OK I am SO SAD about not having new posts under my 'book sales' tag
TIME 2 RECTIFY, AT LAST. Also, I have been an absolutely wild spendthrift when it comes to used books this year; I tried to rein myself in, even tried to tell myself "okay but if you only buy books you LOVE!! at these sales I will let you buy one or possibly even two online from your specific wishlist!" but then I totally lost my head anyway.
Library Sale 1
(listed in whatever order I pulled them out of my bag)
1. All Out of Pretty - Ingrid Palmer: MY BELOVED! In beautiful condition, too.
2. Roads Without Houses: Stories - Joseph Rein: literary fiction - short stories, at that - by a man. My nemesis! But something about this title and the rural Midwestern setting a couple of the stories evoked was just so damn alluring that I wanted to give it a shot.
3. Escape - Barbara Delinsky: mass market paperback version of one of the first books I ever listened to on audiobook, and really enjoyed.
4. An ARC of Love in English by Maria E. Andreu, which I probably will not keep because I've decided I can live without this story (can i tho), but I always like to examine ARCs of books I've enjoyed in case they have interesting notes from the author or marketing-plan comments.
5. Unbreak Me - Michelle Hazen: this looks like a lovely, horse-laden romance not unlike an AU version of how Ginny's life could have gone in Burying Water. I'm already pre-rebelling about this woman presumably leaving to join her lover in New Orleans at the end, and I will rankle if I get lectured at about racism too much, but I cannot resist. Peeking at the author's page on Goodreads, I'm already excited about her subsequent romance if this one goes well.
6. Bittersweet Goodbye - Stacy Boatman: I'm not expecting much from this Christian YA novel, which looks like a pretty paint-by-numbers story about falling pregnant from a violent rape (prior to which she was a virgin) while also kind of falling in love. And I can't find a publisher name anywhere, so print-on-demand/self-pubbed it apparently is. But god, this cover is just so pretty and I can't say this isn't exactly the sort of story I'd produce if I could come up with a full outline.
7-8. Two (more) Ponies of Chincoteague books to match the one I bought last year and still haven't read, from a short series I would have loved at age 9-13 and which I definitely should not be collecting now, but I can't help it, they're so pretty and the concept is so good.
9. Blue Voyage - Diana Renn: I tried sooo hard not to pick this up, because I'm trying to avoid Big Fat Books in my home life, but I could not; I loved this armchair vacation to Turkey (with a side of antiquities smuggling) in YA novel form and I want the option to slide back into that world whenever I want.
10. Paw Prints in the Moonlight - Dennis O'Connor: English kitty memoir! I gasped when I saw this serendipitous find, but it turns out the book I have on my TBR is actually the sequel to this one. Frankly I'm still more excited about the sequel, but this book is so stinking PRETTY that I guess it wouldn't hurt to read it while I wait...
11. Saint Paul is my Beat: Nonfiction published in 1958 and bought mostly on a whim thinking my dad might enjoy it, since the stories are from the era of his early childhood, based on this description:
This book is collection of stories published since 1954 in the "Oliver Towne" column of the St. Paul Dispatch. And in a sense they are a collection of the lives and fortunes, buildings and streets of St. Paul as it looked to me in the beginning of the second half of the 20th century. Frankly, these stories would never have been gathered under book covers except for the encouragement of the many readers who have suggested a book be put together as a souvenir, record, and guide. For much of what is here will never appear in any other history book - and hasn't for the last 50 years.
Total spent: $10
Library Sale 2
1. Miss Pettigrew Lives For a Day - Winifred Watson: because it was such a fun reading experience, even though the cover's hideous. [edit: I tried to take the stickers off, like a fool! and basically wrecked the cover so now imma have to toss it]
2. The Guide - Peter Heller: It was a grand reading experience, okay! Shocked such a new release (last year!) was donated; except for its front cover curling open, it looks almost new.
