Good Book Hunting, May 1, 2018: ABC Books

You would think that, given that we’ve just passed through the semi-annual book sales for the Friends of the Springfield-Greene County Library and the Friends of the Christian County Library, that I would not need to go to a book store any time soon.

Oh, but no.

We like to include gift cards in the thank-you notes we compel our children to write for their various teachers and coaches at the end of the year (or sport season, which for track and field falls at the end of the school year). Our go-to gift card for the last couple of years has been ABC Books because the owners are members of our church and are not pups like that kid at Hooked on Books.

So we went for our semi-annual gift card purchase, and since the owners are downsizing the store because part of their store was apparently below the water table and flooded whenever anyone in the vicinity wept. Which is good for us, because it meant $2 books on select titles as they cleared inventory.

Of which I partook.

The Eastern philosophy and Makers of the Modern Theological Mind books I tend to buy this particular location were not on sale (and, to be honest, I’m not sure where to find them in the reshuffled store). But I did get:

  • Twenty Years at Hull House by Jane Addams. Fun fact: When I was a senior in high school, I killed it in our Western Civ class’s chapter review version of Jeopardy! I beat everyone easily without much effort. So when it came time for a Civics Bee, everyone thought I would do well. They provided us with a book to review on history and the stuff they would quiz us on, and I probably opened it, but I was cocky, and I did not study it at all. My first question was on Jane Addams, and I bombed it. But I’m more sure of what she stood for since then. But I’ve not read her book. Until fourteen years from now, when I rediscover this on my to-read shelves.
  • A Nostalgic Almanac by Edna Hont, a reminiscence of life on a Midwest farm. The kind of books I like to read and clearly like more to buy to read later.
  • Manhood for Amateurs by Michael Chabon, a more recent humorous memoir or something.
  • Travels in a Donkey Trap by Daisy Baker. The flaps indicate it’s about an elderly rural woman who bought a donkey and cart for commuting in the 1960s or 1970s.

The cost of the books: $8. The cost of the gift cards? Well, we won’t go into that. Getting some of the school staff to visit ABC Books, which is a bit out of the way for southern Springfieldians? Priceless.

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