Saturday, September 6, 2014

Carried away?

Definitely.

After several months of admirable restraint when it came to book buying, something seems to have gone berserk in whatever part of my brain controls those impulses.  I blame it all on Las Vegas, because surely it was winning $160 that started me on this bender.  But be that as it may, just look at the damage I've done:


Now how on earth did I do all of that in just about a month's time?

Obviously, as those of you who are fans yourselves can tell from the spines, quite a lot of my winnings went toward fleshing out my Girls Gone By collection—including quite a number of now out-of-print titles, some of them lucky finds at quite bargain prices (and some distinctly not at bargain prices):


I don't imagine that most of these will get their own reviews, or else my blog will be even more derailed onto school stories than it already has been, but I will say that I just finished Dorothea Moore's The Only Day Girl a few days ago, and was absolutely charmed by it.  Completely far-fetched in many ways (a girl climbing down the chimney of a burning room to get the window open and rescue another girl who has passed out from the smoke—what's unrealistic about that???), but good fun and surprisingly sensitive in the presence of a major character who is blind but fiercely independent and capable.  Perfect brain candy. 

(I hesitate to even admit that there are at least five more Girls Gone By books winging their merry way across the pond to me as I write this—definitely a moratorium on GGB books must be declared, at least until I've had a chance to catch up a bit!)

I also picked up two non-GGB books that fit the theme.  One was reprinted by GGB, though I found it in an adorable, earlier paperback edition:


And the other seems to have provided the name to GGB's "Fun in the Fourth" series:
  

And I do love looking at publisher ads for other books, so I have to share the back cover of the Breary book as well:


I picked up three more Chalet School books in a recent Awesome Books order (carefully chosen from among the paperback reprints that were unabridged and/or only slightly edited):



And then there was this rather exciting acquisition:


I wrote enthusiastically about Margaret Hassett's Sallypark a while back, and was excited to discover that she also wrote two novels for adults that were apparently set in a school.  I'm still in hot pursuit of the first, Educating Elizabeth, but Beezer's End is the sequel written more than a decade later, and it's now waiting patiently on my TBR shelves.

What would a book buying spree be without a few Greyladies thrown in for good measure (including another set in a school):


Bargain-hunting has also paid off in the past few weeks.  Those $1 book sales on the steps of the San Francisco Public Library, which are now a mere two blocks away from my new job, are clearly going to crowd my bookcases:


I've been thinking of reading the Bel Kaufman book—an American school story (of sorts) for adults, set in a rough inner-city high school in the 1960s, which became a massive bestseller when it first appeared in 1964.  For $1, how could I pass it up?  I was also interested in the Connie Willis story collection, as the title story is her first to feature time-travelling historians visiting London during the Blitz.  And as for the Iain Pears book, well, what can I say?  I'm a sucker for his art historian mysteries.

A visit to Berkeley last weekend also paid off in spades—but at bargain prices—at the Friends of the Berkeley Public Library bookstore:


I was delighted to find this lovely and absolutely pristine Crime Club edition of Agatha Christie's The Pale Horse (a nice replacement for the beat-up old copy I had before).  And for those who have never heard of him (probably a good number of you), Donald Ogden Stewart was an American novelist, humorist, and screenwriter whose prose was a bit like Dorothy Parker on laughing gas—zany, nonsensical, and great fun through and through.  The book, from 1923, has amusing illustrations and rather lovely endpapers:


Both of those books were in a section set aside, basically, for decoratively old books, and the grand total for them both was < $5.

And somehow I had forgotten that I had old trade credits at not one, but two, second hand bookstores in Berkeley, so I thought I'd see what I could find.

First, for a mere $4, I came across this boys' title by an author I only recently added to my list:
  

The fact that it had a list of similar titles on the back cover may have contributed to its irresistibleness:


Then I found two books distinctly outside the usual scope of this blog, but they're among my favorites and I didn't have decent copies of either:


(If you've never read one of Markson's late "novels," you may or may not love them as I do.  They are basically about an obsessive writer remembering or assembling all the bits of literary trivia he has accumulated over a lifetime of reading, while at the same time musing about the tragic ends of writers and artists and his own approaching end.  Perhaps a bit bleak, almost entirely plotless, and hardly qualifying, except in the most postmodern way, as novels as all, but I find them wonderful bedside reading for all of the fascinating tidbits of information they contain. I might have to write more about Markson in the future...)

