The book sale was a bust & other reads

Deviating from the $5 or $3 annual per-bag-book-sale, the Friends of the McAllen Library charged us per item this year. With the minimum selection they had, I don't blame them. However, I did grimace. But the books were still virtually cheap - $1 hardback, $.50 paperbacks, DVDs, VHS & audio. I came away with $8 dollars worth of books. They are:

• Can't Find My Way Home - Martin Torgoff
• Adventures in Time and Space - edited by Raymond J. Healy and J. Francis McComas
• This Year's Best Science Fiction: Twelfth Annual Collection - edited by Gardner Dozois
• The Science Fiction Hall of Fame: Volume Three - edited by Arthur C. Clark and George W. Proctor
• Stay Away, Joe - Dan Cushman
• The Man Who Ate the World - Jay Rayner
• Melville Selected Tales and Poems - Herman Melville
• The Cinema of Stanley Kubrick - Norman Kagan
• The Penal Colony - Franz Kafka
• Girl, Interrupted - Susanna Kaysen
• The Dead Zone - Stephen King
• Robot City - Isaac Asimov

Afterward, I headed over to the nearest Barnes & Noble to do one final book pick up for the season (yeah, right!), Darkness on the Edge of Town by Brian Keene. Today's total price, $16.65. Not bad, book hunter, not bad at all. 

Also added to the library on Thursday night was Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane. I got wrapped up in the hype of the film - though I haven't seen it - that I figured I'd read the book. Along with this book, I purchased the March 2010 issue of Spin featuring, America's favorite mother, Courtney Love on its cover. [Side note: Is it just me, or does Courtney Love look like the long lost Olsen twins' possible older sister?]

Along with the books purchased today, I received three magazines in the mail. The Feb/Mar 2010 issue of Hispanic - I'M JUST GETTING THIS NOW?! - and two - read TWO - issues of Maxim, the February and the March 2010 issues featuring Amanda Bynes scantily clad  on one and Kaley Cuoco on the other. 

Truth be told, however, I don't know why I have a subscription to Maxim. While I love magazines, I don't particularly care for Maxim. I'm not a guy's guy. And I must say that seeing Amanda Bynes scantily is rather disturbing. Not that her body's deformed or anything, it's just that my nephew made me watch hours of her show when she was doing sketch comedy on Nick. Not to mention my years of watching What I Like About You. Same goes for Kaley Cuoco (8 Simple Rules, Big Bang Theory). But again, to each their own. I like books, other men like scantily clad celebrities they watched grow up. 

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Book Hunters Anonymous

The McAllen Public Library is having their booksale tomorrow morning - well, later on this morning to be exact. I'm excited. I should really go get myself checked out. Is there any support group for a bibliomanic? I hope not.

Three Dollar Bag Book Sale Take 2 pt. II

Hunt: Looking to fill at least three bags with used, good books
Partner: Mother
Location: McAllen Library, 601 N. Main, McAllen, TX.
Success: 0
Cost: 0

I need to get my eyes checked. I don't know how many times I read that blasted special to The Monitor and I swear I saw that the sale was continuing today. Do the Friends' of McAllen Library have special powers?

Needless to say, we got there, the place was closed so we went elsewhere. However, I did wind up buying Ecce Homo by Nietzsche half priced ($3.76 with taxes) at Barnes & Noble so it wasn't a complete waste and I didn't return empty handed.

Three Dollar Bag Book Sale Take 2 pt. I

My mother has implied that she wanted to take a crack at the book sale at the McAllen Library tomorrow morning. I don't know if we will, considering she spends time with my uncle in the mornings and doesn't return until late. I suppose we'll see.

Three-Dollar Bag Book Sale

Friends of McAllen Library to have book sale June 27

McALLEN --Friends of McAllen Library will have a books ale from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, June 27, at the Main Library, 601 N. Main, McAllen. Books will be sold $3 per bag. The Friends' enlarged bookstore is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday-Friday all year.

The Friends are co-sponsors of the Summer Reading Program for youth. Members always welcome volunteer help and recycling of slightly used books and magazines.

Hunt: Looking to fill at least three bags with used, good books
Partner: Monica
Location: McAllen Library, 601 N. Main, McAllen, TX.
Success: 2/3
Cost: $6

Had to wake up pretty early, though Monica and I didn't head out until 9:30. On the car ride over, the Squid, Monica's daughter (a nickname I didn't make up), kept renaming me - interchaning from her Uncle Jesse (no joke!) and grandpa. Every so often there was her not-so tiny voice from the back seat, "Je...gran...Willie!" Cute kid. She was looking forward to getting books of her own.

Monica and I have been to one of these sales in the past. Two years ago, to be exact. It was at the McAllen Convention Center and the space was large. This time, the Friends held it at the library and the space was rather cramped. Of course, they had less books this time around (or less books were brought in).

I searched around, hoping to find classics like The Things They Carried, however they didn't have it. I picked up The Shining, which after I a while I started to wonder if I already own. I'm not a Stephen King fan to be honest, but I do like owning first editions, and this was a first edition hardback.

I searched for Norah Roberts for my mother and some sci-fi in case my literary mind needs a break. But the selection was thin. I even managed to pick up a VHS copy of the original The War of the Worlds, so it wasn't a big loss. And I did manage to pick up two bags (I repeat, I do like first edition hardbacks), so I spent $6.