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January 25, 2006
A trip to Half Price Books
Had 30 minutes after Adoration last Friday before I had to pick up McKid from preschool. That's one of those awkward bits of time; not enough time to go home, too much time to sit in the parking lot. So I stopped by a Half Price Books that's half way between the church and the school.
Now, I had been really good the last few times I had poked around the store--buying only 2 books that I needed to take to McKid's preschool as a Christmas gift. Three times I had been in the store, three times I had walked out with nothing.
Not this time. The first book I bought was The Full Cupboard of Life, the fifth book in Alexander McCall Smith's No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series. This I had been looking for--and to find it for $4.95 in pristine condition (who read this book? The spine's not even bent!) was a lovely surprise.
Then to the clearance corner--my downfall--because who can resist books for $1 each? OK, I can resist all the romance novels and trash, but for a buck there are a lot of others to try! So for a buck apiece I came home with Josephine Tey's Brat Farrar, Rafael Sabatini's Scaramouche, and Oscar Hijuelos' The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love.
Good grief! A dollar is less than what I usually pay in library fines for a book. (Just ask my mother. She is convinced that they built an additional wing onto our hometown library just from the late fees we had to pay for my books when I was growing up.)
So, my resolve to buy nothing new was broken in the face of "buck a books". At least I know what the price of my temptation is.
It's not very comforting to know it's only a dollar.
Posted by MamaT at January 25, 2006 9:51 AM
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