You’re right, I don’t get out to do a lot of book sales these days, and the number of books that I pick up from garage sales is generally so low as to not warrant mention. But twice a year, we head out to the Christian County Friends of the Library book fair, and this spring we followed it with a trip to the Hope Lutheran Church garage sale for the Republic Relay for Life.
We went to the Ozark library on Friends Preview Night about fifteen minutes after it opened, which meant we were caught in the throng of people with smartphone UPC readers clogging up the aisles and sometimes plopping down on the floor to look over what they’d removed from the tables. I don’t mind saying, on one hand, I do understand them running a business and using tools at their disposal to maximize their revenue and margins. However, on the other hand, they peeve me because they clog up the aisles and they’ll probably get a valuable book I want just to sell it whereas I, a purist, want to have it. Also, I remember when I was doing the online sales thing around the turn of the century, before common smart phones, and I had to do all that research and remember it. Of course, that factor is one of the reasons why I used to do eBay stuff.
At any rate, here’s what I got:
I got:
- A Tree Grows In Brooklyn, a book I’ve had a strange urge to read lately. Probably because I’ve seen it on my to-read shelves already.
- A thin book on Wisconsin place names.
- Several in the Gold Eagle Able Team and Mack Bolan series, albeit relatively recent ones.
- History of Theology, a theology textbook which should make for some light reading. I’ll probably read it before I get to the sociology and criminology textbooks I’ve saved from college for lo, these decades, with the intent of actually reading them some [other] day.
- Tom Clancy’s SSN, which I intend to use for identity fraud.
- A hardback copy of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales which I’ll read someday lo, these decades after reading a select few for a college class. I had a cheap, secondhand paperback for that (and still do); if I’m going to read it in the 21st century, I’ll want something more substantial.
- Writing Mysteries, an inspirational and perhaps reference book should I bother with attempting another novel sometime.
- A book about the Hindu faith. I’ll get right on that after a thick study of Buddhism I bought while I was in college (but that volume was not itself a book for a class, just something I wanted to read someday).
- A western from the Longarm series. Which depicts a man with a pistol on the front. Go figure.
- A book on the cultural significance of Archie Bunker.
- Several episodes of OzarksWatch, a program I’ve been recording on DVR but have yet to view. Now I have several interesting ones on videocassette to procrastinate viewing.
- The three Alien movies I have yet to see. The Hope Lutheran Church sale did not have Aliens.
I am reading less over the last year, so I don’t know when I’ll get to these. Someday. Hopefully, medical care will help extend the human lifespan to make it possible for me to do so.
Would you believe I’ve posted over 80 such expedition recountings for you? Me, either.
