By now, it’s probably fairly obvious I’ll spend my money on just about anything, but I have to say I have a special soft spot for books.

I used to buy about one book per fortnight, but lately I have been burning through approximately one book per week (yes, I’ve been making a concerted effort to have even less of a life than usual), and it’s all been getting a bit pricey, so I joined the library instead.

While this has freed up considerable amounts of cash to spend on other things (for example cut-price French champagne at Dan Murphy’s), and I highly recommend joining a library as a way of both expanding your literary knowledge and saving money to spend on grog, there are some titles I still plan to buy and keep to read more than once.

I was browsing in Dymocks the other day when I came across the Popular Penguins range, which offers some of history’s most popular and important books in the original Penguin dust jacket for just $9.95. Well, what really caught my attention is the fact that “The Surgeon of Crowthorne” is amongst the bunch, and I paid $19.95 for this book not four months ago.

Anyhow, the range contains some of my favourites (”On the Road” by Jack Kerouac, “The Secret History” by Donna Tartt, “Love in the Time of Cholera” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez and “In Cold Blood” by Truman Capote, amongst others) and many of those worthy titles I’ve always intended to read but never have because I’ve never felt virtuous enough (”The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald, “Crimes Against Humanity” by Geoffrey Robertson and “Of Mice and Men” by John Steinbeck). Now I have no financial excuse not to read them.

The Popular Penguins range is available from most bookshops, including Dymocks and Borders.

By Caroline Warnes