Thursday, June 26, 2014

Huge Haul Part 3: The Golden Girls

The last part of the haul! This part is dedicated to the Golden Girls. The oldies but the goodies. The dusty ones.... you get the drift.

I love buying vintage books. They often have so much history to tell. You never know what you come across when flipping through old, used books. I once found a letter a grandmother wrote to her granddaughter. Really cute. If the books are signed by the previous owner I love to look him up online and try and find out who he was. It's so interesting.

The first book in the oldies category is Avalon by Anya Seton. I had never heard of it before but it's seems interesting and I love the cover. The story is set in Anglo-Saxon England, Iceland and Greenland. I really like stories set in viking times so this should be a fun read. 


The next book I got was Ship of Fools by Katherine Anne Porter. It's a story about a group of people sailing from Mexico to Europe. Apparently it's an allegory regarding Nazism and whatnot. This one might be a hit and miss for me, we'll see. 


Coming up next: another London book! This time it's a journal, Boswell's London Journal 1762-1763 to be exact. In this fine journal Boswell tells us, among other things, about when he contracts gonorrhea from his mistress Louisa. Charming read, I'm sure. He also meets Samuel Johnson (nothing to do with the gonorrhea, I hope) and later writes his biography.


I actually found that biography and bought it at the same place I got the Journal but not on the same trip there. Funny coincidence! The Life of Samuel Johnson by James Boswell is one of those old, tiny cute books that have really thin paper and tiny letters. I will probably never read it but I just couldn't not get it! 


Another one of those tiny books is Plays and Players, Essays on the Theatre by Bernard Shaw. Basically just a collection of Shaw's theatre essays. Pretty self explanatory, really.


And now for a real classic. Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell. I have seen the film and it's fantastic so I, naturally, have always wanted to read the book. It's supposed to be really good. The only problem I have is the copy I got is nothing special. But I figured if I liked it I would get a better copy later on. And it was so cheap! 


My first Wodehouse! I have always wanted to get into P.G.Wodehouse but never gotten around to it yet. But now I have a copy of Full Moon so I can get my Wodehouse on! I got this from the same guy that sold me The Passage (see previous post). Really cheap and in good condition, so yay! 


If you were living in Ireland in the late 1800's and early 1900's this next book would almost certainly be on your bookshelf. Knocknagow - or The Homes of Tipperary by Charles J. Kickham was one of the most popular books at that time. It was published in 1879 and you could almost safely say that everyone owned a copy. I love reading facts like these about books and I think this book will be really interesting.


Another biography made its way onto me shelves. The Animals Came in One By One by Buster Lloyd-Jones. Buster was apparently THE vet to go to in England and this autobiography tells of his work and life. It seems to be a really cute book.


Next up: a collection of crime stories. Best Stories of the Underworld was put together by Peter Cheyney. It's basically a collection of short crime stories (the underworld). I'm not heavy into crime stories but this looked cool.


I remember reading the next one in school and absolutely loved it (the only one in my class if I remember correctly) and the film was really great as well. It's Rebecca but Daphne du Maurier. I absolutely love this edition, it's just beautiful. 


And now, the last book. The pièce de résistance. The Works of Lewis Carroll. This thing is massive and contains not only stories but also games and puzzles. I have never read anything by Carroll so I can't wait to sink my teeth into this one!


Phew! That was long. This is the end of this haul but there will be more!
I really hope you liked it.


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