April 18, 2007

  • High Holy Day

    I just returned with two large boxes full of books purchased from the annual book sale.  I went to the preview session along with all the book buyers (aka booksellers) in the region.  We chatted amiably in the hallway, but when the doors opened it was serious business. Exclamations of excitement punctuated the silence along with chuckles.  The funniest book title I saw was “The Meaning of Life, The Hallmark Edition.” 

    The best part — The Best Part — of the book sale is arriving home, making a cup of tea, and relaxing as I examine the booty.  Would you care to join me?  Here are my treasures, listed in the order of excitement upon acquisition. 

     Laugh Out Loud Thrilled
    The Prime Minister, Anthony Trollope
    A Pianist’s Landscape, Carol Montparker (watercolor art on cover is stunning)
    A Jonathan Edwards Reader (a Yale Nota Bene book)
    Original Sin, P.D. James
    Clouds of Witness, Dorothy Sayers (my son is happy)
    Blue Shoe, Anne Lamott (Donna, I thought of you when I got it)
    Penrod, Booth Tarkington (read a George Grant review of this just yesterday)
    Methods of Teaching, Albert Raub (an 1883 treasure, oh I love old books)
    Grace Abounding To The Chief of Sinners, John Bunyan (Penguin classic, too!)
    The Church of Our Fathers, Roland Bainton (great author, book looks good)
    Looks Good to Me
    Quiet Places, Jane Rubietta (I opened to Luci Shaw quote)
    How Much Is Enough?, Hungering for God In An Affluent Culture, Art Simon         (hey, I get the irony of this title in this list)
    A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, Mark Twain (lovely book)
    Le Morte Darthur, Sir Thomas Malory (Oxford World Classic series)
    The Audubon Book of True Nature Stories (lovely pen and ink illustrations)
    Rick Steves’ Ireland 2005 (I can dream, right?)
    Shroud For A Nightingale, P.D. James
    Sister Age, M.F.K Fisher (I’ve never read M.F.K., I have high expectations)
    Chivalry, James Branch Cabell (a 1909 book)
    The Penitent, Isaac Bashevis Singer (if you like Potok, I think you’d like Singer)
    The NPR Guide to Building A Classical CD Collection (neat looking book)
    Beethoven Or Bust, A Practical Guide to Understanding and Listening to Great     Music, David Hurwitz
    Prose of the Romantic Period (Coleridge, Hazlitt, Lamb among others)
    Prose of the Victorian Period (Macaulay on Milton grabbed my attention)
    Early American Women Writers (Anne Bradstreet to Louisa May Alcott)
    On Women Turning 50, Cathleen Rountree (don’t ask why)
    Smart Exercise, Covert Bailey (I need motivation)
    The Marquis’ Secret, George MacDonald
    Humility, Andrew Murray
    The Mark of the Christian, Francis Schaeffer
    To America, Personal Reflections of an Historian, Stephen E. Ambrose
    Autobiography, John Stuart Mill (I collect Penguin Classics)
    Standard Book of British and American Verse, (nice, old hardback)
    Introduction to the Great Books Series (an anthology in 12 paperbacks)
    Stories by English Authors (7 volume set printed in 1899 by Scribners)
    I’ve Vaguely Heard of This Book and/or Author
    A Walk in the Woods,  Bill Bryson
    The Virgin Blue, Tracy Chevalier (I read Girl with the Pearl Earring)
    Hole in the Sky, A Memoir, William Kittredge (I’m a sucker for memoirs)
    Fear and Trembling and The Sickness Unto Death, Søren Kierkegaard (I’m         deluded if I think I’ll read this, but it’s a happy thought)
    Amsterdam, Ian McEwan (a favorite author of Susan Wise Bauer)
    Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, David Sedaris
    Beloved, Toni Morrison
    Night, Elie Wiesel
    Books To Give Away
    Till We Have Faces, C.S. Lewis
    Surprised by Joy, C.S. Lewis
    The Four Loves, C. S. Lewis
    Galileo’s Daughter, Dava Sobel (I heart this book)
    Tales from Shakespeare, Charles & Mary Lamb
    Shake Hands with Shakespeare, Albert Cullum
    Undaunted Courage, Stephen E. Ambrose
    Quentins, Maeve Binchy (about a restaurant in Dublin)
    Book of Horses, Glenn Balch (this one’s for my grandson, you can’t win it)
    True Spirituality, Francis Schaeffer
    I Know Nothing, But Something Captured Me

    Death Be Not Proud, A Memoir, John Gunther (about a 17 yr old who died of a brain tumor.  Donne’s phrase in the title made it a must buy.)
    Out of My Life and Thought, Albert Schweitzer
    The Piano Man’s Daughter, Timothy Findley (nice cover)
    Plainsong, Kent Haruf (nice title, nice cover)
    The Secret Supper, Javier Sierra (intriguing cover)
    Conversation, How Talk Can Change Our Lives Theodore Zeldin (tiny book)
    Herbal Breads, A Fresh from the Garden Cookbook, Ruth Bass
      

    Book Giveaway:  The books cost 75¢ an inch, measuring along the spine.  They fit into two paper (10 reams of copy paper fit in) boxes. Free book, your
    choice from the give away list, to the commenter whose guess is the closest to the amount I spent.  Contest ends midnight 4/22/07.

