Blankbaby

Over the course of the last few weeks I’ve found myself in a variety of situations in which I had the opportunity to purchase some books. If you know me I rarely turned down the offer to buy myself a book or two (in any format that I can get my grubby little hands on), so I thought I would share a list of books I’ve recently added to the Blankbaby Manor Library and from whence they came.

Raven Used Books

Marisa and I spent a few days visiting with our friends Becky and Eric in Northampton, MA. I always enjoy our visits because Becky and Eric are good people… and Northampton is home to a few very nice bookstores. Raven Used Books has a great selection of used books at reasonable prices, though I only ended up purchasing one book this time around (plus a t-shirt):

• This Alien Shore: I read the Coldfire Trilogy and quite liked it (years and years ago though so I have no idea what they were about) so I thought I would give this book a try.

Broadside Books

Broadside Books, just down the street from Raven Used Books, is a fantastic independent bookstore. I know there are differing opinions about whether one is obligated to support independent bookstores or not but I feel like I should buy a book or two whilst I’m there. Now, I’ll only buy a book from the store if they have something I want (obviously) and if I feel like the store is worth supporting. Broadside certainly is, so I picked up a book there:

• The Death Instinct: A mystery set in 1920’s New York City. Need I say more?

Odyssey Bookshop

Marisa is a published author now (buy her book) and she’s put together her very own book tour (I’ve found that few people care to meet the geek behind their favorite tech books, so no tours for me). One of the first stops on the tour, and the secondary reason for our visit to Northampton, was at the Odyssey Bookshop. Marisa’s demo and signing was a huge success (they sold out of her book!) but sadly my shopping wasn’t as successful.

The bookshop has two levels. Marisa’s demo was on the second floor so as we walked in I scoped out what looked like a pretty good science fiction section. However, I was there to help with the demo and take pictures and not browse the wares. By the time the demo was over the store was closed, so I had to limit my purchases to a few books I saw on the second floor:

• Just My Type: A Book About Fonts: Who doesn’t like fonts? This book is very well designed and I look forward to reading it.
• Maisie Dobbs: I’d never heard of the Maisie Dobbs series but the description hooked me.
• A People’s Guide to the Federal Budget: Becky, who hosted us in Northampton, helped write this book and I like to support my friends whenever I can (yes, friends, this is a passive aggressive reminder that you should feel free to purchase my books!). Plus it is probably a good idea to know how the Federal budget works and stuff.

PennMOVES

I work at Penn (specifically the Wharton School) and I really enjoy it. I tried the whole corporate thing at Comcast and I just wasn’t cut out for it (I totally told them it was me not them… but I think it was a tiny bit them too). There are many benefits to working at a University: lots of time off, being surrounded by smart people, and a lovely setting. Also, the students leave every summer and in their wake are many nice possessions that they’ve cast off. Penn, being home to many smart people, realized that instead of having the students throw away all the crap they don’t want to haul home with them why not collect it all and sell it, and give the proceeds to GoodWill? Thus PennMOVES was born, and thus why I was awake at 7am on a Saturday and in a rather industrial building at 8:30am wading through a thicket of people.

The PennMOVES price list mentioned that all books were a dollar a pop, which excited me. I made a beeline to the books room only to fine that many professional book resellers had beaten me there. How did I know they were book resellers? They all had iPhones with scanners attached to them and were scanning every book they could find. The ones with high resale value were tossed into bags and the low resale books were tossed back onto the pile.

I wasn’t interested in the high value books (i.e. textbooks) I just wanted some cheap novels, however, I worried that there wouldn’t be much overlap between my reading interests and those of the average Penn student. I rummaged around the books for 30 minutes or so and managed to find a very good haul (and it only cost me $12):

• On Writing: Stephen King’s classic take on writing. Marisa already had a copy but for a buck why not?
• The Man Who Invented the ComputerI like computers and I like Jane Smiley. This book is a slam-dunk.
• The King’s Peace: I am generally over fantasy but Jo Walton is one of those authors whose books I buy even if I am not interested in the genre (plus the price worked in the book’s favor).
• Cosm: It would seem that many Penn students who leave books behind aren’t into science fiction, so I felt the need to buy whatever scifi books I found. Benford won out on this one (though he’ll not make a cent off this transaction).
• The City and the Stars: I haven’t read all that much Clarke (2001 and some of the Rama books about cover it), and this seemed like an interesting book (and it was written at a time when a short novel was ok. Now everyone needs to write at least 400 pages).
• The Door into Summer: A Heinlein time travel book with a wacky cover. Sold.
• The Complaints: Ian Rankin is one of those authors whose work I want to read but I haven’t gotten around to it.
• Kosher Chinese: I like Chinese food and I’m married to a Jew.
• Mr. Wilson’s Cabinet of Wonder: Picked this one up based on the name alone.
• Tastes of Paradise: This seemed like something Marisa would like, and since she was off looking at other tidbits in the sale I picked it up for her.
• The Iron Lady: Having recently watched the movie of the same name I was intrigued by the book.
• Murder for Christmas: I’m trying to educate myself in the mystery genre so why not read some stories by a master?

Amazon

Yes, I realize how ironic it is to list all these books from rummage sales and independent bookstores and link to Amazon, but I also buy my fair share of books at Amazon. In fact, for some reason Amazon sent me a $37 gift certificate which I blew on the following Kindle books:

• The Inquisitor
• On the Head of a Pin
• The Alchemist of Souls
• Inventing Modern
• Ray of Light