Good Book Hunting: August 9, 2008

So I was saying something about not taking children to book fairs or something, and suddenly I read that the People for the Ethical Treatment of People or the St. Louis Ethical Society or whatever the secular humanists, the moral subgroup of the loft people, call themselves was having its book fair. Last year, it was a pretty small affair but fruitful according to my acquisitive nature. This year, it proved smaller, small enough to go through before the children got too many stroller sores, but fruitful enough:

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I got:

• Several volumes of the History of Philosophy paperback set. I already owned a number of them but couldn’t remember which ones I lacked, so I bought them all. Turns out I only added one to my collection and a large number of duplicates. Gimlet, if you want the dupes, they’re yours.
• Reflections of Friendship, kind of like Be Happy!, but with only landscapes and not 70s people to mock.
• Countdown to Super Bowl, a book about the time the Jets went to the Super Bowl with Joe Namath at the head. Uh oh, ultimately, this might be a heartbreaking harbinger.
• The Picture of Dorian Gray and Other Writings by Oscar Wilde.
• Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life, the movie paperback. Because, well, you know me.
• The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis, even though Mrs. Noggle has assured me that it’s included in the compendium of C.S. Lewis writing that she gave me which I’ve obviously not paid enough attention to.
• Thereby Hangs a Tale by Charles Earle Funk, a fun etymology book.
• The Outsider by Colin Wilson.
• My Cat Spit McGee, a book about a guy’s pet cat. Masculinity–.
• Love Poems by Anne Sexton.
• What’s the Matter with Kansas by Thomas Frank.
• Piers Plowman.
• One Way to Reconstruct the Scene. A slender volume of poetry, if I recall correctly.
• Letters Volume I by Matthew Arnold. Brother, if you can buy a 100 year old book by a poet for a dollar, you just do it.
• The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton. A second printing, it might replace another early printing if I can figure out which is older.
• Murder at the ABA by Isaac Asimov. I read this, probably in middle school. Still, the man wrote himself into one of his mysteries, but only as a minor character. Amusing.
• The Elric Saga Part I by Michael Moorcock. I think some people have said this is good. It has to be better than The Black Corridor or An Alien Heat. Doesn’t it?
• Invisible Prey by John Sandford.
• Dumbth by Steve Allen. A book about how America is dumbing down. By Steve Allen. So you know this isn’t a new concern.
• Looking Good in Print and Publication Design text books about designing for print.

Additionally, I got The Three Amigos and Fletch Lives! on videocassette. Mrs. Noggle scored 15 sets of records in the Beethoven Centennial series, some Cooking Light magazines, another record with trumpet music, and some cassettes.

A good trip again this year, and brief, but not brief enough, really, for J2, who thinks the car seat is a torture device.