Wednesday, March 13, 2013

My Book Sale Haul! Yes, There is Stephen King!

So, as I was sharing with another blogger not too long ago, every year in March my local library puts on this huge, 4 day long used book sale. Literally, THOUSANDS of books for usually no more than a dollar (hardbacks are two dollars). Of course I go every year and stock myself up on paperbacks that I can read at work and see what other goodies I can find.

At this awesome book sale, a mere $22 got me 19 paperbacks and 2 hardbacks (I didn't realize until I got home that they miscounted - whoops).


Totally could've picked out more, but the bag was getting heavy and it was hot in there and there were people all around and I just wanted to go home.

I'm going through a Michael Connelly phase right now so I got some more stuff by him; also some Dean Koontz, a Brian Keene, and two Peter Straubs, which I'm really excited about because I've only ever read The Talisman. Would have loved to find Ghost Story, but no such luck.

Not gonna lie, though. My first intention when I get through the door is to scope out Stephen King hardbacks, preferably first editions of the older stuff. I've been somewhat lucky in the past with finding the ones I want, but as you can see from this year, either someone grabbed them up first or there just weren't as many SK hardbacks available. I even shared my frustration with a fellow shopper who wanted to see the copy of The Dead Zone that I put back (beat-up dust jacket and it was just a book club edition - nah). So the SK haul wasn't as good this year.


Not that I'm not happy with what I got. I got the hardback of The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon; a nice first printing paperback of Dolores Claiborne; that awesome dog's mouth cover paperback for Cujo (it's more beat-up than I would usually like, but I couldn't resist); AND the complete set of The Green Mile serial novels (my only copy has them all in one). Plus, I picked up copies of Hearts in Atlantis and Cell because I only have those in hardback, and The Drawing of the Three because at some point I know I'm going to have to read The Dark Tower books.

One find that I thought was pretty cool was this first edition - I think - of The Silence of the Lambs:


It's a cool cover and in good condition so I was stoked about this. Kinda makes me want to read the whole series again.

Anyway, that's my haul. I might go back again tomorrow because they're going to keep putting out new stuff until the last day (on that day, you just fill a box with books and it's only $5). My little SK bookshelf has now, like all my other bookshelves, gotten too small for my crazy book shopping. If a fire ever started in the office of my apartment, I'd be fucked.

8 comments:

  1. Wow, you got a great haul! SHADOWLAND by Straub is great, as is most of his stuff. I just finished reading SILENCE OF THE LAMBS for the first time myself (though I preferred RED DRAGON, which probably isn't the popular opinion), and will be getting started on HANNIBAL and then HANNIBAL RISING soon. And I'm right there with you on King. I've read pretty much every damn thing he has ever written...but I've never read the DARK TOWER series. Someday...

    --J/Metro

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    1. I'm excited about Shadowland - heard great stuff about it! Hannibal Rising is actually a pretty sweet book from what I remember if only because you find out just what made him the way he is.

      The Dark Tower series... It keeps looming over my head... beckoning me... I'll get to it some day, as well.

      I think.

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  2. That's a damn successful trip the library, right there...

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    1. Not REALLY as successful as I would've liked, but still some pretty great unexpected finds. I'm most excited about the Green Mile serials for some reason. I love 'em!

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  3. What a trip! I love going book shopping at a place where there's a land mine of author's, primarily horror fiction. You hit it big on Stephen King and I'm sure you're going to enjoy most of them. Great to see some others, like Koontz, Straub, and Keene in your collection. Speaking of which, I joined a speculative writers club and will be seeing Brian Keene in April (if I get the day off that I requested).

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    1. Josh, this place is a freaking GOLD MINE. It's all donated books that the library collects all year, I guess, so you have no idea what you might find. I was only there for an hour, doing some quick perusing and just grabbing authors that I thought I might like. I've been wanting to read Keene, so we'll see how that works out, and Koontz has been hit or miss with me in the past. Sadly, it probably won't take me that long to get through them all! Then I'll have to wait another year to get more!

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  4. I got a $25 gift card to Barnes N' Noble for my birthday and I went crazy. Of course, $25 isn't a lot of money to buy a nice amount of books.

    I'm pleased with what I got, though. Like a lot of horror fans, I'm a huge fan of Stephen King. I bought 'Carrie', 'Misery', 'Pet Sematary' and 'The Shining. All paperbacks. All in all I think I scored. :)

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  5. All excellent books, sista! Have you not read them before or were you just picking up copies to have for yourself? If you haven't read any of those, get on it! :)

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