Comments (13)

  • My guess is $30.00. Sounds like a GREAT haul. I’ve read only a few on the list including Death Be Not Proud which I read in high school and can’t remember anything about it except how sad it was. Our library has a couple of David Sedaris books on CD and I’ve been tempted to try one. In fact, I think they have the one you got. Colson’s Breakpoint yesterday referred to Dorothy Sayers and reminded me that I have yet to read anything by her and I know I must!

    Oohh, I wanna go to a book sale. I hadn’t planned to go to the homeschool convention an hour from our house on Saturday but I may change my mind. They always have a great used books on consignment section. Terry will be out of town…..I just may treat myself and go.

    Happy reading to you! You encourage me to aim higher in my own reading, Carol!

    Blessings,

    Sandy

  • Well, you’ve got my brain working….and my calculator :)   I will probably need that much time to make the proper calculations. *Grin*

    Thanks for commenting on my poetry selections.   Sounds like you had a blast at the sale.

    Dana

  • I see someone else choosing books by their covers too! I loved reading this so much. Aren’t these occasions so memorable?

    That Bainton book will probably be really interesting, as does the Audubon Book of Nature Stories, the NPR book. You will laugh out loud at A Walk in the Woods (especially if you hear the audio version), and Plainsong sounds neat.

    My guess is $54. I’ve got my eye on that Albert Cullum book. Been looking for it for years!
    Janie

  • Hey, I was gonna guess $30, so I suppose I’ll have to go up to $35 I’ll be interested to hear your comments on Virgin Blue. I read The Girl with the Pearl and enjoyed it, but I didn’t like Virgin Blue. Some of those other titles sound really fun!

  • I am convinced that we are twins separated at birth! My great sadness, sister, is that alas, you live in my town…where I should live…just because of the great tradition of this book sale! I remember clearly walking down from Ackerman LabSchool with a friend in about third or fourth grade, to see the Presbyterian Church basement packed with books on tables and  kids’ table to boot! It was love at first sight ( or experience..)

    Now I am left wondering  just *where* you will be installing those tomes? My dh would have kiniption(sp?) fit if I brought home *that * many books to our little gray house. Good luck finding shelf space! How do you do it?

    BB…whose guess is $41.25

  • I’m trying not to lust after the 1883 _Methods of Teaching_ :)
    Last year I would’ve liked _On Women Turning 50_, but now that I am 51, who needs it?
    Let me know how you like _Piano Man’s Daughter_. I put that one down~~couldn’t get through it for some reason.
    What a Literary Feast! Have fun.
    P.S. my guess is you spent $67.00

  • Okay, it’s morning and my math brain is actually working now. My guess is $47.

  • $37.88

  • You sure got a lot of treasures!  Gracen was delighted to see the Book of Horses title–I am adding that to my “look for” list.

    I love book lists–always gives new ideas and inspiration.

  • My guess is $45.70.

    I am drooling over the titles…what a great day. But TEA? That’s a coffee pile if I’ve ever seen one (-:

    Happy Thursday,
    Diane

  • Hmm. Walk in to the library, have E. Rob. run the calc. and D. Rod. run the tally sheet. measure 20 books at random. When I get to 20 set up the ratio: 15.32 inches / 20 books = X inches / 59 books. X = 45.19 inches.   45.19 * 0.75 = $33.8925. Since we can’t have that, @ 0.75 an inch I guess $33.75 actual, and guess also that you rounded it up to $34 or $35…ok $35.  Final Answer.

    Fun! I love homeschooling!

  • $69.75. Now please don’t say that if I guess *OVER*, but I’m still the closest, I don’t win!!! ;) Anyway, I have listened to David Sedaris on CD and he is ABSOLUTELY hilarious. However, he is openly gay and makes a lot of jokes about that part of his life. His sister, Amy, has also written some very funny books. Apparently, they came from a rather sad/dysfunctional upbringing and use their humor to talk about it. I think you should read it anyway. The CD I heard was from a reading he did at Carnegie Hall, if you can imagine!

  • $52.00. I went to the library book sale today and spent a lot more than $52. :)

Post a Comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *