The other day son #3 talked me into swinging by Steak and Shake for an afternoon milkshake. When we got there, we saw that from 2-4pm it is milkshake happy hour, meaning that they are half price. Well, it was 1:30, and being a natural-born cheapskate, I talked the aforementioned son to go across the parking lot to the bargain bookstore for half an hour before we imbibed (I mean, that was going to save me three bucks!).
I stop by the bargain bookstore every few months, and I'll often take a chance on some books I don't really know anything about. Sometimes that pays off, and I find a gem of a book that opens up some new territory. More often I leave with a pile of cheap books that get browsed through a bit, and then take up shelf space. If I get anything, I'll usually get $15 worth of books so that I can get another punch on my "Bargain Books Reward Card." After twelve purchase of $15 or more, you get a gift certificate for $20. After several years of carrying the card around in my wallet (and forgetting to use it a few times when I could have) I now have 11 punches. The payoff is so close I can almost smell it.
Here was the take away this time (for $14.20, after my 10% educator discount; and the nice lady still punched my reward card!):
What are People for?, a collection of essays by Wendell Berry. The nicely crafted essay is one of my favorite genres of writing. I've read a couple of Berry's novels, so I thought I'd give this a shot. I read one of the essays the other day, "Wallace Stegner and the Great Community" because I've also read a Wallace Stegner novel (Crossing to Safety, which, by the way, is fantastic; it is about an English professor and two couples who are best friends; those of you in academia would find it very interesting).
I got a couple of books by contemporary theologians: Barbara Brown Taylor Speaking of Sin: The Lost Language of Salvation and D. Stephen Long's The Goodness of God. I know a bit about each of these authors but have never read any of their books. For $1.40 and $1.80 (minus my 10% discount), I thought I'd take the chance.
Since finishing The Once and Future King the other day (see here for an account), I went looking for some of the classic Arthurian literature. Mallory's Morte d'Artur was what I was looking for. I found Lancelot of the Lake which says it was written in the early thirteenth century. I'm not sure how this is related to Mallory.
And then I got Tour de France for Dummies. As a way to prepare ourselves for the ridiculous amounts of television we'll be watching when the olympics start in a couple of weeks, my wife and I have been watching some of the TdF, but we only vaguely understand much of what we see. The book is four years old, but at only 99 cents (or rather 89.9 cents after the discount) it is worth every penny.
A couple of other book acquisitions this week:
It was my birthday yesterday, and my good wife got me a book she had seen listed on my OneNote mobile page, "Books I'm Interested in Acquiring." Not knowing that she had seen the list, I also ordered the book from Amazon earlier this week, because I needed one more to get the free shipping (back to the cheapskate thing). Well, the one I ordered hasn't come yet, so her present takes precedence (and by next week, I'll have an extra copy of this book if anyone is interested): Harry Lee Poe & Jimmy H. Davis, God and the Cosmos: Divine Activity in Space, Time and History. I may do some separate blogs on this, as I think there are some ideas worth exploring.
Another part of my Amazon order came: Science and Religion--1450-1900: From Copernicus to Darwin by Richard G. Olson. I got it from the used selections at Amazon, and I'm not very happy to see that it has a bunch of highlighting in it.
Welcome to the family!
I stop by the bargain bookstore every few months, and I'll often take a chance on some books I don't really know anything about. Sometimes that pays off, and I find a gem of a book that opens up some new territory. More often I leave with a pile of cheap books that get browsed through a bit, and then take up shelf space. If I get anything, I'll usually get $15 worth of books so that I can get another punch on my "Bargain Books Reward Card." After twelve purchase of $15 or more, you get a gift certificate for $20. After several years of carrying the card around in my wallet (and forgetting to use it a few times when I could have) I now have 11 punches. The payoff is so close I can almost smell it.
Here was the take away this time (for $14.20, after my 10% educator discount; and the nice lady still punched my reward card!):
I got a couple of books by contemporary theologians: Barbara Brown Taylor Speaking of Sin: The Lost Language of Salvation and D. Stephen Long's The Goodness of God. I know a bit about each of these authors but have never read any of their books. For $1.40 and $1.80 (minus my 10% discount), I thought I'd take the chance.
Since finishing The Once and Future King the other day (see here for an account), I went looking for some of the classic Arthurian literature. Mallory's Morte d'Artur was what I was looking for. I found Lancelot of the Lake which says it was written in the early thirteenth century. I'm not sure how this is related to Mallory.
And then I got Tour de France for Dummies. As a way to prepare ourselves for the ridiculous amounts of television we'll be watching when the olympics start in a couple of weeks, my wife and I have been watching some of the TdF, but we only vaguely understand much of what we see. The book is four years old, but at only 99 cents (or rather 89.9 cents after the discount) it is worth every penny.
A couple of other book acquisitions this week:
Another part of my Amazon order came: Science and Religion--1450-1900: From Copernicus to Darwin by Richard G. Olson. I got it from the used selections at Amazon, and I'm not very happy to see that it has a bunch of highlighting in it.
Welcome to the family!
1 comment:
Great account. Only a gifted writer can make visiting the bargain bookstore a compelling read. Well done. :-) And, with the extra book, you now have a 'giveaway' to announce later where you can get folks to do all sorts of tricks (which usually looks like promotion for one of your books) in return.
Happy Birthday.
TL
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