This piece was inspired by the work of Greg Hatcher.  Greg is a writer for the Comics Should Be Good site and every Friday (or Saturday) he entertains engages and enraptures his readers with tales of books long gone and now rediscovered.  Some of the most anticipated columns come from the road trips he and his encouraging wife take along the Pacific Northwest.  After taking my own book journey with my own encouraging (soon to be) wife, I was inspired to write this tale in tribute.  The story begins in Watertown NY.

For those of you that don’t know, Watertown NY is located in the true Upstate of New York.  An hour north of Syracuse and half hour south of Canada.  The best description I’ve ever heard is that the city is “too small to matter, too big to ignore”.  The trip was a homecoming for me, but the focus was on the annual book sale.

The Roswell P Flower Memorial Library hosts their annual book sale on the last Saturday in October.  The rotunda of the building is filled, both floors, with used books, movies, records and magazines.  Plus more to find in a few other rooms throughout the building.

 

 

This sale has become my Christmas.  The books are priced at $1.00 for hardcover, 50 cents for paperbacks, and 25 cents for children’s books.  As is the case with many places where those unfamiliar with comics have to sort them, the comics end up en masse with the kids stuff.  No comic books this year, but the comic strips were plentiful.

New Yorker Book of Lawyer Cartoons bought for a quarter, retails for $10.95

Get Fuzzy 2: Fuzzy Logic bought for a quarter, retails for #10.99

Bad President for a quarter, retails at $8.95

New Yorker Book of Cat Cartoons at 25 cents and sells for $10.95

Foxtrot: Orlando Bloom Has Ruined Everything bought for a quarter instead of $8.95

I wont tell the prices for all of the books bought on this day.  I’ve added it up for myself though, and for under thirty dollars we ended up with almost a thousand dollars worth of media.  This day is always the highlight of my book buying year.

The real surprise was finding these classic kids books.  Especially the Trixie Belden books which Greg himself had talked about a few months ago HERE.  Right now, I’m not sure if I’ll read these or sell them, but either way I felt confident that I was the only Greg Hatcher fan in the room and had to buy the books on site.  Again, all of these were a quarter each.

The wonderful fiance found a plethora of books for herself and me.  Her tastes are varied, she loves the works of Margaret Atwood and Neil Gaiman.  She tears through novels at an unheard of rate.  Plus, she makes her own crafts from upcycled books and comics.  Check out her stuff at Nerd Nuptials and on Etsy.

She scored the following books:

That copy of Sense and Sensibility may end up in a future craft.  That will be after more keepsake boxes featuring The Walking Dead are completed.

The Curves book may be a Christmas gift for someone.  The calligraphy will be used in more future crafts.

She’s already read Thumbsucker and loved it.  It’s now in my to read pile and may be moved to the top due to its short length and ease of transport to and from work.

This pile is split between us.  Stolen Lives looked interesting, but she usually does novels.  Its possible neither of us will read it.  Impossible Man grabbed me because at some point the author tries deathmatch wrestling.  Sandman Slim looked like a good mystery.  Level 26 stars the serial killer Squee, recently seen on CSI.   Lab 257 is the scariest book I’ve ever read.  Its a look at the Plum Island germ laboratory off of Long Island.  Scary scary true story.

A little controversy never hurt anyone.  By now, most literate people are familiar with The Onion, an unending source of irony and commentary.  The real score for me were the two Disinformation books.  After reading Lab 257, I may not be able to handle more revealing of secrets, and yet here are these books.  The interviews one has a mind blowing one with Grant Morrison.

Something lighter will be needed after all this conspiracy reading.  Books on television, price guides, fairy tales, and an inside look at writers.  Plus, the older book there Broken Wedding Ring, may end up as a decoration at the future wedding reception.

Finally, the biography set.  I’ve been looking forward to the Bret Hart book but didn’t want to spend cover price on it.  Bruce Campbell is of course the upper level of geek gods.  Who can resist an American Gladiators book?  Finally, Hella Nation by the author of Generation Kill.  This will most likely be a gift to my brother, as he knows the guys in the book.

Here are all the books purchased.  We spent about 3 hours at the sale and saw thousands of titles.  The sale continues for a month and the times where I could browse more than once yielded finds at every turn.

Oh, there are some titles in that picture that were bought later in the week.  But that is for the next column.