IT’S YOUR TIME
Written by James Ward
In the waiting room at Worcester Park station, the Worcester Park Station Volunteer Group have organised a “book swap library”.
Users of the station are invited to take a book, enjoy reading it and then replace it when finished. People with any old books they no longer need can leave them on the bookshelf for others to read.
The Worcester Park Station Volunteer Group have produced a sign to explain the concept. Look, they’ve used Calibri:
Here is the Worcester Park Station Book Swap Library:
Here is a sample of the top shelf selection of books:
From left to right:
- The Doorstep Girls by Valerie Wood
- How To Study by Harry Maddox
- Always There by Pamela Evans
- something by Edith Pargeter
- The Au Pair And Nanny’s Guide to Working Abroad by Susan Griffith & Sharon Legg
- Harden’s UK Restaurants 2004
- Letting Go by Ann Richardson and Jane Ritchie
- Before I Say something by Mary Higgins Clark
- Lonestar Sanctuary by someone or other
- something Tower by someone
- something by Beryl
- something by Danielle Steel
Here is a sample of the second row of books:
From left to right:
- The Gripes Of Wrath by Simon Carr
- Season Of Passion by someone
- Driving by the Department Of something
- The Country Canal by Ronald something
- There’s Always Tomorrow by Pam Weaver
- I, Judas by Taylor Caldwell and Jess Stearn
- After The Fire by Belva Plain
- Methods Of Social Research by Stacey something
- something And Administrative Law by someone Smith
As I passed through the station the other day, I noticed a small note taped to the bookcase:
When I saw this letter, I thought it was one of the loveliest things I’d seen in a long time. A group of volunteers had decided to set up a book swap in their local train station. They did this for the simple reason that they thought it was a nice thing to do. Someone else saw the book swap, and donated a book to the library – “It’s Your Time” by Joel Osteen. Then, a third party came along, saw the book on the shelf, took it home, read it and was so moved she wrote a letter and taped it to the bookcase.
It was a beautiful illustration of human co-operation I thought. I posted a photo of the letter to Twitter. “Lovely letter taped to the book swap shelf at Worcester Park station” I tweeted.
The response? People pointed out the spelling mistakes in the letter.
Monsters.
JAMES WARD: I LIKE BORING THINGS 
Whoever left “Harden’s UK Restaurants 2004” did pretty well out of their swap
To stand up for the “monsters”, I’d say that anyone who still has in their eyes a little sprinkling of their original complement (not “compliment’) of pixiedust would have to be enchanted by the substitution of “nougats” for “nuggets”. It’s the best kind of error: a glimpse of a far, far better world.
True, it’s a delicious mistake.
People who pick up on spelling above noticing need (someone picked me up once when I was basically crying out for help) or beauty need to rethink their lives.
How sweet! What a truly lovely story. As for the monsters… I just made up a pair of villains last night. One of them is Grammar Goon, a professional wrestler turned professional villain who goes around destroying people’s otherwise lovely days by getting very angry about grammar mistakes and then picking them up and throwing them down and then body-slamming them. His partner is a woman called the Breast Ruiner who ruins everyone’s appreciation of breasts. I’ll leave her description up to your imagination. You may be eating.
I’d quite like to find nougat in a book. Something to keep my mouth occupied while reading.
I do like the *idea* of these swapping book things, but in practice they never seem to work too well when I’m involved (perhaps because I’m jinxed). They set up a Book Crossing station where I work and I took a book which turned out to be a horrific murderer thing. I finished reading it on the train to Manchester, and in the spirit of Book Crossing, I left it on the bench for someone else to read (as the label across the front of the book says).
I looked over my shoulder as I left Manchester Piccadilly, wondering if someone else had picked up the book. It was then that I realised one of the cleaners was touring the concourse with a wheelie bin and I watched as they chucked the book away.
Oh well.
I think the really important thing is to plug some gaps here. The Edith Pargeter novel is 1947’s “Warfare Accomplished.” “The Country Canal” is by Ronald Russell. “Before I Say Goodbye” is the Mary Higgins Clark book.
“Lonestar Sanctuary” (first in the Lonestar Series) was written by Colleen Coble. “Season of Passion” is by Danielle Steel. “Driving” (surely) is by the Department Of Transport. “Methods Of Social Research” is by Margaret Stacey. “Constitutional and Administrative Law” is the work of Stanley Alexander de Smith (though later editions were edited by his widow Barbara).
Beryl…is problematic. It could be Beryl Bainbridge, but I couldn’t see an edition of any of her novels with her name in that font. Some of Beryl Kingston’s work is designed in a similar style. If pushed to guess I wonder if it might be 1994’s “Maggie’s Boy” (Alison’s husband, Rigby Toan, seems the perfect match but he is a deceiver and in the recession of the 80’s will run up debts he cannot possibly pay and run away leaving her with two young children and responsibility for all the money he owes.) Bastard.
“Tower” is a problem. I wondered if Tower could be the publisher rather than author or title (the book is upside down so it’s a common place for the publisher’s name.) But the only one I can find is an Australian imprint “Subject Areas: Lifestyle, motivation, health, education, travel; literary fiction & classics; cooking, interiors, architecture, photography, visual art; graphic design.” Hard to say either way really.
The Danielle Steel cover on the extreme left doesn’t match the cover of any of the novels on her own website, so presumably is an old or alternate regional cover. Frustrating.
No, wait! I hadn’t realised you can see more of the novels in the wider shot. It’s not “Maggie’s Boy.” It’s hard to tell, but I think it might be “Alive and Kicking” (Rose Boniface of Lambeth has taken over care of her brother and sisters when their parents died but in September 1914 brother Bertie leaves for the war and life for the sisters is more difficult than ever. It is Rose’s skill as a needlewoman that pulls them through.) Well done, Rose.
Umm. You do know who Joel Osteen is, right?
I loved this post, but was a little sad about all the correcting. The note is so lovely, there is just no need to hate on the spelling mistakes. I agree with you – MONSTERS!