Charity shops

I used to have library tickets and would use them frequently. I loved the library, the relative peace and quiet and the sheer abundance of books. This was in the olden days of course before libraries became multimedia playgrounds,  and if you wanted to find something out you looked in a book. I would borrow half a dozen books at a time and probably read half of them before returning them.  I was taught from an early age to have respect for books, though I know that they are mass produced ephemera for most, I still find it difficult to mistreat one, even one by Jeffrey Archer.  I those days books came and went tidally and my own collection remained fairly static.
Times change, libraries are evolving and though books are there in abundance, so are computers offering google, Wikipedia and so much more. Many people read on tablets of Kindles and some predict the demise of the printed page altogether. I have read books on my iPad but find the experience unsatisfactory and still by far prefer to hold a book in my hand.
I no longer hold library membership but I do love to browse charity shops bookshelves and though I try to be disciplined, I still manage to buy books faster than I can read them. That coupled with a failing memory means that I am now forgetting what books I already have on my shelves as well as those that I have read.
Charity shops all smell much the same. I guess it is the combined  smell of elderly people and death. The smell is a reminder that inevitably, one day in the not too distant future, my life too will be measured out in black plastic bags and the things that surround me will be scattered to the wind and hopefully recycled.