Last evening, the family and I ventured down to Ozark for the Friends of the Christian County semi-annual book sale. It’s in a single room attached to the Ozark branch of the library, so it’s not overwhelming in size, and the boys can explore the books on their own in sight of the parents.
Single room or not, it took us almost an hour to stack these babies on the checkout table:
I got:
- Another copy of The Elements of Style to give to someone who might benefit from it.
- Mr. Parker Pyne, Private Eye by Agatha Christie. When I see Parker on the spine of an old paperback, I think about the old Richard Stark novels about the Parker character. Not so much Robert B. Parker, but in the olden days, spines were white, and Robert B. Parker’s paperbacks did not have white spines. This book is neither, but it’s a Christie book, which I read from time to time.
- The Official Polish Joke Book/The Official Italian Joke Book, a politically incorrect volume if there ever was one.
- M*A*S*H in paperback. I have a couple of the follow up M*A*S*H paperbacks, so why not start at the beginning?
- A three-in-one collection of Ed McBain novels, one of which is Doll, which I am not in a particular hurry to re-read.
- Two volumes of tales about the Great Lakes by Dwight Boyer.
- A couple old issues of Missouri Historical Review.
- A number of reference guides headed for the workshop, including Machinists Library Basic Machine Shop and How to Repair Briggs and Stratton Engines 2nd Edition.
- A list of picture books and art books to flip through while watching ball games, including The Dakota Image, Monuments, and St. Louis Visitor 1974 Edition (this is a copy of the visitor info book they’d have stuck in a hotel in the Nixon administration).
- Ernest Borgnine’s autobiography.
- A couple of gardening books, including Plant Propogation in Pictures and Vegetable Gardening Guide.
- A collection of things kids say by Art Linkletter. Also good for browsing during ball games.
- A three-in-one volume, The Starchild Trilogy, by Frederick Pohl and someone.
- Et cetera.
My beautiful wife got a stack of old and newer magazines she can review for recipe purposes and some books of a theological bent. The lads got some reading books and a strategy guide to Mario Kart Wii that they will probably review for picture purposes mostly, but which Daddy will use to learn some tricks to trump the urchins in coin battles.
All in all, that’s 31 volumes and 2 films to clutter my shelves and my nights plus the stuff for the others in my family. The total cost: $40.
The cost of the new addition to our house we’re going to need to house the library: TBD.
