One of my favorite purchases was the first book in the Peter Corris series featuring Cliff Hardy. It was a pretty beat up paperback, but I have been wanting to read this series, which totals over 35 books, for a long time. I may not read them all or in order, but I did want to start at the beginning..I found most of the books by John Grisham that I was looking for: The Client, Rainmaker, and A Time to Kill. I had been motivated to follow up on more of his books by reading posts at Mysteries and More from Saskatchewan and comments there by Kathy D.
I found several books by Canadian authors: Eric Wright, Gail Bowen, and Ian Hamilton.
As far as authors that are unknown to me, two were from Africa:
Wessel Ebersohn is South African. The book I found is The October Killings, published in 2010. He wrote a few novels in the 70's and 80's that featured Yudel Gordon, a prison psychologist. This book is the start of a new series starring Abigail Bukula, a young lawyer, but it also brings back Yudel Gordon.
Adimchinma Ibe is a Nigerian author, and the book I found was Treachery in the Yard, the first novel in the Detective Peterside police procedural series.
There were some disappointments. I always go to the booksale knowing it will be a crapshoot. One year there was a whole box of Agatha Christie mysteries, then for several years there were only a few copies of her books. This year there was a box, and I did find several that I needed and some with covers I wanted.
I had hoped to find some books by Phil Rickman (the Merrily Watkins series) and also some by Catriona McPherson (the Dandy Gilver series) because these are ones that are not easy for me to locate. There were none, so I came home and started looking for the second Dandy Gilver book. I will be getting a copy of that soon.
A postscript:
My son took me back for the last day of the book sale today. It lasts ten days and on the last day, everything is 50% off. I bought more books, mostly paperbacks, and many I was very happy to find. The second book in the Inspector Felse series by Ellis Peters that I have been looking for forever. Several books by William L. DeAndrea, three of them from the Matt Cobb series. Several copies of novels by Helen MacInnes.
30 comments:
I loved The Moving Toyshop. And Dissolution is quite good too. What an excellent haul!
Cath, I am very happy with the books I got this year. I have read The Moving Toyshop but I had to have this edition. I have heard good things about Dissolution and the rest of that series, so I wanted to try it.
Good for you! I'm green with envy about the Planned Parenthood book sale. Wish there was one in my city, but so far, haven't heard of it. Getting books while contributing to an essential cause: What could be better?
Your choices sound good. When you finish A Time to Kill, suggest you read Sycamore Row, which features the same lawyer.
And on South Africa, try Malla Nunn's series; they're terrific books.
Checked at Abe Books, which has a slew of used books. They have many titles by Catriona McPherson for under $4, including postage.
Kathy, I wanted both A Time to Kill and Sycamore Row, but I guess Sycamore Row was too new to show up or too popular and all copies already gone. But I will definitely get a copy once I read A Time to Kill.
I do have the first Malla Nunn book in ebook form. I plan to read it in 2015 and wish I had found copies of later books at the sale.
ABE books is probably where I will get some more Catriona McPherson titles. Good suggestion.
Tracy, the moment I saw your pile of books, I was filled with envy; then again, I'm glad the Parenthead Book Sale doesn't happen where I live. I want to read John D. Voelker's ANATOMY OF A MURDER and also watch the film version starring James Stewart and Lee Remick. John Buchan's THE THIRTY-NINE STEPS is another book I haven't read. Frederick Forsyth is always a safe bet.
I am very jealous about this sale. It always looks great. Good luck with your reading.
Tracy, a great haul. Plenty of authors I've read and enjoyed and more that I haven't yet got to. I'll be looking forward to your reviews - and a post advising us what the rest of the tribe got!
Tracy -- Oh, you got some wonderful books!! I really am looking forward to seeing what you think of the Peter Corris novel; glad that you found it.
Prashant. I am looking forward to reading those books you mentioned. A book sale like this is too much of a temptation for me.
Sarah, the book sale is wonderful. I spend hours there and I still don't have time to look at much other than mysteries.
Col, I will let you know what the others got. My son checks out the sci fi / fantasy area thoroughly but he only found one thing for me there.
Margot, I do hope to get to the Peter Corris book soonish. I am sure I will like it.
What a haul! I enjoyed The Moving Toyshop too, but what a shame you have found it difficult to get the Dandy Gilver books, it makes me realise how lucky I am to be able to get them from my the library.
Hi, Tracy,
Oh, how I love to hear about readers' book sale adventures! Your mention of Helen MacInness reminds me that I've always longed to read more of her books. I read several in paperback in the mid-late 1970s, but never got back to her. Would love to find some decent paperbacks or even hardcovers for my collection. They helped me relax over a rough patch in my 20s.
Judith (Reader in the Wilderness)
It looks like you have books to fit whatever reading mood you're in for awhile, Kathy! I like doing big or small used book sales too just because of the unexpected variety. I look forward to your reviews, and I can hook you up with the copy of Sycamore Row I found at my local library sale.
I am sure I will find some more of the Dandy Gilver books, Katrina. As Kathy D. suggested, ABE books will probably have what I need.
I wanted to let you know I have had trouble commenting at your site and some other WordPress sites. It doesn't give me an error message, just acts like it takes the message and then doesn't. Anyway, I have been reading your posts and enjoying them.
Ooh, piles of books - just my favourite thing TracyK! And I would have loved to pick up some DeAndreas - very envious!
Finding that copy of THE MOVING TOYSHOP is quite a coup as I'm sure you know. There are plenty copies available for sale online. Finding the US 1st edition in a DJ at a book sale is rather miraculous. Is it perhaps a book club edition? I hope not and that you have the real McCoy. Because it's worth a chunk of change if it is. In any case congrats on finding so many wonderful books. And I'm happy to see that you bought an Ursula Curtiss book. Oh, the power to persuade! :^D Happy reading!
Sounds like you found some great titles there, Tracy. I bought the Ursula Curtis too but I look forward to your review of it if/when you get to it. Same goes for your other finds.
Judith, I prepare for this book sale all year, working on my too long list of books I want and keeping it up to date. I was glad to find the Helen MacInnes books. There are new reprints but they would cost a lot more if I bought them that way.
Definitely a lot of variety, Rebecca. Thanks for the offer re a copy of Sycamore Row. Have you read it yet? I want to read A Time to Kill first anyway. So many good books to read.
Well, Sergio, I probably should not have bought so many DeAndreas, since I haven't read anything of his yet. But I am sure I am going to like them, so took the plunge. And so surprising. They were not there the previous weekend.
I had not even looked up the possible value of THE MOVING TOYSHOP, John. I assumed it could not be too valuable if it was at the book sale. But it is a lovely copy (to me) with a skull on it so I am happy. It does not look like a book club edition, but I am no expert. There is a $2.00 price at the bottom of the front flap of the dust jacket. The dust jacket is in bad condition, with one corner of the front gone. Just a small corner but still.
Moving on to Ursula Curtiss. It was your recent review that motivated me to look for her books and I thank you.
I was very happy with the books I bought, Keishon, although I wish I was able to limit myself. I look forward to reading the Ursula Curtiss book and hope I find the time sometime soonish.
What a great haul Tracy! Look forward to reading those reviews over the next year or so.
Each year, I give about 200 books to sales like this. But then I pick up half that number at sales and buy the rest somewhere else.
Moira, I look forward to reading some of these and writing the reviews. I did get a Max Murray paperback but I am at work, cannot remember the title. Pretty sure it isn't the first one.
We do that too, Patti. Throughout the year we have shelves we put donations on and every couple of months take them to the drop off point for this sale. We donate more than we buy but overall I don't think our numbers ever go down.
One of the most wonderful things about book sales is finding real treasures. You should never assume a book is worthless because it ended up at a book sale. Many of these volunteers at sales know very little about the books they are selling. Nor do they have the time to research every single book that is donated. Even if they separate books and put the so-called valuable ones in the Collecotr's are all too often those books are ones that are well known to the general population.
Joe and I once travelled all the way to Peoria to a fundraising book sale held at a well known museum in that mid-state Illinois city. There we found a beautiful copy of FER DE LANCE, the very first Nero Wolfe mystery. It had no DJ but even in its "naked state" I thought it would be a lot of money because it was truly in magnificent condition. The price was scrawled as 500 and I thought to myself that must mean $500 so I put it back, but Joe insisted that the people would read it as $5.00. So he put it back in our pile and wanted to risk it. If they charged us 500 we would just set it aside and let some rich person have it. Turns out his intuition paid off. We ended up paying five bucks for one of the most sought after first editions in all of mystery book collecting world. About six years later I sold it for $750 at a book convention!
That's only one anecdote. I have numerous stories of finding scarce and often valuable mystery novels and Victorian supernatural books at book sales. Sometimes we end paying pennies for them at those "$5 a bag" days at these sales!
That is a wonderful story about the copy of FER DE LANCE, John. That would be my dream book to own. The reason I don't expect too much in the way of real treasures at this sale is that there is a first night where buyers pay for admission and many book sellers go to that night, so even if the people putting out the books don't know, the book sellers would recognize the really good ones. But they do hold out books and don't put out everything initially so there is always a chance. I do love going through all the books.
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