It has been a very long time since I’ve been to Christian Publisher’s Outlet/Redeemed Books, the Christian new and used books store here on the south side of Springfield. I used to go there all the time for the teacher thank-you gift cards, before I learned that Mr. and Mrs. E. of ABC Books were attendees of the same church. Unfortunately, they have moved to another church now, but I’m still one of their best customers. As to CPO/Redeemed, I was scheduled to pick up race packets at the Hurts Donuts across the street and had some time to kill, so….
Well, some time to kill is where I get into trouble.
I got:
- A CD set called The History of the Medieval World by Susane Wise Bauer. Whether she is a new Norman Cantor or not, we shall see.
- The Ornament Keeper by Eva Marie Everson, a Christmas novella to put on top so that I can easily find one to read this year. You know, it was shopping at CPO for Christmas gifts back when it was across the street that I started the Christmas book tradition. So it’s come full circle.
- How To Read A Book by Mortimer J. Adler and Charles Van Doren. My youngest and I have had a running joke about How to Read a Poem and how it ruins poems. So when I spotted this book on the cheap books rack, I got it and left it in the seat where he would sit when we got around to picking him up.
- A Dickens of a Cat and Other Stories of the Cats We Love edited by Callie Smith Grant. It has a cat on the cover, and it has cat stories. Also, it was on the cheapish rack.
- Trivial Pursuits: Why Your Real Life Is More Than Media, Money, and the Pursuit of Happiness by Ian DiOrio. I bought a couple of Christianish self-help books.
- Home Song by Thomas Kinkade and Katherine Spencer, but mostly Katherine Spencer, one suspects. It is not a Christmas novel, unlike A Christmas Promise by the same authors or All Is Bright by Katherine Spencer, but it is a Cape Light novel which is the Kinkadeverse.
- How To Lead When You’re Not In Charge by Clay Scroggins. Might be helpful. I’ve often thought of writing a book with my brother about being a good sergeant.
- Start by Jon Acuff, apparently another Christian self-help book. This one was on the $3 shelf; I saw many others on the full price shelf, so undoubtedly I will come to discover non-collectible errata or giant Kool-Aid stains somewhere.
So not a book sale-type stack, but still enough things to keep me busy for a couple of weeks a couple of decades from now, perhaps.
I expect I will run the CDs through the car speakers after I finish a study of Voltaire, and I am making sure to leave the Christmas novella out so I can read it this year. But as to the others–who knows?
