Friends, last week I place my last order from ABC Books as part of the current unpleasantness. I trolled through the religion and pets sections with the pretext of ordering some books for a friend in Wisconsin who has lately not had satisfactory, that is, any, answer when I ask him what he’s reading.
It did not arrive here until this morning, but yesterday marked the easing of restrictions in Missouri and particularly Springfield and Greene County, so I went to ABC Books. With the pretext of picking up gift cards for teacher appreciation week, but also to pick up a couple books by an author I read about in an ancient (2016) Garden & Gun magazine.
I only got seven books for myself:
They include:
- Lay Down My Sword, Cimarron Rose, and Jolie Blon’s Bounce by James Lee Burke, the author I read about in Garden and Gun magazine. I’d looked for the first in his acclaimed Dave Robicheaux series, Neon Rain, but ABC Books didn’t have it. I took their complete inventory, though, including two first editions. Unfortunately, they’re from three different series. At least I will get a broad sampling of the author’s work. Eventually.
- History of the North American YMCA by Richard C. Morse. The history through 1922, anyway, which is a lot less history than it has now. Fun fact: I was once asked if I wanted to be on the board of the local Y because apparently I travel in the circles of people who do that sort of thing these days. But I would need two things at the very least before I agreed: 1) to read up on the history of the organization, and 2) to volunteer at the local Y for a period of time to get the inside view. I’ll be able to do one soon, and after I complete the second part, I’ll learn that the current board member was talking to my beautiful wife at the time.
- Eat the Cookie, Buy the Shoes by Joyce Meyer. Another book by a popular evangelist. Ms. Meyer is based in the St. Louis area, and apparently her sprawling organization hires a lot of technical people, but I never worked there.
- Bad Dog! A Memoir of Love, Beauty, and Dark Places by Lin Jensen. I got cat books for my friend, but this dog book for myself. It helps that I have been catching up on my ancient Garden & Gun magazines which features a column about a Good Dog by varied authors every month. I’m primed.
- The Interpreter’s One-Volume Commentary on the Bible edited by Charles M. Laymon (rimshot!), a 1300+ page bonzer that does not include the text of the Bible, but instead offers commentary on the books and verses of the Bible as well as some Apocrypha. Includes a large number of essays on the history of the Bible as well as the region and the early church. Looks like a good thing to read alongside a reading of the Bible, kind of like I did with Asimov’s Guide to the Bible back in 2015. Has it been that long? What can I say? The history of Judea after Solomon bogs me down every time.
That should be the extent of my book buying for the spring and maybe summer aside from a garage sale here or there. But if my friend doesn’t like the surprise books arriving on his doorstep, I’ll ask him to send them my way.
But there’s not going to be a Friends of the Library book sale, either in Christian County or in Springfield, until the fall. So I should be safe from myself unless I run into a really good church garage sale someday, when such things are allowed again.
