October Bookstravaganza!

The past few days have been very good to me when it comes to scoring interesting books. Between our two local used bookstores and a few thrift stores, I've snagged 42 books for $9! A few of them were for other people, but that's a hell of a deal any way you look at it.

First up is this nice hardcover copy of the Carl Sagan classic Contact, which I picked up at Goodwill for $1.50. The book section there is normally pretty pitiful, so this is the first time I've actually found a book I wanted there. It's even a first edition!
(I also found a stack of records for Cindy, but that's a whole other topic.)

A trip to the Book Rack (the one off of Highway 98) introduced me to these three gems. I've had an old mass-market paperback copy of The Phantom of the Opera for years, so this 75th anniversary hardcover edition seemed like a wise trade-up. Sax Rohmer's Fu Manchu series is one of the great old pulp lines i always enjoy; and President Fu Manchu was a total no-brainer for a dime. As for the King Kong book, I've always had a fascination with short-lived oddball series and genre projects that failed, and the 1976 DeLaurentiss version of King Kong most certainly fits into the latter category. I've flipped through the book, and it looks like a pretty comprehensive chronicle of the making of that train-wreck of a movie.

A newly-opened thrift store yielded this new edition of Octopussy, part of the Penguin line that has those great pulp-ish covers. I've admired these editions for a long time, but I can't justify the price since I already have multiple editions of all of the Fleming Bonds. I wasn't about to pass one up for fifty cents, though. The Frank Yerby book, A Woman Called Fancy, came home with me because I've been interested in his work since I first found out about him some time ago. Yerby was one of the first successful black authors in America, the first to have a million-selling novel, and the first to have his work adapted as a movie. I always pick up his books when I run across them, finances allowing.

A dollar and change got me these three trashy adventure novels at the other Book Rack(the one on 13th Avenue). I haven't actually read any of these series, but I figured they were worth a shot at their dirt-cheap prices. Anyway, just look at that Enforcer book! Calling Doctor KILL!!!! How in the hell could I have walked out of there without that?!?!!

Now, here comes the motherload! One of the local thrift stores, Bargains and Blessings, looks like  a garage sale vomited inside the building. Piles of stuff everywhere, with minimal organization, but most of it is dirt cheap. I walked in there literally for the first time in years, and walked out with an armload of books, all for a dime each. It was glorious. This is the kind of score that keeps me looking as regularly as i can manage at various thrift stores, through all the dry spells when I come across nothing but diet books and "Left Behind" garbage. Eventually, I know my vigilance will pay off. A couple of these books are for Braxton, my nephew, including the Bradbury classic Fahrenheit 451, which anyone who is literate should read at least once. Several of the books were things I knew Cindy would like, and she's already taken them home, so no photos of them.

As with Octopussy, I already had these Fleming Bond books in other editions, but I can't resist buying them when I come across some with cover art I don't already have, as long as they're cheap.

Damn near everything else falls firmly into the trashy adventure novel genre. Some of these series are new to me; my instant favorite is The Penetrator. I've already read one of them, and trust me, you will be seeing more about this series. There are a couple of Mack Bolan books in the mix; honestly, I tried reading a couple of these when I was a teenager, and the series focus on gun porn just didn't do anything for me. For a dime, though, I figured I'd give 'em another shot. The old science-related books are just cool, and they were both in really good shape too, especially considering their age. I got the Empire Strikes Back adaptation because I remember having it when I was little, and this one was in fantastic condition.

So, I'm swamped in books, many of them thoroughly trashy, and loving it. If only I'd run across a copy of the Overload series, which features a pair of ex-commando truckers who roam the country, doling out righteous ass-beatings to any random asswipe who deserves it, or Body Smasher, the wrestling adventure series that features Captain Lou Albano, this would've been a haul to tell the grandkids about someday!