This might be limited to the London area, but for the past couple of days, The Times newspaper has been giving away a free book with each copy, if you buy it in certain places.

And not just any old tat book, either – they seem to be giving away a different title from the Penguin Celebrations series each day; on Monday it was Everything Is Illuminated, yesterday it was Freakonomics, and today it was … well, it was this, which I decided against. But who knows which of the (really quite impressive) list it will be tomorrow?

As The Times costs 70p, it strikes me as a pretty good way to get a cheapie book – comes in at less than 10% of the cover price, and as a bonus they all have that rather classic Penguin livery which I know less from my own experience and more from my father’s bookshelves and second-hand bookshops, so they’ll all look rather swish on the shelf.

I’m not entirely sure what the locations are where this deal applies, as a quick Google shed no light, but I know that Sainsburys and Starbucks appear to be participating – it’s pretty easy to spot if a particular shop is taking part, though, as the copies of the Times are shrinkwrapped in a plastic cover with, er, a book on the front.

Apologies if you’re interested but this offer doesn’t prove to be running in your neck of the woods, but I thought it was worth sharing. After all, a book for less than a pound (with a free newspaper) is something rather unusual, wouldn’t you say?