good things come to those who wait

I really love Alexander McCall Smith's Botswana/Mma Ramotswe novels.  The first time I read one, I borrowed it from my sister.  Since then, I've made it a rule that I am only allowed to buy them second hand.  It is also a rule that I must read them in sequence.  I am a book hoarder and always keep the books I've read but (for some reason) I have made it a rule that I must pass my Alexander McCall Smith books onto my friend, Bernadette, once I've read them.  This plan was working well as he is an author you will always find on the shelves of a charity shop, and having to search for each title for a little while helped to eak out the pleasure.  Given half a chance I probably would have read the whole series in a oner.   However, In The Company of Cheerful Ladies has proved somewhat elusive and I'd been looking for it for over a year.  Every charity shop I went into, I'd scour the shelves.  Even if the books were arranged alphabetically this meant looking through all the Ms and all the Ss...  In some shops I found every title of his except this one.  I was getting tempted to buy it from Fopp (where it costs the same as it would in some charity shops) but knew this would be the beginning of the speedy end to my Alexander McCall Smith treats, making all his books just too accessible.  Anyway, this weekend I stopped off in one little charity shop just to have a quick peek and... there it was for £1!  Yippee!  I'm glad I didn't succumb to buying it new because all the searching and waiting and wondering made it all the more exciting to find.  I feel like reading it will be a real treat.  I might aim for a few early nights this week so I can snuggle up in bed (September has really brought the chill with it) and get completely immersed.  Yum yum yum.  Sometimes I find all my self imposed rules and regulations a bit... strange?  unnecessary?  annoying?  restrictive?  But the complicated Alexander McCall Smith rules seem to be working out very well.  Let's just hope he keeps writing them at the same pace as I keep finding them in charity shops.