I had a very enjoyable meeting last week with Colin Shone, the manager of Waterstone's in Oxford, who is helping the Oxford Mail to launch a new book club.
Discounted copies of Getting Rid of Matthew by Jane Fallon are now available at the store in Broad Street and I hope readers will soon be sending in their reviews.
It will be interesting to see who decides to join the club and Colin and I will have a careful think before we choose the club's second title.
Following our meeting, which was filmed in the library-like religion/psychology section of the store, I made my excuses and hot-footed it into Broad Street in search of second-hand treasures.
Colin no doubt thought I was slightly mad as I legged it out of his well-stocked store of brand new books to rifle through slightly foxed second-hand volumes, but that what's it's like being a bookhunter — the chase is often better than the kill.
With the scent of crinkly pages in my nostrils, I cantered past Balliol College, leaving cyclists cursing in my wake and then took a sharp right into Turl Street.
I arrived in no time at the specialist bookshop run by Oxfam and was rather excited to see a selection of Ardizzone-illustrated Tim books in the window.
Also on display were a number of Edward Lear volumes, although on closer inspection they were not the nonsense poems I know and love but pricey catalogues of his artwork.
After a quick tour of the shelves on the ground-floor (I didn't have time to descend into the basement) it was a toss-up between a paperback edition of Kipling's Just So stories, and a Thames and Hudson pocket book recounting the history of Charles Dodgson and his Alice in Wonderland stories for £3.50.
I had seen the beautifully illustrated Alice book once before in the central library at Westgate and was delighted to get my hands on it again.
After emerging from Oxfam, I turned back into Broad Street and continued my journey to Blackwell's where I bounced up three flights of stairs to the second-hand section.
Alas, there were no little red leatherbound copies of Kipling's Barrack Room ballads but on the whole it was a rather good day.