3. An Afternoon Walk - Dorothy Eden: this is the second time I've seen this vintage (1971) book, whose reviews aren't great but whose spine-tingling premise of coming across an abandoned house just before Weird Things start happening is just irresistible, and since I haven't managed to interlibrary-loan it yet, home it came with me this time. [update: I was so excited I read it, and now I'm only sorry I didn't buy the first copy, whose dust jacket was in better shape. solid 4 stars!]
5. Blueberry Summer - Elisabeth Ogilvie
6. Golden Dream - Jean Nielsen
Two 1950s teen books set on opposite coasts, published in pocket sized 1960s Scholastic Tab editions. The former because a Goodreads friend had read and enjoyed it, the latter because it's in such abusrudly pristine condition and looks unread. I tried very hard not to buy these simply because they're def. unnecessary, but also...they are Small, and I am A Sucker for small books. Speaking of small older books --
7-9. A trio of slim (under 100 pages, or 128 at most) vintage Scholastic paperbacks: Jock's Island (by Elizabeth Coatsworth), Afraid to Ride (by C.W. Anderson), and Terror on the Mountain (by Philip Viereck). Because, respectively, the first two are animal-inclusive stories from authors I know and like, and the last one is a book I read in college and would like to revisit, having found it a few times for people on lost book forums.
10. Animal Inn #2: A Kid's Best Friend - Virginia Vail
I almost forgot about this one! Happy score from a beloved childhood 80s series.
+ DVDS:
Books I Reluctantly Let Go And Now Might Regret A Little
-Pocket Guide to the Outdoors: Based on My Side of the Mountain, a 2009 field guide written by Jean Craighead George in tandem with her children, designed as if written by a grown-up Sam Gribley. It looked like a very cool bit of novelty, interspersed with quotes from the book prior to explaining how to do that particular part yourself, but it was such a young-skewing guide with basic stuff that I didn't feel like it was necessary to own. ...and the more I look at the sample on Amazon, the more I regret not taking it to at least look at for a while.
-A Ford Farmer's Almanac from 1963, a small but fat magazine which was just so fascinatingly foreign. Too much of it was about crop production and increasing livestock weight -- you know, stuff farmers would actually use -- for me to keep, but there were a lot of interesting segments on updated household appliances, work women might choose to do outside the home to supplement income, farm career options for graduating teens, etc. In retrospect, damn, I should have grabbed this to show Mom, who was in fact a girl growing up on a family farm in 1963.
-A boxed set of the three Gypsy horse books by Sharon Wagner -- I loved these as a kid, and probably would still enjoy them, but their covers are ugly (the same checkerboard ones shown on the series page) and my memory hasn't stayed fond enough to own them with limited space.
UPDATE: actually, I think I'm proud of myself for resisting these after all. I would have had a hard time letting them go if I'd bought them, but right now I'm feeling perfectly fine without them.
BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE.
Was I content with that? Oh no, I was not. I had to road-trip to get to these sales (across two days it was about 100 miles of driving, all told), so this was a hootenannying weekend of hunting and gathering things everywhere I could find.
Antique Store Purchases
I actually went even more places -- but I grow weary of typing now. I shall instead leave you with the view from a walking path I followed around a corner to find myself in a very peaceful place overlooking the river.
(it looks like I'm right on the shore but the trail is actually built about 10 feet up)
Library Sale 1
(listed in whatever order I pulled them out of my bag)
1. All Out of Pretty - Ingrid Palmer: MY BELOVED! In beautiful condition, too.
2. Roads Without Houses: Stories - Joseph Rein: literary fiction - short stories, at that - by a man. My nemesis! But something about this title and the rural Midwestern setting a couple of the stories evoked was just so damn alluring that I wanted to give it a shot.
3. Escape - Barbara Delinsky: mass market paperback version of one of the first books I ever listened to on audiobook, and really enjoyed.
