Once again, it’s that time of year when the cherry trees go full blossom riot in the old town of Bonn, and many of the local residents and others stick their bric-a-brac on fold out tables outside their front doors for the rest of to wander round and gander and poke at. A lot of it is kids or their parents selling clothes and toys they’ve grown out of – my wife’s the expert at snuffling out worthy truffles in that area, so I leave that to her, and I wander off in search of cheap books, DVDs and CDs.

Each year I wonder if it’s worth it – few books will be in English, and in these days of streaming audio and video, is it worth cluttering up valuable home space with plastic of uncertain quality? But it can be interesting to rummage through people’s collections that they are dumping – who knows if it’ll be more than just best sellers and greatest hits?

This year, partly because of the sudden shower of hail (?) which led to hasty covering up with plastic sheets, there was very little on offer and I almost went home empty-handed. But » Continue Reading.