Book Hauls!

[Extollager]

In my little town, the public library book sale today was held in a downstairs room opening off the side of the building across the street from Miller's Fine Foods; the jumbo plastic cow on Miller's roof kept an eye on library visitors.

Set out around the room and in the middle of the room were perhaps 400 library discards and donations. Mrs. A, the woman who operates the library during its 20 hours or so per week of being open, explained the pricing: $4 per bag. I asked: So you start at $4 and fill up a bag? That was correct. A hapless woman looked around and Mrs. A pounced on her: What kind of books do you like to read? The woman said softly that she hadn't really done much reading lately. Mrs. A pursued the matter: Did she like romances? Westerns? What had she liked the last time she had read something? ... like that.

Based on what I'd seen when I asked about the pricing, I was unsure about having found anything worth $4 to me, but when I looked over the books in the middle of the room I realized I could justify spending that much. I ended up emerging from the mildew-odorous room with nine books, including three Graham Greene novels, a copy of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Robert Graves' translation of Apuleius, Alan Moorehead's book The Russian Revolution, etc.

 

[Randy M.]

Nice haul, Extollager.


Randy M.

 

[Extollager]

Here's the cow on the roof across from the library (grain elevator in background).

Looks kind of grouchy. "Hey kid, bring that book back on time or you'll have to pay a fine. You hear me?"

 

[Brian G Turner]

Here's the cow on the roof across from the library (grain elevator in background).

The image link comes from a private Gmail account, so it's blocked the forums from reposting it.

 

[hardsciencefanagain]

I've finally gotten around to sorting the latest batch of books
some astronomy pocketbooks by Asimov,Gamow,Coleman
Outdated?dunno.Probably.
some outstanding titles:Compleat Enchanter,Midsummer Century,The Ceres Solution, hrolf Kraki's Saga(Darrell Sweet cover),Araminta Station,
Wollheim's 1974 Best Sf,Vor,Grass,Welcome Chaos

 

[Extollager]

Here's the plastic cow again, in case some Chrons viewers couldn't see it. It's across the street from the public library and seems to cast a baleful eye on people who visited the book sale room yesterday.

 

[hardsciencefanagain]

That's bovine malevolence personified.

 

[Elvraie]

Here's the plastic cow again, in case some Chrons viewers couldn't see it. It's across the street from the public library and seems to cast a baleful eye on people who visited the book sale room yesterday.
View attachment 23751

Wow! That is a sight! Only in America! No chance for that in quaint old England where I'm living! We have a Coal Power Station being taken apart around here, but it's not even visible from the Library. That cow reminds me of the huge wooden bulls you see sometimes in the Spanish countryside.

Good books haul by the way. In the Oxfordshire (Oxford Meaning Oxen's ford, by the way) County's libraries, they used to have a corner with old library's books for sale, but now, they do have only books sales on Saturdays, when I'm not around libraries, but busy shopping for groceries. Bother!

 

[Extollager]

That's bovine malevolence personified.

Yes, pretty stern all right.

 

[dask]

Freebie from the library, first printing from 1954. Short bios written especially for Reader's Digest so they're exercises in conciseness, not abridgement. Looks good upon spot-checking, but when Christopher Morley says, "This is the kind of book that justifies the printing press's miracle of multiplication," how could I leave the building without it?

 

[hardsciencefanagain]

latest goodies(yes,i buy books by the truckload):
Chandler's Killer in the Rain ,tom adams cover
Will Cuppy: the Decline and Fall of Practically everybody(!!!!HIGHLY recommended)
Brenchley: My Ten years in a Quandary**funny,funny!!**
Goulart: What's Become of Screwloose
Wyndham:Re-Birth

 

[JunkMonkey]

I've not been buying books recently (The Horror!) I just can't justify adding even more to my bedside TBR pile which currently has 400+ books in it when my reading has slowed to a near halt. I haven't read a complete book all this month. I have been reading shedloads of comics though - some of them in French, a language I can barely tie my shoelaces in. As my WIP is a comic book* I am trying to work out 'how to do it'. So today I was uberchuffed to find a box full of comics in a local charity shop marked at 5 for a quid. Even then I was very restrained and only bought 10 - I live in fear that I may finally be growing up.



*page one is in my media:
https://www.sffchronicles.com/media/1589/

 

[BigBadBob141]

If your interested in Naval History then I would recommend "Castles OF Steel" by Robert K Massie.
I bought this recently for £2 from a Heart Foundation shop.
It's a very thick detailed history of navel warfare in WW1, getting on for 800 finely printed pages it took me 6 weeks to read on and off.
Don't let this put you off, it's very well written with some great descriptions of battles such as Coronel, Falklands and of course the biggest one of all Jutland.
For some reason the writer omits the story of the infamous K-Boats, however there are some interesting details such as the captain of the battlecruiser HMS New Zealand wearing a Maori warriors kilt and headdress into battle.
This book is the follow up to "Dreadnaught" which details the first arms race of the 20th century leading up to the start of WW1.

 

[GOLLUM]

I've not been buying books recently (The Horror!) I just can't justify adding even more to my bedside TBR pile which currently has 400+ books in it when my reading has slowed to a near halt. I haven't read a complete book all this month.

I never let little things like that to get in the way of a good bargain... Actually I have been buying quite a few books lately and recently stopped posting here. Time to start reading something now....

 

[BigBadBob141]

REF:Extollager
Boy, that is on sinister looking cow!!!

 

[Extollager]

Got a worn but nice copy of the old Everyman edition of Ruskin's Modern Painters (Vol. 3, with the "pathetic fallacy" etc.) the other day. A few days before that, John McPhee's The Control of Nature. I've read the portion on the struggle of people living in the Los Angeles area to build houses in canyons prone to rock- and mud-slides. Offhand I'd say McPhee presents both the interesting aspect of a human effort to cope with potential (and quite often real) catastrophe and the futility aspect: as in -- People, this is simply not good terrain for building houses in! Get over yourself and build somewhere else.

 

[Editorinchic]

So which books have you recently spent your hard earned cash or pocket money on

What little gems couldnt you resist and ended up on your bookshelf

I have to be careful with my pennies these days so the only books that get onto my bookshelves (yep got more than one) now are my favourite authors works.

There was a special offer on (last week) at the book club I am a member of and I've sent for -

Sabriel, Lirael and Abhorsen by Garth Nix
Grass for his Pillow and Brilliance of the Moon by Lian Hearn

Havent' got them yet but eagerly awaiting them

Funny - for every book I buy there is always 5 more waiting! Doing WICKED and PS I LOVE YOU now. Love Cecilia!

-------------
Editor-in-Chic

 

[Elvraie]

I got lucky today in charity shops in my little town. 5 books for 1 pounds at a 'Changing Lives' shop including the last two Ben Aaronovitch's Broken Homes and Foxglove Summer, as well as Michael Sullivan's Heir of Novron. A Dean Koontz, 'The Husband' and a book in french by Christian Jacq 'Le Moine et le Venerable'. A Monk and a High Ranking Free Mason emprisonned in a Nazi's jail, says the blurb. Somewhere else, I bought Fantasy Materworks Jack Williamson Darker than you think and Neil Gaiman's The Ocean at the end of the Lane, that one I wanted very much to read for £2.50.

 

[K. Riehl]

Picked up a June 31 Astounding.

 

[dask]

Found this for a buck at a garage sale today. Thought about it for a while, decided against it and went to the car. Had second thoughts and went back. Think I did the right thing.