As I mentioned, we went to the book sale this weekend. And although I do not generally target the book sections widely, I did come away with some purchases.
My beautiful wife also got a stack of books and the oldest got a history of Wales (perhaps because Noggle has Welsh origins).
As far as books go, I got:
- Misselhorn’s Pencil Sketches of St. Louis.
- Electricity for All: The Story of Ozark Electic Cooperative, 1937-2012. This is my electric coop from the time it began to after I moved into Nogglestead. Incredible to think that someone had corporate historian work into the 21st century. I myself have thought a history of one of my martial arts schools, which has been around for over thirty years, would be a cool book with stories about some of the students (the other school has been around for six or seven years, so its history much more brief).
- The Artwork of Emily McGee which is not only a monograph but shows how different works develop–that is, step-by-step (not quite) illustrations/images of the works’ progress.
- Pleasures of the Porch: Ideas for Gracious Outdoor Living by Daria Price Bowman and Maureen Lamarca. I actually got this at BookMarx, the downtown bookstore, on Friday afternoon. The theatre and the place where we stayed was a block from BookMarx and across the street from Stick It In Your Ear record store. We went to BookMarx so my wife could pet the cat. I was not eager to browse/buy on Friday night when books were going to be fifty cents on Saturday, but the prices at BookMarx were reasonable, and I got this on the dollar cart.
- Sheer Poetry: Words & Photographs by Rosalie Toler and Gerry Toler.
- The Spoken Word Revolution edited by Mark Eleveld. A collection of open mic / poetry slam type poetry that originally came with a CD, but that is absent. Still, I can read them myself.
- Peter Abelard by Helen Waddell. As I mentioned, Abelard came up not only in the collection The Rape of the Lock but also the audio course I’m currently listening to, so of course I had to pick up his biography.
- Selected Poems by Edna St. Vincent Millay. Of course, I have probably already read them. My first thought was that I could give the book to someone as a gift, and I even asked my wife to whom I might be able to give it. But she cautioned me that it might be taken a certain way. After all, I gave her a copy back in the day. So I’ll just put this in my stacks as an excuse to read these poems again. After all, I pick up old Harper editions of her books when I find them just for that reason. And in this case, I spare it from becoming cat litter.
- Two literary magazine issues, Frost Meadow Review Volume 9 from 2022 and River Styx, the St. Louis literary magazine, from 2021. I prefer to find physical magazines to submit to rather than just scrolling Submittable.
- Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce by Robert Penn Warren. A single poem former textbook probably.
- The Messenger by Stephanie Pippin, winner of the Iowa Poetry Prize in 2013 which is why it has cycled out of the library’s collection–that’s fourteen years ago!
- Joe DiMaggio Moves Like Liquid Light, poems by Loren Broaddus.
- Circle of Ecstasy: A Haiku Neophyte at 76 by Antonio S. Dimalanta, MD.
- Gentle Harvest: Poetic Moods and Memories of a Woman’s Life by Florence Burrill Jacobs. Strangely, the title page has been removed, but the dust jacket has her name. No idea the year, though.
- How Reading Changed My Life by Anna Quindlen. A short book suitable for college students, but maybe not any more.
- Rocky Comfort by Wayne Holmes, an autobiography or memoir. Is the difference how important you are or the completeness? At any rate, likely one of the regional reminiscences that I love.
- The Story of Old Ste. Genevieve by Gregory M. Franzwa. It might come in handy if I read it before I go to the town so I can tell anyone I’m with bits about it. Usually, I find these books when I’m visiting the town and can only tell about it later.
- Parenting Advice to Ignor in Art and Life by Nicole Tersigni. A modern looking collection of memeish quips.
To be honest, given the various different payments and the other books included for other people, I am not sure how much I spent. $20? I know when I came through the bargain side, the book counter did not bother to count the poetry books because he said they weren’t anything. I disagreed, but I guess I got a bit of a discount.
And, again, I was not jonesing to buy more audio courses, as I’ve gotten them down to a mere two boxes in my closet, but they’re marked less than ten dollars each, down from forty bucks a couple of years ago, so I was getting complete audio courses for $2 or $5. So I got:
- After the New Testament: The Writings of the Apostolic Fathers
- Maya to Aztec: Ancient Mesoamerica Revealed
- Famous Greeks which would have fit in with my reading of The Life of Greece. Given how many years it’s taken me to work through The Life of Greece, I still might listen to this years from now in the middle of the book.
- The Birth of the Modern Mind: The Intellectual History of the 17th and 18th Centuries which I will have on tap for when I get to the equivalent volume of The Story of Civilization if I get there.
- Resolute Determination: Napoleon and the French Empire. Ibid about the maybe I’ll listen to it when reading about that part of history. Or maybe sooner.
- The Russian Revolution: From Tsarism to Bolshevism. Likely no mention of Doctor Zhivago. Well…. Never say never.
At any rate, I’m looking forward to reading these books, actually. Unfortunately, after completing the bulleted lists above, I moved them from my desk to my stacks, and I likely won’t see any of them again for a long time. Unless the bookshelves collapse under the weight again or the cats knock them down because I’ve put most of them stacked horizontally atop the bookshelves, and the cats like to prowl behind them when choosing a bladed weapon.