4. An ARC of Love in English by Maria E. Andreu, which I probably will not keep because I've decided I can live without this story (can i tho), but I always like to examine ARCs of books I've enjoyed in case they have interesting notes from the author or marketing-plan comments.
5. Unbreak Me - Michelle Hazen: this looks like a lovely, horse-laden romance not unlike an AU version of how Ginny's life could have gone in Burying Water. I'm already pre-rebelling about this woman presumably leaving to join her lover in New Orleans at the end, and I will rankle if I get lectured at about racism too much, but I cannot resist. Peeking at the author's page on Goodreads, I'm already excited about her subsequent romance if this one goes well.
6. Bittersweet Goodbye - Stacy Boatman: I'm not expecting much from this Christian YA novel, which looks like a pretty paint-by-numbers story about falling pregnant from a violent rape (prior to which she was a virgin) while also kind of falling in love. And I can't find a publisher name anywhere, so print-on-demand/self-pubbed it apparently is. But god, this cover is just so pretty and I can't say this isn't exactly the sort of story I'd produce if I could come up with a full outline.
7-8. Two (more) Ponies of Chincoteague books to match the one I bought last year and still haven't read, from a short series I would have loved at age 9-13 and which I definitely should not be collecting now, but I can't help it, they're so pretty and the concept is so good.
9. Blue Voyage - Diana Renn: I tried sooo hard not to pick this up, because I'm trying to avoid Big Fat Books in my home life, but I could not; I loved this armchair vacation to Turkey (with a side of antiquities smuggling) in YA novel form and I want the option to slide back into that world whenever I want.
10. Paw Prints in the Moonlight - Dennis O'Connor: English kitty memoir! I gasped when I saw this serendipitous find, but it turns out the book I have on my TBR is actually the sequel to this one. Frankly I'm still more excited about the sequel, but this book is so stinking PRETTY that I guess it wouldn't hurt to read it while I wait...
11. Saint Paul is my Beat: Nonfiction published in 1958 and bought mostly on a whim thinking my dad might enjoy it, since the stories are from the era of his early childhood, based on this description:
This book is collection of stories published since 1954 in the "Oliver Towne" column of the St. Paul Dispatch. And in a sense they are a collection of the lives and fortunes, buildings and streets of St. Paul as it looked to me in the beginning of the second half of the 20th century. Frankly, these stories would never have been gathered under book covers except for the encouragement of the many readers who have suggested a book be put together as a souvenir, record, and guide. For much of what is here will never appear in any other history book - and hasn't for the last 50 years.
Total spent: $10
Library Sale 2
1. Miss Pettigrew Lives For a Day - Winifred Watson: because it was such a fun reading experience, even though the cover's hideous. [edit: I tried to take the stickers off, like a fool! and basically wrecked the cover so now imma have to toss it]
2. The Guide - Peter Heller: It was a grand reading experience, okay! Shocked such a new release (last year!) was donated; except for its front cover curling open, it looks almost new.
3. An Afternoon Walk - Dorothy Eden: this is the second time I've seen this vintage (1971) book, whose reviews aren't great but whose spine-tingling premise of coming across an abandoned house just before Weird Things start happening is just irresistible, and since I haven't managed to interlibrary-loan it yet, home it came with me this time. [update: I was so excited I read it, and now I'm only sorry I didn't buy the first copy, whose dust jacket was in better shape. solid 4 stars!]
5. Blueberry Summer - Elisabeth Ogilvie
6. Golden Dream - Jean Nielsen
Two 1950s teen books set on opposite coasts, published in pocket sized 1960s Scholastic Tab editions. The former because a Goodreads friend had read and enjoyed it, the latter because it's in such abusrudly pristine condition and looks unread. I tried very hard not to buy these simply because they're def. unnecessary, but also...they are Small, and I am A Sucker for small books. Speaking of small older books --
7-9. A trio of slim (under 100 pages, or 128 at most) vintage Scholastic paperbacks: Jock's Island (by Elizabeth Coatsworth), Afraid to Ride (by C.W. Anderson), and Terror on the Mountain (by Philip Viereck). Because, respectively, the first two are animal-inclusive stories from authors I know and like, and the last one is a book I read in college and would like to revisit, having found it a few times for people on lost book forums.
