Sunday, September 19, 2010

Books bought

A spittle's-worth of writing in the past week, and so we speak of other things.

Books purchased at the annual library sale ($1.50 for hardbacks; $1.00 for papers; $.50 for mass market paperbacks (the penny dreadfuls of the sale)):

Amos Oz, Where the Jackals Howl and Other Stories (hardback; dust cover like a paper grocery bag)—stories Oz wrote in the '60s and revised in the '70s; this English first edition came out in 1981

Michael Cunningham, The Hours, (hardback, signed)

Arthur Conan Doyle, The Original Illustrated Sherlock Holmes (hardback, hefty, contains "all 356 original illustrations [from The Strand Magazine] by Sidney Paget)

Angela Carter, Saints and Strangers (paperback; Carter is a gap in my reading knowledge, and my colleagues have recommended her)

Percival Everett, I Am Not Sidney Poitier (paperback; I know nothing about this novel, but I like the title and the style of the cover)

ed. Nick Caistor, (The Faber Book of) Contemporary Latin American Short Stories (hardback, 1989; seemed useful to add to my international reading knowledge)

Isaac Bashevis Singer, The Collected Stories (paperback, but solidly built; I have the collection Crown of Feathers, but in a smaller, weary paperback; this has more in a better package)

Katherine Mansfield, Stories (paperback; given that I just taught "The Garden-Party," a favorite story of mine, this past week, this seemed a fortuitous discovery)

Djuna Barnes, Nightwood (paperback with something sticky that must needs be removed from the back cover; I've never read her, I confess)

Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita (Vintage paperback; I've been meaning to reread this (I must have read a borrowed copy in college) ever since reading Pnin and seeing again Nabokov's greatness, so now I have it)

Geoffrey Chaucer, The Riverside Chaucer (hardback, a load; a few years ago, I bought this same edition over eBay, but its binding is loose, the cover roughed-up, and many of the pages marked; this copy is beautiful inside and out, and thus certainly worth a buck-fifty)

All of the above: $13.50 plus a three-mile walk and running into various friends. A good day.

6 comments:

kryssie's daily photo said...

June is my favorite month of the year because the AAUW has their book sale at the Methodist Church in Freehold, NJ. My son (19yrs) and I plan for it every year. Joey picked up two books by D.H. Lawrence his newest interest. I got lucky with some trade novels. I love when they have the message that this book is an early edition and not for sale. I also picked up some James Joyce. Last year Joey picked up a rare edition of an Alan Watts book, inside was a flyer to hear him speak. Joey was thrilled. What a find. It looks like you got quite a treasure trove yourself to read through. Have fun.

William Preston said...

Freehold! Springsteen's home town! (And the home town of one of my colleagues.)

So how good are you about actually reading everything you buy at a book sale? I got some great stuff last year, and most of it is still unread.

kryssie's daily photo said...

I do get to read most of them over the summer. It seems once fall comes my reading time is limited until the cold weather comes. Then it's me in my green snuggie (a Christmas gift) on the love-seat with a good book and a cup of tea.

William Preston said...

A good way to pass the frozen time.

S. E. Johnson said...

So, I don't know that you've mentioned Carter since this entry--any thought? ;)

William Preston said...

I have to take the book out again (I've been too busy with school stuff), but I know I read one story and was impressed and entertained. I'll check which one it was.