Book Worm Adventures

Crazy, I tell you. In the 70s yesterday, and Too Damn Warm at night to sleep—I haven't had a decent night's sleep since we changed the clocks, mainly due to the heat—and today the temps started at 51°F and by the time I left for the Cobb County Library book sale it was 45, with a misty rain and a stiff chilly wind. I didn't want to be encumbered by a heavy jacket, so I wore only my windbreaker and a visor on my head to keep the rain off my glasses (thankfully I discovered a light hat in my pocket). The line was very short, with crazy people in it (one woman had her baby wrapped up and was in flip-flops and short sleeves!). The place wasn't at all crowded to boot.

I did the usual course: stop at the Christmas books first, then look through the history books and the biographies. I went down to the "T" fiction in search of Gladys Taber, but only found the newest Bess Crawford mystery (brand new!) which I would have purchased during the summer. (I tried looking for the other mysteries which I will buy in paperback later in the year, but no luck on those.) Then I strolled down to the children's books; coming back I checked out the travel, reference, nature, and craft books. Finally I staggered over to the payment table.

One of the books I passed over I thought we had, and I was surprised to discover when I arrived home that we didn't have it at all. I wanted to go out again, so I went via Jim Miller Park again to fetch the stray (and three others of his brothers...LOL). Today's tally:

 Food in History, Reay Tannahill

 The Oxford Book of English Detective Stories, edited by Patricia Craig (yes, Father Brown and Inspector Thorndyke are here, but the Dorothy Sayers story is a Montague Egg tale rather than Lord Peter Wimsey!)

 The Big House: A Century in the Life of An American Summer Home, George Howe Colt

 Bluegrass Champion (Harlequin Hullabaloo), Dorothy Lyons: labeled as "the story of a famous horse and the girl who trained him." With ink-and-pen illustrations by Wesley Dennis, to boot! This was a volume in the Grosset & Dunlap "Famous Horse Stories" series of books.

 Honestly, Katie John!, Mary Calhoun (I'd never read these as a kid, being hopelessly addicted to animal stories; they're cute)

 Life is Worth Living, Fulton J. Sheen (taken, I gather, from the scripts to Sheen's 1950s television series)

 An Unwilling Accomplice, Charles Todd (the Bess Crawford book)

 On Reflection, Helen Hayes

 Why We Eat What We Eat, Raymond Sokolov

 The Complete Book of Marvels, Richard Halliburton
I'd never heard of this guy until I read an article somewhere...the AARP magazine, maybe? or "Reader's Digest"? He was basically a 1930s Rick Steves crossed with Lowell Thomas and Scheherazade; he traveled the world, visited exotic places, and wrote expansive books that made children and adults dream of travel. The pictures are all in black and white, but the prose is simple but enjoyable.

 Bottom Line Year Book 2000 (from the Bottom Line Personal folks—we used to get their newsletter until it got too expensive)

 Combat!: The Counterattack, Franklin M. Davis Jr. (this is a Whitman's children's book based on the television series, which I bought for James on a whim)

 Insultingly Stupid Movie Physics, Tom Rogers (thought James would enjoy this, too)

 Blue Ridge Billy, Lois Lenski (another of Lenski's regional series for my collection)

 Ghosts for Christmas, edited by Richard Dalby (short stories)

 Preparing My Heart for Advent, Ann Marie Stewart (a spiritual book, if you hadn't gathered)

 Reminisce Christmas, from the publishers of "Reminisce"

I also bought three other books, but they're pegged as Christmas gifts, so I can't mention them.

I also drove out to downtown Powder Springs and checked out a little used bookstore called "Book Worm." It's very cute, but I didn't find anything that suited me except for a couple of bookmarks for gifts. However, the woman behind the counter invited me to take something off the "free" shelf. I discovered a rather battered paperback based on the old Baa Baa Black Sheep television series. James used to like that show, so I grabbed it for him.