10. Animal Inn #2: A Kid's Best Friend - Virginia Vail
I almost forgot about this one! Happy score from a beloved childhood 80s series.
+ DVDS:
- The Skeleton Key (a horror movie I remember loving w/ Kate Hudson)
- Abandon (a 2002 thriller I don't know, but: Katie Holmes, Benjamin Bratt and Charlie Hunnam?? they literally do not make them like this anymore).
- Friday Night Lights season 2, because one day I will watch this show, I WILL! Future Me better appreciate this find because Current Me is like 'we gave up the books below for this?'
Books I Reluctantly Let Go And Now Might Regret A Little
-Pocket Guide to the Outdoors: Based on My Side of the Mountain, a 2009 field guide written by Jean Craighead George in tandem with her children, designed as if written by a grown-up Sam Gribley. It looked like a very cool bit of novelty, interspersed with quotes from the book prior to explaining how to do that particular part yourself, but it was such a young-skewing guide with basic stuff that I didn't feel like it was necessary to own. ...and the more I look at the sample on Amazon, the more I regret not taking it to at least look at for a while.
-A Ford Farmer's Almanac from 1963, a small but fat magazine which was just so fascinatingly foreign. Too much of it was about crop production and increasing livestock weight -- you know, stuff farmers would actually use -- for me to keep, but there were a lot of interesting segments on updated household appliances, work women might choose to do outside the home to supplement income, farm career options for graduating teens, etc. In retrospect, damn, I should have grabbed this to show Mom, who was in fact a girl growing up on a family farm in 1963.
-A boxed set of the three Gypsy horse books by Sharon Wagner -- I loved these as a kid, and probably would still enjoy them, but their covers are ugly (the same checkerboard ones shown on the series page) and my memory hasn't stayed fond enough to own them with limited space.
UPDATE: actually, I think I'm proud of myself for resisting these after all. I would have had a hard time letting them go if I'd bought them, but right now I'm feeling perfectly fine without them.
BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE.
Was I content with that? Oh no, I was not. I had to road-trip to get to these sales (across two days it was about 100 miles of driving, all told), so this was a hootenannying weekend of hunting and gathering things everywhere I could find.
Antique Store Purchases
- 3 birthday cards for upcoming birthdays
- A Teeny Beanie seal (McDonald's toy) because I used to have it and it was my favorite (and he was $2 and I couldn't resist ok)
- Five DVDs because they were only a dollar and I've elected to embrace the concept of Build Your Own Permanent Streaming Services after a few years of trying to downsize -- at some point, I will buy a plug-in drive large enough to really go virtual, but until then I'm snapping up DVDs in the cheap cases and stuffing them into a CD binder. And so I took --
- Her Best Move: a random early 2000s movie because Luke Danes + being a dad to a teenage girl (who plays soccer!), sold.
- Battle in Seattle: I remember little about this, but I do remember it was an amazing vehicle for Martin Henderson Face Appreciation, and as he is in the Top 25 of the lifetime Handsome Men's Club, that will always be important.
- Candy: never heard of it and may well hate it because why would I want to watch an R-rated film about a pair of heroin addicts...but Heath Ledger!
- Fool's Gold on blu-ray, not because I need it on blu-ray but because it was still only a dollar and why would I say no to a sharper image
- ...whoops, already forgot and misplaced the last one
I actually went even more places -- but I grow weary of typing now. I shall instead leave you with the view from a walking path I followed around a corner to find myself in a very peaceful place overlooking the river.
(it looks like I'm right on the shore but the trail is actually built about 10 feet up)