Well, it is Book Sale Month here in Springfield. The friends of the local libraries hold their book sales. Did that stop me from swinging by Hooked on Books to see what they had on their dollar carts when I had a few minutes to kill on Thursday? Of course not.
I got:
- The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks which I don’t have to read in case her case comes up in a trivia night as it already has.
- Going Postal by Terry Pratchett. The suspicious young man who didn’t know Hooked on Books used to put red dots on the spine for dollar books was skeptical that this book by a popular author was on the dollar books cart, but he found some damage to the spine that might account for it. Probably brought some termites home with me or something on this book.
- Golden Times: Tales Through The Sugarhouse Window, which looks to be a collection of columns or musings.
Meanwhile, in Ozark, the Friends of the Christian County Library book sale had already kicked off to little fanfare, and we only managed to go on Saturday morning. Bag day. It still had a sizeable selection when we got there, which allowed me to fill only three bags (and my beautiful wife filled one). So, for eight dollars, we got:
- The Willow Bees, a collection of musings from a local author, I reckon. There was a stack of them available.
- 1001 Ways To Be Romantic. Probably not like Keats and Byron.
- Death of a Doxy, a Nero Wolfe mystery.
- Act of Treason by Vince Flynn. Heather likes him, so I’ve been picking up his books. Since I’ve not started reading them yet, I’m probably picking up multiple copies of each. But, hey, bag day. I had to pick this up in case I hadn’t already.
- Country Editor’s Boy, a collection of country memories.
- A collection of stories by Dorothy Parker.
- Athabasca by Alistair MacLean.
- Naked Came The Manatee, a novel by a collection of Florida authors including Carl Hiaasen and Dave Barry.
- The Secret Power Within by Chuck Norris, a Zen musing by the actor.
- Two collections of Sally Forth comics by Greg Howard.
- The Trivia Lover’s Guide to the World.
- Home Song, a Cape Light novel that might not even be about Christmas. What’s next for me, cozy mysteries and romance novels?
- License Renewed, one of Gardner’s later James Bond novels since I’ve been watching the films with my boys.
- The Good Girl’s Guide to Murder by Susan McBride, one of the Debutante Dropout mysteries by the St. Louis area author. My god, is this a cozy? How far have I fallen?
- Nightmare Town, a collection of stories by Dashiell Hammett. I’ve probably read them before. But not in this volume.
- Fast Fiction: Creating Fiction in Five Minutes, a writing book. Because I’ve been meaning to delve into fiction again.
- Farnsworth’s Classical English Rhetoric. It looks to be a collection of quotes with explanations about them.
- Einstein for Beginners. After my recent failed forays into higher physics, I probably need this. If I can’t get it, the next stop is Physics for Dummies.
- Sharpe’s Fury, one of Bernard Cornwell’s historical series. Which I might already own in paperback, but bag day. Although I probably would have paid a buck for it anyway just in case I didn’t have it.
- Skin Game, one of Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files series. Which I probably don’t already have.
- Pocket Quips, a little paperback of one-liners and gags.
- The Bourne Identity. We passed through Nixa on the way to the book sale, and I remember that someone recently put up a joke sign on the Welcome to Nixa sign that said “Home of Jason Bourne”, but I guess that’s the movie version. I’ve not read the book, but some years ago I listened to one of them on audiobook. My wife loves them, though.
- Starwolves: Battle of the Ring and Star Wolves: Dreadnaught. Because they had a similar name to Star Wolf: The Weapon From Beyond. But the series are quite likely unrelated.
- Iroshi, The Glaive, and Persea. I picked up The Glaive to see if it’s related to Krull (no). It’s the second book in a series about a hero with an actual glaive. I found the first (Iroshi) and another in the series nearby, so I bought them. Because bag day.
- Gust Front by John Ringo.
- March to the Sea by John Ringo and David Weber. I’ve been seeing a lot of Ringo hit the book sales and used book stores lately. There must be something in the publishing cycle of an author that dictates how soon this happens after an author gets notice and sales. Ringo seems to have hit that point in his career. I really should read one of the ones I’ve been picking up to see if I like them before I acquire the whole collection only to determine I don’t like them. Well, another besides The Hero, I guess.
So that’s, carry the one, thirty-three new books. Or, at my current pace, two years’ worth of reading. For essentially nine dollars.
I’d better get to reading instead of telling you about it.
