Musings from Brian J. Noggle: Good Book Hunting: October 11, 2008 and October 18, 2008

Good Book Hunting: October 11, 2008 and October 18, 2008

On October 11, we went to St. Martin of Tour's book fair in South County. I'd seen the signs, but they were not listed on BookSaleFinder.com, so we expected a small sale. Will we have enough money in hand with only $30? Probably.

Oh, but no.

It had more books than we anticipated, and soon more people than we would like for a two-year-old to run around mostly free. So I held onto the five books I'd picked up and watched the toddler, who discovered a stage at the end of the hall and loved to be upon it. As I watched to make sure he would not also discover stage-diving, Mrs. Noggle found a set of Sesame Street books. 25 in total. Which meant that my $30 was spent mostly on children's books:

The children win the October 11 book fair race

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I managed to get:

The Circuit-Riding Combat Chaplain, a self-published book about being a chaplain in the Korean War.
Peter the Great, a biography.
Culture Warrior, a preening tome, no doubt, by Bill O'Reilly.
The Hundred Year Dash by George Burns.
The Death of Ethics in America, a book whose title indicates it was written during the process. A book written now would probably be Ethics Are Dead in America.

I spent the rest of the day expressing disappointment that I only got five books and that I only got to look over like four tables, but here's a tip: remember the lower lip when pouting, otherwise you'll just look sullen.

On October 18, we didn't go to a book fair, but we found a listing on Craigslist for a book garage sale, so we loaded up and went there. I got more books:

A mother and daughter consolidated their household and shuffled some their library into our home. Sure, this alt text makes little sense, but you're not even reading it, are you?

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This haul includes:

The Handbook of Folklore.
The TV Theme Song Trivia Book. I flipped it open, and the first thing I saw were the first words of the voiceover for the original Battlestar Galactica theme. It's a quiz book, and I'm sure I'll do okay on the 1970s and 1980s and probably "I'll Be There For You" from Friends.
The Human Brain by Isaac Asimov.
Grassroots Tyranny.
Quality without Tears. Frankly, it doesn't sound like as much fun as Quality with Tears, Sobs, and Lamentations of Developers. But I'm open to new ideas I'll discard.
Uppity Women in Medieval Times. An idea book.
The Crime Encyclopedia. Also an idea book.
Montezuma. No doubt a laudatory biography about that wretched monarch.
Imressionism, a right purty book about my favorite art style.

I know, it's not a lot, but it should represent a quarter's worth of reading spread among many years and bookshelves.

- posted by Brian J. @ 9:44 AM