Book Sale!
Every year, I go to the Abilene Public Library Book Sale if I can possibly make it. It's massive. The whole convention center is covered in them. This is about half a football field of cheap books. I've been looking forward to it all year.
The problem was that I've been in Menard, and I didn't have internet access all last week. So, I was having to remember when the sale was on. I thought that the last day of the sale was Monday, and so the best day to go to it would be Sunday, when the books were cheaper than the opening day and not yet totally picked over. It was convenient, too, that I had a job interview in Abilene Monday, and so I'd be coming up here on Sunday anyway.
So, I showed up today in Abilene, and I went down to the sale with my sister. When I walked in the door, it was obvious I had waited a day longer than intended. Today was the last day of the sale. The tables were pretty much empty (though really cheap). In despair, I grabbed a bag and rushed to the tables to see what I could salvage.
It was only after the sale was over and I had found a full bag of worthy books that I realized it hadn't been so bad. And I did save myself about $15-20 by showing up only on the last day.
Here's what I got (beginning with the books I'm most excited about). Let me know if you've read any:
1. Amazing Grace - Kathleen Norris
2. Hymn of the Universe - Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
3. Interpreter of Maladies - Jhumpa Lahiri
4. Reaching Out - Henry J.M. Nouwen
5. My Name is Red - Orhan Pamuk
6. Fatelessness - Imre Kertesz
7. The Sea - John Banville
8. To Have and To Hold - Mary Johnston
9. A Life of Jesus - Shusako Endo
10. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy - John Le Carre
11. This Side of Paradise - F. Scott Fitzgerald
12. The Crying of Lot 49 - Thomas Pynchon
13. A Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
14. The Vicar of Wakefield - Oliver Goldsmith
15. The Shoes of the Fisherman - Morris West
16. Three by Annie Dillard - Annie Dillard
17. The Leopard - Giuseppe di Lampedusa
18. The Gentleman from San Francisco - Ivan Bunin
19. Shabanu - Suzanne Fisher Staples
20. Grendel - John Gardner
21. Goodbye, Mr. Chips - James Hilton
22. Strong Poison - Dorothy L. Sayers
23. Busman's Honeymoon - Dorothy L. Sayers
24. The Book of the Dun Cow - Walter Wangerin
25. Shadow and Light - Stephen Weather, Darryl Tippens
posted by John Pierce @ 6:45 PM
2 comments
2 Comments:
I was really sad that I had to miss the sale because I was out of town. However, I have a kind of self-imposed book-buying ban, so I guess it was for the best. I've read Endo's Life of Jesus and really enjoyed it. It's an interesting perspective, although I didn't agree with everything Endo had to say. (Of course what book about Jesus, other than the Bible, would I agree with 100 percent?)
Hey John!
Em gave me your blog address and now I've bookmarked it to make sure I don't lose it!
I'm going to save this list. I've read Interpreter of Maladies for a course last fall and liked it a lot. I actually read Atwood's Cat's Cradle this summer and didn't like it much. She's a brilliant writer, but the whole "let's gang up on this girl who's not one of us" mentality is not my idea of a feminist novel. However, I might go back and finish it, as I'm sure it gets better later...
Tam
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