Library Update

So I saw that Howie Mandel (sp?) commercial the other day for buy.com claiming to sell books for cheaper than Amazon and Barnes & Noble. I'm always up for a good challenge in buying books, so I put it to the test. And since my last post on this subject, I've had the good fortune of acquiring a few other books via the largess of publishers who think I might somehow become a spokesman for their products. And there were a couple of others I found in the basement of the Griffon in downtown South Bend waiting for the symphony to begin the other night. So here are the newest citizens of Stump Bibliotheque Nation:

• J.M. Coetzee, Diary of a Bad Year (This is for Robby's book club. 50 pages in, I'm not enchanted yet...)
• Hans-Georg Gadamer, Truth and Method (This is for John's book club. 5 pages took me the same amount of time to read as the 50 in book #1. This doesn't bode well for the next 576 pages, but there is a greater enchantment factor going so far.)
• Timothy Paul Jones, Christian History Made Easy (I'm a little embarrassed to list this one here, but it's got lots of great lists that are saving me lots of time.)
• E.P. Sanders, The Historical Figure of Jesus (one of those found at the second-hand store; allowed me to give back my borrowed copy.)
• Frederick, Buechner, Secrets in the Dark (A book of sermons by one of my favorite writers. His name is pronounced BEEK ner.)
• Edward Slingerland, What Science Offers the Humanities (A freebee that looks pretty interesting.)
• Peter Harrison, The Fall of Man and the Foundations of Science (Here is a bigwig in the history of science and religion claiming that scientific techniques throughout the scientific revolution were developed in order to ameliorate the cognitive damage wrought by the Fall. Now that's an interesting thesis... can it really be defended?)

For those wondering about Howie's pitch... it was true. The first three books on the list were cheaper to get through buy.com than the same three from either Amazon or B&N. You have to be careful of the shipping, though. You qualify for free shipping for $25 or more of qualified purchases; only one of the books qualified, though, so I had to pay shipping. Still it was cheaper than the other two--even counting my Member's discount at B&N.