This is the weekend of my favorite book sale. It’s held by a small library upstate, very few books are over a dollar, and if you buy a $10 tote bag, you can take home as many books as will fit in it. And that, of course, is what I did.
It's hard to tell in the picture, but this is a really big tote bag.
I usually limit myself to as many books as I can carry in my hands, so when my arms started to hurt, I went to check out. But once I’d gotten by books into my bag, the woman at the counter said, “you know, there are more books in the other building.” That was my downfall.
Anyway, here are the things I got, in reverse order as I unpack.
I didn’t by all the Nero Wolfe books–just the cuter, older paperbacks and In the Best Families because it’s In the Best Families. Apparently my cat likes Nero Wolfe too.
Not the Felix Salten one with the deer, but the Marjorie Benton Cooke one with the people. The woman who helped me check out said she heard it was pretty racy, which seems unlikely, but I told her I would be pleased if that turned out to be the case.
I keep meaning to try Mary Stewart. And at this point I had well over $10 worth of books, so these were basically free.
Some miscellaneous paperbacks–One Hundred and One Dalmatians because my copy is missing pages, The Spy Who Came in From the Cold because I can’t find my mom’s copy, and a romance by Meredith Duran for no reason at all.
This is the Mary Roberts Rinehart portion of the haul. All of these books are more battered than all of the other books, but who cares? I own a copy of K
now.
This is the Ethel M. Dell portion of the haul. I…own a copy of The Way of an Eagle now. So, uh, that’s a thing.
The last few miscellaneous things: Rose in Bloom, my favorite Alcott bok I’ve never owned; Trustee from the Toolroom, which I buy whenever I find it so I can give it as a gift; and Brat Farrar, which I own a couple of times over, because this copy is super cute. I assume the girl in the sheet on the cover is Eleanor, but I don’t understand why.
Tagged: ethelmdell, louisamayalcott, maryrobertsrinehart, rexstout, stuff
K!
This is why I avoid used-book stores and sales…I wouldn’t be able to resist overloading! But I am going to scout out a couple of used-book stores one of these days to look for a couple books by my favorite obscure authors. I just won’t let myself buy anything that isn’t on my list. Seriously. I mean it…
I’ve only read two Mary Stewart books so far (Nine Coaches Waiting and The Moonspinners), but I adored both of them and am eager to read more.
What fun! Would love to curl up on a rainy night with
any of those.
What fun! I do envy you having all those Mary Stewart books ahead of you. And Brat Farrar is one of my all-time favourite books. Have you read Josephine Tey’s other books? They’re wonderful too!
I can’t resist a used book sale either.
I don’t recall “Bambi” being particularly racy. It’s also, alas, not as good as “Cinderella Jane”.
I know!
I feel like I get away with it because this is the primary way I buy books — I rarely buy new stuff. If you’re looking for specific stuff, though, used book stores and book sales aren’t really the way to go — the magic of them is that you never find the specific thing you want, but you often find things you would not even have dared to hope for. For specific things, ABE books is probably better.
I’ve started The Moonspinners and I’m really enjoying it. Apparently it was made into a Disney movie with Hayley Mills, too, so I’m going to see if I can track that down.
Yeah, a rainy night — or even a reading vacation — is called for, but it’s going to have to wait until the Stanley Cup playoffs are over, probably.
I’m reading The Moonspinners now, and can easily imagine tearing my way through all her books in the near future. Are the Arthurian ones worthwhile, too, or just the modern ones?
I’m a huge fan of Josephine Tey, with the caveat that her racial/biological determinism makes me super uncomfortable. And Brat Farrar is probably my favorite, followed by The Franchise Affair.
You know, Marjorie Benton Cooke sounded really familiar to me, but I didn’t remember that it was because she wrote Cinderella Jane. I don’t know if I’m looking forward to it more or less now. And yeah, I’m pretty sure she was mistaking it for another book.