More loot

It was another $5 bag sale at the Friends of the Library book sale last weekend. Because I need more books like I need warts, I went late and was discriminating (for me).

Here is a run-down of my beauties and why I picked them:

Library Sale Book Loot Cali-style

It’s been a bit of a slow reading month for me. I’m in a rare “stuck between books” state. I keep picking up books and falling asleep in the first few pages. But there is nothing like a library book sale to perk me up (not that I need anymore unread books on my shelves)!

Last Saturday was a $5 bag sale at our local library in a wee area here in the north SF Bay area, so we decided to check it out. In some ways it beat the pants off the big central library sale we used to attend in our former large city.

Here’s my loot:

The Blue Afternoon

“I remember that afternoon, not long into our travels, sitting on deck in the mid-Atlantic sun on a slightly smirched and foggy day, the sky a pale washed-out blue above the smokestacks, that I asked my father what it was like to pick up a knife and make an incision into living flesh.” –The Blue Afternoon, William Boyd

Now THAT is an interesting first sentence! Rereading it now, I see the subtle reference to a “blue afternoon” here, but it’s not the titular one that stays so memorably in the reader’s mind. However, this first sentence very much reflects the novel— Boyd’s  beautiful, atmospheric writing,  a feeling of romance, and yet something gruesome and unexpected.

Library Book Sale Loot 2014

My favorite book sale of the year has been going on this weekend at the public library. Somehow my husband only found ONE lousy book on Marx, but I came home with a neat 30 in a rainbow of flavors.  My son split the difference with about 15. I am excited about everything I found–highlights are a hardback printing of Musashi for a mere $2, American Seashells by R. Tucker Abbott, and several other books about things Japanese or by Japanese authors.

Library Sale Loot!

Last weekend was the annual public library book sale. It’s pretty huge, and even tbough it  was the third day when I got there, I scored a bunch of good stuff.