Bargain Books for Desecration and Collage

 For next weeks 'Contemporary Collage' class at City Lit  we were asked to bring in a pre- existing book for  alteration/ desecration. While I have 'previous' in this activity( see here for my first foray), having had a clear out when we moved I  didn't have anything suitable . Time to visit the 2 excellent secondhand bookshops in Faversham - the 'Fleur-de lis' run by the Faversham Society  and Past Sentence  which is open on market days.  

In the latter, I bought  2 books  from the 'sailing' section. The copy of 'Dinghy Ownership Mainly For The Non-Racing Man ' dates from 1956 ( the author also wrote 'Dinghy Sailing For Boys - Or Girls')  and has nice thick paper ( an important consideration)  as well as lots of interesting illustrations and a few photos.  

I mainly bought 'The Merchant Service today' (1942 from the recreational library of RAF Mildenhall) for it's fold out copy of the admiralty chart of the North Kent coast section of the Thames Estuary although it too has nice thick paper.   

My final purchase from Past Sentence  was in the £1 basket outside the shop- remember the craze for paint effects in the 1980's ? This  book shows you how to do it and  has masses of photographs and illustrations  to  cut out and use - cheaper than a magazine!

In the 'Fleur' bookshop I obtained 2 further books  bought for their illustrations - a 'Souvenir Edition' of 1963 showing excerpts from issues of Encylopedia Britannica going back centuries and  the book below from 1981  which is filled with examples of patents including many bizarre ones that never caught on. 

All these delights together cost me the princely sum of £8.50!