I was cleaning out my shelf of older books to bring them on Saturday to St. Pauls church charity bookshop. These were long on my TBR pile and I knew that I wouldn't read them soon.
One of the books I intended to just give away without reading is Replay by Ken Grimwood. The book is a hardcover, tattered and battered, with dust jacket torn in places, the pages rather wavy, nothing appealing about it.
I checked on Bookmooch for the title, and I noticed that it was a highly wishlisted book. I got intrigued by that, of course, and decided to flip through it afterall.
Started reading it during the evening and finished it the next evening afer work. It was THAT good! And thinking that I wanted to just donate it without reading because the book was not in pristine condition (and quite old, from the late 80's).
It turned out to be one of the best books that I've ever read!! (and I've read a couple of thousand books by now).
The story is one that appeals to fans of time-travel, of questions like 'what if I can live again, would I do it in a different way next time'?
Jeff Winston dies at his desk at work while talking on the phone with his wife. He then wakes up a full-fledged 18 back in college, with the mind of a 40 years old, since he retained all the memories of his past life...
I won't disclose more as to avoid spoilers, but if the subject intrigues you just a tiny bit, read it! It might be difficult to find, as it's an older book, but it's worth searching! I added it to Bookmooch.com and it was requested soon after.
So even though the physical appearances of a book might not be what one calls 'in pristine condition', even though you just want to throw it away as it looks that bad, don't judge a book by its cover. You might throw away a gem!
