Books I cannot find in Goodwill Stores of Toronto:

Books I cannot find in Goodwill Stores of Toronto:

I swing between 2 opposite beliefs, depending on what is happening to me at the moment and I cannot have faith in one belief like most devout people. When things are going Good, I hardly think of God or thank him briefly. When things are not going right especially for my friends or family (NOT ME), I lose faith in God and wonder if he exists at all!

Similarly I sometimes believe that one can get any book one wants at the Goodwill stores,  if one is patient enough to wait until one finds the book at this store…….at other times, I believe that certain books will NEVER EVER come to Goodwill stores and one is better off, buying the book in a used book store or book store or online. ( I am convinced one can get ANY BOOK online, if one is willing to pay).

Some of the books I want and did not get in Goodwill are books by authors like Stuart.M.Kaminsky (the inspector Rostnikov series), Henning Mankell’s Kurt Wallender series, Modesty Blaise graphic novels by Peter O Donnell, Phantom & Mandrake comics by Lee Falk, Beetle Bailey comics, Beau Peep comics, novels by Haruki Murakami. One also cannot find authors like James Hadley Chase, Fredrick H Christian and Oliver Strange, Enid Blyton, in Goodwill, Canada(or anywhere else too as these are not new authors; Christian & Strange are also out of print; Blyton is constantly reprinted while Chase has been recently reprinted)

I can understand not getting Beau Peep comics----they are old, no longer in print and from Britain which means it is difficult to get them in Canada.

I can understand not getting Modesty Blaise graphic novels in the Toronto Goodwill stores: these graphic novels  have only been recently  republished in book form and only a few people i.e. those above 40 years seem to be aware of this comic-strip.…as we read it in our childhood when it was a newspaper strip in the 70s. I am sure the buyers of these graphic novels buy to collect and do not dispose it at goodwill stores. The same reasoning goes for not finding Phantom & Mandrake comics and Beetle Bailey comics.

I din't know that its impossible to find James Hadley Chase, who seems to be unknown to Canadian readers, even in the past; I can understand that Enid Blyton was more popular in India and other British ruled countries than in Canada; Canada produced  it’s own authors of children books and they had no need to import Enid Blyton books from UK; I know that the Western books by Christian and Strange, are maybe a century old and one may not find those books today; that other Western authors may have been more popular in Canada than the two British authors who wrote westerns i.e. Christian & Strange.

I cannot understand why I cannot find novels of Murakami, Mankell and Kaminsky in Goodwill stores ! Mind you, I am not saying I did not find even one…I did find about 8 of Kurt Wallander series, 2 of Kaminsky, one of Murakami in Goodwill but I cannot understand why my collection is not complete, though I have been searching for these authors for over 2 years!

Maybe buyers of Murakami are "Murakami collectors'' or anyone who buys a Murakami, keeps it....as it is worth keeping and re-reading ( I read in the news that his new novel sold more hard covers than Kindle editon as his fans want to feel & own the book than own or read it on  kindle!)

Some authors I rarely find in Toronto’s Goodwill stores are P.G.Wodehouse, Alistair Maclean( I find more Alistain Maclean than Wodehouse). I also find books on Greek mythology & English Mythology (i.e. King Arthur,etc) in Goodwill but not much of mythologies from other cultures. Sometimes, one will find Indian, Egyptian, Native Indian, Japanese, Chinese, Norse mythology books. But it can take years to have all mythologies in one’s collection, if one depends on Goodwill. One can buy books one wants more quickly in online stores,in  new book stores and at the private used book stores, but then, one has to pay more!

 I did however buy several good  & a few really amazing books at Goodwill for which I am very very grateful! Some books I  bought in Goodwill and really cherish  are:

• A few comics such as The Wizard of Id, Calvin and Hobbes, Herman, Charlie Brown,
• Complete works of authors I like such as Lawrence Sanders, Dick Francis, Martin Cruz Smith, Alistair Maclean, C.J.Sansom, Le Carr, Salman Rushdie, Agatha Christi,
• Many classics which are like brand new, hard bound, with original illustrations, faux leather bound with gilt edged pages and book marks such as Robinson Crusoe, Uncle Tom’s cabin, Charles Dickens works, etc.

One really rare book I got at Goodwill include a new looking illustrated copy of the Pied Piper of Hamelin, which may be more than a hundred hears old(There is no date of publication) . I  also  got a wonderful biography of Oliver Sacks, called Uncle Tungsten.
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February 2016: Goodwill stores in Toronto are closed since January 2016. This seems to be due to the gross mismanagement of funds at the management level. I am appalled by the disgusting behaviour, lack of ethics and work-skills of the management of Goodwill stores, which were helping so many people of Toronto. It was providing employment to many people who are now jobless; it was providing cheap affordable items to lakhs of people in Toronto; these stores helped to recycle things which would otherwise been wasted. SHAME ON THE MANAGEMENT OF GOODWILL STORES. SHAME ON THE CEO OF GOODWILL.