Good Book Hunting: October 20, 2011

Yesterday, we hit the Friends of the Springfield-Greene County Library’s semiannual book sale. On a full price day, but we were without children. Since it was not half price day or bag day, I found myself restraining myself and putting down books that I would have picked up in other circumstances. Which is good, because I am at a serious deficit when it comes to room on the bookshelves.

Still, the volunteers who helped count our books and take our check thought this was a lot, but they don’t know me like you do, gentle reader.

Friends of the Springfield-Greene County Library book fair, October 2011

I bought:

  • Four volumes of Ogden Nash’s poetry, volumes that I already own, because these have the original dust jackets as designed by Maurice Sendak, author of Where the Wild Things Are. That’s right: I spent $12 for the dustjackets.
     
  • Several Classics Club books, some of which I might not have, as well as a Dickens club volume (Sketches by Boz) that I am sure I did not have.
     
  • Le Morte d’Artur by Mallory. Maybe next year, my thing will be Arthurian legend, and I can read this along with the paperback copy of Idylls of the King that I bought when I was in college.
     
  • Great Quotes, Great Comedians, a little collection of one liners from comedians. I’ve already read it, it’s that little.
     
  • Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy.
     
  • A daily reading guide, which is a collection of 365 or 366 paragraphs from literature with the schtick that you read one a day. I bought this as a gift for my mother-in-law, who really enjoyed a Tennyson daily reader I bought her years back.
     
  • A pile of sci fi, including a collection of Del Rey short stories, a Foundation book, something by John Varley, something by Robert Silverberg, something by Clifford Simak, and something by Terry Brooks.
     
  • A very brief history of Springfield’s first 100 years.
     
  • The History of Africa which is just what it says.
     
  • Heroes and History, a British book that talks about individual heroes like Robin Hood and their place in history.
     
  • An Empire Wilderness by Robert Kaplan which talks about the fragmentation and Balkanization of the United States. Or something.
     
  • Biographies of Edna St. Vincent Millay and J.R.R. Tolkien, who strangely enough were at their peaks at about the same time.
     
  • Two books in a series by the National Geographic Society.
     
  • A book of cartoons about business that looks like it’s trying to piggyback on Dilbert’s success.

All told, that’s 30 gross books for me, with 25 net at best (depending upon how many of the Classics Clubs are duplicates–I have yet to determine).

I don’t know if I’ll make it up to Bolivar tomorrow, so I might have to stand pat with buying this week only 50% of the number of books I’ve read this year.

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3 thoughts on “Good Book Hunting: October 20, 2011

  1. I read Malory in college. It was odd because the culture seemed so foreign — more so than Beowulf, which I read at the same time. The casual approach to violence and praise for adultery were weird.

  2. I’ve read enough late Robert B. Parker that I’m prepared for it. Are there any sessions with therapists to look forward to?

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