What a difference a couple of years makes. Two years ago, we went to a book fair in Arnold and I thought it was in the middle of nowhere. We approached from one side, from the north. This time, though, we came from the south, and I realized that the church was on the corner of Jeffco Boulevard, the main drag in Arnold. A new big box shop development also cut down on the adjacent woods. So my former impression of a rural church was mistaken.
The selection was pretty thin, thinner than the preceding visit. I have to wonder about the future of church book fairs year after year. They draw from donations from reading members of the congregation, and that pool and available donations must diminish as time goes by.
I bought a couple videos and some books:
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Highlights:
- Shane, the source for the Alan Ladd movie.
- Linda Greenlaw’s next book, which takes place after The Lobster Chronicles.
- A biography of Queen Elizabeth II.
- A book by the author of Fate Is The Hunter, which I read at the behest of the Swedish mechanic who lived next door to my father when I attended the university.
This weekend, we went to a church in Overland that had no fixed prices; you got whatever you wanted for a “donation.” This is a double-edged sword for us, since we pick up books like it’s a bag day, using the excuse, “It’s only going to cost me a donation (that is, not much),” but when we get to the cashbox, we donate more than a similar number of books would cost at a set price. For example, we donated $40 for this:
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Highlights include:
- A number of Star Trek books, including some of the Blish series based on the Star Trek series and some of the Alan Dean Foster series based on the animated series.
- The Lord of the Rings series, a set that looks like it’s in better shape than the ones I own but have yet to read.
- Some movie tie-ins, like MASH Goes to Maine and Beneath the Planet of the Apes.
- Some classics, like Les Miserables and A Clockwork Orange. Isn’t the latter a classic? I’m not keeping score.
- A Family Circus and a Heathcliff collection of cartoons.
- A Zane Grey western.
Fortunately, most of these books look short, unlike the 600+ page opuses (opi?) that I’ve worked on so far this year.