And finally, last but certainly not least, I was in search of a way to spend my whopping $8 credit at Shakespeare & Company.  I was eyeing a couple of nice old Angela Thirkells, and I got Andy to take a pic of the lovely author photo and bio from the back of one of them:


But as soon as I came across this book, I knew my decision was made for me:
  

It's become increasingly rare for me to just stumble across new authors for my Overwhelming List in bookstores, so it was an exciting moment anyway, but realizing that the book sounded genuinely interesting made it even more exciting.  And looking at the author pic and bio on the back piqued my interest even more:


How on earth had I missed for so long knowing that Mrs. James Mason wrote several novels in the 1940s?  I have a feeling that this one will warrant a review of its own before long, so mum's the word on it except to say that I'm eager to finish this post so I can go on reading it…

Oh, dear.

My name is Scott and I am a biblioholic.

18 comments:

  1. Will be interested to see what you think of The Day of Small Things.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm looking forward to it. Believe it or not, although I have another O. Douglas on my shelf, I still haven't read any of her work.

      Delete
  2. What a lovely collection, and there's no shame about biblioholism (?). I do think The Pale Horse is quite an underrated Christie. I think it is very clever - and the social detail is fascinating.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I remember enjoying Pale Horse very much, Vicki, mainly because of the presence of Ariadne Oliver, but that was a fair number of years ago, so I'm looking forward to revisiting it.

      Delete
  3. The Day of Small Things is one of my favourite books! I hope you like it. It's a companion volume to The Proper Place.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I didn't realize there was a companion volume. That sounds like an excuse for another book purchase to me!

      Delete
  4. My goodness. Scott, you certainly got a "lot of bang for your buck!" I cannot believe you didn't spend more than $160.00. You don't say - which were the two Thirkells, and how could you have passed them up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I did read "Up the Down Stair Case," and saw the movie, too, and enjoyed them both very much. Sandy Dennis (God rest her soul) was perfect as the "heroine!" Tom

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well, truth be told, Tom, I might have gone a bit over the $160, but thinking of how to spend those winnings was what got me started on it all. I actually can't recall now which two Thirkells they were. I think one was a later one and the other was one I already have, but that doesn't tell me much.

      Delete
  5. P.S. P.S. OMG, OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I just looked up Pamela Mason and found that her birth name was actually Pamela Ostrer, and Kellino was the surname of her first husband - I guess at the time she hadn't tumbled to the fact that she'd achieve much greater fame as James Mason's wife! Lord have mercy, the things I learn from rading your blog! Tom

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ah, you've already started doing my research for me, Tom!

      Delete
  6. Those are fantastic finds - the Calvino is one of my favourite books ever. Really, any kind of financial windfall simply has to be spent on books. I guess you know that often the Armada and the like versions of books were edited down - fortunately the Enid Blytons I read in my youth were still the uncensored ones. You have to be so careful about which ones you buy!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The three Chalet School books were apparently among the ones that Armada published in more or less complete and unedited form. But, I did wonder about the Monica Edwards. It's a cute little book, and apparently hard to find, but I wonder if it's a complete version of the book.

      Delete
  7. Well, Scott, there's a lot to be said for unbridled bookaholism. But where, WHERE? are you going to put them all?

    By the way, I find something a little off, a little unsettling, in the Fun in the Fourth cover art. They don't really look like schoolgirls. More (sorry) like aliens trying to pass as schoolgirls.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I certainly agree with you, Susan--there are some truly terrible covers for girls' school stories. These do appear to be the Stepford Schoolgirls (but the book is quite enjoyable!).

      Delete
  8. Scott, You've obviously gone off your twelve step program and none of us could sponsor you and mentor you out of your backsliding.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I am trying to rein it in a bit now, Linda, but I don't know if I'll succeed. I suppose I'll have to hit rock bottom (i.e. splurge a bit more) before I can hope to sober up again?

      Delete
  9. I guess I feel a little better about the chunk I laid down at our local indie bookstore today. I do enjoy reading your blog. I just discovered it recently. My name is Jessica and I am addicted to all books realy, but especially those written in the UK.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Jessica, and welcome to the blog. While I occasionally regret spending too much money on books (i.e. I could really use the money for something else), I very rarely regret the books themselves. And by splurging at an indie shop, you've helped a local business thrive, so I don't really see how you COULD have resisted!

      Delete

NOTE: The comment function on Blogger is notoriously cranky. If you're having problems, try selecting "Name/URL" or "Anonymous" from the "Comment as" drop-down (be sure to "sign" your comment, though, so I know who dropped by). Some people also find it easier using a browser like Firefox or Chrome instead of Internet Explorer.

But it can still be a pain, and if you can't get any of that to work, please email me at furrowed.middlebrow@gmail.com. I do want to hear from you!