all dressed up yesterday and no place to go
I never did write up last year's haul, did I? At any rate, L and I were there at 8:30, sleep-deprived and for some reason absolutely off our rockers (our UberCountry alt-names were born that day), but we got a goodly amount of decent books between us. Anyway.
Saturday morning: between company cancellations and this month's budget and the alarm going off at 7 AM, I decided I'd rather sleep in (thought process: "nnnnghhh"; also, ha ha ha ha ha, hello dogs who must go out at 8 and be fed and whatnot) than go to the literacy assoc's annual book sale, aka glorious hallowed ground. But then on the way back from taking my brother home, at about 1:30, I thought, no, I think I will.
In retrospect, I really ought to have just skipped it, or at least put back 3/4 of what I did take home. (Also, apparently some Marines were supposed to help those who needed it take things out to the car, but I went out the wrong/side entrance/exit and missed out on this opportunity.) But, I only spent $12, and it was a good cause, so.
Yeah, I took a single plastic bag so I wouldn't/couldn't buy so much this time. Yeah, the book-count lady and I had a nice laugh about that.
if I had a modicum of discipline or moderation I would have stopped after these:
--Godfrey Hall's Mind Twisters: "tricks, puzzles,mazes, science (experiments), magic." I snatched this out of the bin based on the cover/title alone and didn't even look through until I got home. Wish I'd had this before summer camp. Tons of awesome easy science experiments and brain teasers and stuff.
--1981 edition of Childcraft's vol 13, "Mathemagic." I had the 1989 set growing up, but this strikes a decent enough middle ground between the all-brain-teaser edition I had and the teaser-free math/numbers/shapes/calendars etc etc facts-only 1991 edition the library had.
wanted, but not hard-to-find/urgent
--1973 Penguin Classic edition of Joinville & Villehardouin's Chronicles of the Crusades
--Herbert Kohl's 36 Children. spiritedartist, frozenemerald, did either of you have to read this?
--Susan Faludi's BRILLIANT, depressing, depressingly still basically accurate except for the dates Backlash
--5 or 6 of L.E. Blair's Girl Talk series. I had nearly all of these (36? title series) but they disappeared with a bunch of other books during one particular move (WHITHER MY CHILDCRAFT, UNIVERSE, I ASK YOU). I rate them above the Babysitters' Club of yesteryear, and hands-down they wipe the floor with the Gossip Clique etc YA pop trash of today. (naeelah is such a Randy Zak (see also her spectacular early 90s Joan Jettish spiked haircut), I can't even tell you). There were so many more! I really should have got them.
random
--Doris Gates's Athena: The Warrior Goddess. DG is a reliably solid Greek myth author, but honestly I picked this up for the damn awesome Leo and Diane Dillon cover art. (Part of a series! Can't decide if I like the Apollo cover more, or the Trojan War one.)
--Lothar Meggendorfer's International Circus, "an adaptation of the antique pop-up book." In spectacular, basically immaculate condition. Similar to this No one under 16 will be allowed to handle it.
--Sale had a giant "pre-1955 table" whereupon I found, while hastily browsing, the promisingly titled WINE OF SATAN. Turned out to be Laverne Gay's 1949 "tale of Bohemund, Prince of Antioch," which seems, hopefully, to be a lot of overwrought but gloriously descriptive melodramatic historical fiction.
-- and the 10 for $2 category romance deal, with 8 filler to get the lone Robyn Donald on the table I didn't have, and a fresh from '72 Avon Gothic Original. The cover & back copy alone were worth every single one of its 20 cents. To wit, Sandra Abbott's CASTLE OF EVIL. Twins, sinister Rumanians, and SINISTER CASTLE UBELWOLLENDE. Also, I sort of kick myself now for passing up that copy of Pregnesia to inflict on one of you poor unsuspectings. "Oh boy, a package! Just for me! ....wait a minute..." (Because I love you, that's why.)
There's a meta comment to be made about this post, but I'm not making it.
Saturday morning: between company cancellations and this month's budget and the alarm going off at 7 AM, I decided I'd rather sleep in (thought process: "nnnnghhh"; also, ha ha ha ha ha, hello dogs who must go out at 8 and be fed and whatnot) than go to the literacy assoc's annual book sale, aka glorious hallowed ground. But then on the way back from taking my brother home, at about 1:30, I thought, no, I think I will.
In retrospect, I really ought to have just skipped it, or at least put back 3/4 of what I did take home. (Also, apparently some Marines were supposed to help those who needed it take things out to the car, but I went out the wrong/side entrance/exit and missed out on this opportunity.) But, I only spent $12, and it was a good cause, so.
Yeah, I took a single plastic bag so I wouldn't/couldn't buy so much this time. Yeah, the book-count lady and I had a nice laugh about that.
if I had a modicum of discipline or moderation I would have stopped after these:
--Godfrey Hall's Mind Twisters: "tricks, puzzles,mazes, science (experiments), magic." I snatched this out of the bin based on the cover/title alone and didn't even look through until I got home. Wish I'd had this before summer camp. Tons of awesome easy science experiments and brain teasers and stuff.
--1981 edition of Childcraft's vol 13, "Mathemagic." I had the 1989 set growing up, but this strikes a decent enough middle ground between the all-brain-teaser edition I had and the teaser-free math/numbers/shapes/calendars etc etc facts-only 1991 edition the library had.
wanted, but not hard-to-find/urgent
--1973 Penguin Classic edition of Joinville & Villehardouin's Chronicles of the Crusades
--Herbert Kohl's 36 Children. spiritedartist, frozenemerald, did either of you have to read this?
--Susan Faludi's BRILLIANT, depressing, depressingly still basically accurate except for the dates Backlash
--5 or 6 of L.E. Blair's Girl Talk series. I had nearly all of these (36? title series) but they disappeared with a bunch of other books during one particular move (WHITHER MY CHILDCRAFT, UNIVERSE, I ASK YOU). I rate them above the Babysitters' Club of yesteryear, and hands-down they wipe the floor with the Gossip Clique etc YA pop trash of today. (naeelah is such a Randy Zak (see also her spectacular early 90s Joan Jettish spiked haircut), I can't even tell you). There were so many more! I really should have got them.
random
--Doris Gates's Athena: The Warrior Goddess. DG is a reliably solid Greek myth author, but honestly I picked this up for the damn awesome Leo and Diane Dillon cover art. (Part of a series! Can't decide if I like the Apollo cover more, or the Trojan War one.)
--Lothar Meggendorfer's International Circus, "an adaptation of the antique pop-up book." In spectacular, basically immaculate condition. Similar to this No one under 16 will be allowed to handle it.
--Sale had a giant "pre-1955 table" whereupon I found, while hastily browsing, the promisingly titled WINE OF SATAN. Turned out to be Laverne Gay's 1949 "tale of Bohemund, Prince of Antioch," which seems, hopefully, to be a lot of overwrought but gloriously descriptive melodramatic historical fiction.
-- and the 10 for $2 category romance deal, with 8 filler to get the lone Robyn Donald on the table I didn't have, and a fresh from '72 Avon Gothic Original. The cover & back copy alone were worth every single one of its 20 cents. To wit, Sandra Abbott's CASTLE OF EVIL. Twins, sinister Rumanians, and SINISTER CASTLE UBELWOLLENDE. Also, I sort of kick myself now for passing up that copy of Pregnesia to inflict on one of you poor unsuspectings. "Oh boy, a package! Just for me! ....wait a minute..." (Because I love you, that's why.)
There's a meta comment to be made about this post, but I'm not making it.