shhhhh…don’t tell finn
It is a pre-war flat top Corona “Silent”. There are a couple of small dings in the lacquer, and it needs to be cleaned up a little, but it is a beautiful typewriter that works well. She loves typing on my Smith-Corona “Clipper”, so I think she is going to like having a typewriter of her own.
…and there began a long period of numerical agonizing
…and so many books in the boxes, stacks, and shelves of the thrift stores and library book sales. This week’s thrift store books scores include:
- Catch-22 a novel by Joseph Heller. “There was only one Catch…and that was Catch-22.” A lovely but battered old copy with a perfectly centered “discard” stamped inside the cover.
- Biggest Riddle Book in the World by Joseph Rosenbloom and illustrated by Joyce Behr. I bought this as a present for Fallie’s birthday later this month, but I am constitutionally unable to withhold presents until the appropriate time. Surprise presents are better anyway. Fallie loves the book.
- Gilead by Marilynne Robinson.
- Atonement by Ian McEwan. Atonement and Gilead have been on the shelf for a month; I am not really sure why I didn’t buy them earlier. The premature best-of lists for the aughts that have sprouted up lately feature both of these prominently.
- The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien. A pristine paperback with a Peter Sis cover.
- The Lord of the Rings: One Volume Edition by J.R.R.R. Tolkien. An Infinite Jest sized paperback containing the entire trilogy and featuring a Peter Jackson cover. I bought these two Tolkien books because the blond monkeys loved The Edge Chronicles, and sooner or later they will be seeking them out.
- Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger. This is a cute little British paperback edition that originally cost 45p. It is my second copy of Franny and Zooey this month, but it was tagged with the color of the day so fate had spoken.
- “As nearly as possible in the spirit of Matthew Salinger, age one, urging a luncheon companion to accept a cool lima bean, I urge my editor, mentor, and (heaven help him) closest friend, William Shawn, genius domus of The New Yorker, lover of the long shot, protector of the unprolific, defender of the hopelessly flamboyant, most unreasonably modest of born great artist-editors, to accept this pretty skimpy-looking book.”
- The Gatefold Book of the World’s Great Warplanes. Featuring kick-ass four page centerfold style pictures of fighter planes. I will probably give this to one of the boy neighbors eventually, but for now I get to play with it.
…so many potentially lethal creatures in the shallows and the depths
…and so many books in the boxes, stacks, and shelves of the thrift stores and library book sales. This week’s thrift store books scores include:
- Wild, Wild World of Animals: Dangerous Sea Creatures. This includes text selections from Jaws by Peter Benchley, Kon-Tiki by Thor Heyerdahl, The Living Sea by Jacques-Yves Cousteau, and Toilers of the Sea by Victor Hugo among others. It also has some incredible illustrations including a schematic drawing of dangerous creatures arranged by the oceanic zone they inhabit. This is a birthday present for Fallie, so don’t mention it to her.
- The Complete Nonsense of Edward Lear edited by Holbrook Jackson (hardcover). “A was an ape, Who stole some white tape, And tied up his toes, In four beautiful bows.”
- The Crossing by Cormac McCarthy (hardcover). I have a troubled relationship with The Border Trilogy, but we won’t discuss that.
- All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy
- Franny and Zooey by J. D. Salinger (hardcover). I have not read this one in years.
- No Heroics, Please by Raymond Carver. A collection of the previously uncollected.
- The Devil and All His Works by Dennis Wheatley (hardcover). An illustrated survey of the forces of Darkness published in 1971.
don’t be a meanie, buy a weanie or today’s thrift store book score
- Managing Ignatius:The lunacy of Lucky Dogs and life in New Orleans by Jerry E. Strahan (His account of two decades as manager of a street dog empire in the French Quarter. I don’t know how I missed hearing about this book. I hope it is good.)
- Sailing Alone Around the World by Captain Joshua Slocum (A firsthand account of the first solo sailing voyage around the world in 1895)
- A Song of Stone by Iain Banks
crow spirit circle of life thrift store (cameraphone, Dawson County, Georgia)
kirk and katie
This is my favorite piece of lingerie my wife owns. She looks like pure sex when she is wearing it. I bought it at a thrift store in central Ohio almost twenty years ago and I wore it for years. Now it has the texture that only a twenty year old cotton t-shirt can have. The fabric is so thin that it only flirts with opacity. It is perfect.
My imaginary friend Andy asked me to write something about thrift store t-shirts for a project he is doing and I did.
I wish it were possible to extract the story behind this t-shirt by spinning it rapidly in some sort of device.
(via the Kingsport, Tennessee Salvation Army thrift store)
I have had this book The Eclectic Guide to Health: With Special Reference to the Nature of Alcoholic Drinks and Narcotics and their Effects upon the Human System for about 13 years now. I think it cost me 50 cents originally. It was published in 1886 by a temperance society in Cincinatti and it is in pretty bad shape but it has some nice color plates in it that I have planned to frame for about 13 years now. I finally framed one of them for my father-in-laws Christmas present. It illustrates the effects of alcohol on the brain of a young man who started drinking at the age of 12. I got the frame at a thrift store in Norcross last week and the mat at Michaels. Total cost for 120 year old framed color print: $6.50. I hope he likes it.
