As I might have mentioned, we took a short vacation to Branson, which of course means a visit to Calvin’s Books. The first couple of books I looked at were priced very reasonably indeed ($2 or $3 for the Firefly books below and $1 for the travel/picture books), so I was afraid that maybe they were going out of business, but other books in the fiction section were priced as you would expect, and the store was cluttered more than usual, so they’re still buying books to sell.
My beautiful wife was also interested in some chess books and newer books, so we went to the new retail development on the north side of town which has a Books-a-Million, so I got a couple of new books as well.
At any rate, we got a few amongst the four of us.
I got these at Calvin’s Books:
- The aforementioned Firefly books: The Official Companion Volume One, The Official Companion Volume Two, Still Flying (short stories by the television writers), and Serenity: The Official Visual Companion. The whole lot cost $10.
- Travel/picture books depicting Notre-Dame de Paris, Castle of Chenonceau, Westminster Abbey, Marseille, Stratford-Upon-Avon and the Cotswolds, All Montserrat, Windsor Castle, and Versailles. As I said, these were $1 or $2 each. That’s book sale pricing. I’m set up if I ever want to watch sports again.
- Violence of Action by Richard Marcinko, a Rogue Warrior novel without John Weisman and at a new publisher.
- Deep Six by Clive Cussler, a Dirk Pitt novel without a named co-author. I said I might give this series a try, so here it is. When I give it a try remains to be seen.
- The March of the Millenia by Isaac Asimov and Frank White. I might already have it, but why pass it up and take the chance that I don’t?
- The Unauthorized Jimmy Buffett Concert Handbook by Elizabeth and John Encarnacion. I’m no parrothead, but I might eat at one of his restaurants sometime or write a book with a Jimmy Buffett fan in it. I remember how I used to use research for writing as an excuse to buy books. The only thing I write about now is buying books.
At BAM, I got:
- Why Not Me? by Mindy Kaling.
- Family Business by Car; Weber with Eric Pete; looks to be about a black-owned car dealership. Weber had a lot of books on the discount table, including an apparent sequel to this book.
- A signed copy of How To by cartoonist Randall Munroe. I read his What If? a couple years ago. My oldest son also got a copy of the book.
I also got a couple of magazines (not depicted): Skeptical Inquirer, which I subscribed to once upon a time, and Triathlete (I’m not; I just do triathlons).
The sum total: A bunch. And, if you look closely, you’ll see that my wife did not get any chess books as she forgot to look for them by the time we got to Books-A-Million.
Well, that should give me something to read until the next time I buy some books which is probably next week.
