Kreis (The Crimson Circle)
- William Shakespeare: Ein Sommernachtstraum / A Midsummer Night’s Dream (bilingual version)
- Agatha Christie: Mord im Orient-Expreß (Murder on the Orient Express)
- Morton Rhue: Die Welle (The Wave)
- Franz Kafka: Das Urteil (The Judgement)
- Agatha Christie: Die Tote in der Bibliothek (The body in the library)
- Ernest Hemingway: Die grünen Hügel Afrikas (The green hills of Africa)
- Gotthold Ephraim Lessing: Nathan der Weise (Nathan the Wise)
- Bertolt Brecht: Das Leben des Galilei (Life of Galileo)
- Friedrich Schiller: Kabale und Liebe (Intrigue and Love)
In English:
- Tennessee Williams: Cat on a hot tin roof
- William Shakespeare: King Henry VI Part II
- William Shakespeare: King Henry VIII
- R.L. Stevenson: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
- Aldous Huxley: Brave New World
- John Steinbeck: Travels with Charley
- William Shakespeare: Henry IV, Part I
- William Shakespeare: Measure for Measure
- William Shakespeare: Henry V
- Joseph Conrad: Typhoon and Youth
- Arthur Miller: All my sons
And all of this for a grand total of €25…
Study. Read. Write. 
Gotta love pre-loved books. I sometimes buy the unused-ish ones at Amazon at discounted prices. Shipping fee is a bastard at times.
I noticed your haul is the classics, less than a few write like the old masters. In my opinion, any books written by the old masters should be included in library and schools not banned.
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