Saturday Snapshot January 15

Saturday Snapshot is a meme hosted by Alyce at At Home with Books. All you have to do is "post a photo that you (or a friend or family member) have taken and then leave a direct link to your post in the Mr. Linky on [her] blog. Photos can be old or new, and be of anything as long as they are clean and appropriate for all eyes to see. How much detail you give is up to you." All she asks is that you don't just post random photos that you find online.







This is a photo of one of my all-time favorite places--best used bookstore ever! Unfortunately, Mr. Mason has retired and Mason's Rare & Used Books is no more. But, oh the memories, of shopping at his book store. This photo was taken of the 2nd incarnation of Mason's here in Indiana. He had his beginnings in my hometown and I used to walk downtown every Friday with my allowance money expressly to hand it over to Mr. Mason in exchange for those wonderful objects, books. That little business arrangement held until the end of high school when he decided to move East and try his luck in Pennsylvania, because, as he said, "So many of the rare books didn't make it over the Appalachian Mountains." About ten years later or so, he returned to Indiana and set up this shop, near Indy. Even though I had to travel about an hour (instead of a 15 minute walk) to get there, I made many trips before he finally closed up shop for good. I have yet to find another used bookstore or bookseller as good.

Thrills & Chills

Starting on a new book (what a surprise!): This time I'm going for Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Stories My Mother Never Told Me [1st Edition, Dell Pocket size, 1965--another library book sale coup]. I love these little pocket size books that came out from the late 1930s to 1960s. In fact, I had great plans to scoop up a whole slew of them back in 2007. I'd been promised a "blank check" at Mason's Rare & Used Books in Lebanon as an anniversary present from my husband. We had just discovered (in the previous year) that Mr. Mason once again owned a used bookstore in Indiana. (I lived at the original Mason's when I was growing up in Wabash.) After a couple of trips to buy small amounts of books (and watching me gaze longingly at the substantial section of pocket editions), Brad told me about my present. I was ecstatic...book lover's heaven...with visions of armloads of pocket size mysteries being carted out to the car, I couldn't wait to get to Lebanon to find......the store absolutely empty. Shelves gone....all the glorious books vanished.....I think my agonized yelps could be heard all the way back to Bloomington. I still wonder where all his stock went and whether I could get my hands on those little editions.




But, I digress...back to Hitchcock. I went through a major Hitchcock collection phase when I was in late elementary school. I read anthologies with titles such as Stories Not for the Nervous and Stories to Be Read with the Door Locked. My mom got a little worried about me and my spine-tinglers--especially when it came time for the Young Authors conference (for which all 5th & 6th graders had to make books) and I submitted a collection of short stories featuring ghosts and swamp monsters and things that go bump in the night. She didn't think that quite the thing....

So, full of nostalgia for those days of freaking my mom out more than the stories ever freaked me out...I'll be settling in with my Hitchcock tonight. With the lights on full and hoping that the scratching noise at the window is just the neighbor's cat and not whatever creepy-crawlie is featured in the latest story.

Library Book Store Rocks

I love our local library. I love it's three-times weekly book store where I can pick up gently used books and discards for very little. I love it even more when I can pick up a first-edition Golden Age mystery. Like I did today--came out of there with a nice edition of The Moving Toyshop by Edmund Crispin. I already own the book in paperback, but I couldn't resist picking up a hard copy--especially a first edition. I think it's absolutely wonderful that I can find books that I like (just gotta have) and then pay just enough to make me feel virtuous about supporting my library. Good books and good karma...can't beat that combination.

Academic Mystery Addiction

Hi, my name is Bev and I'm addicted to academic mysteries. They leap from the shelves and out of bargain bins right into my hand. I can't fight it.

Case in point: My husband dragged me to Border's this afternoon.* He was in the mood to go look for the latest books from his favorite financial gurus (favorites subject to change without notice). So, I went. While waiting for him to exhaust the possibilities of the "Manage Your Own Finances" section, I browsed the bargain bin. That was my undoing. How could I resist the first line of the back cover blurb: "A star poet at Hebrew University with a history of lechery is beaten to death in his office." I mean, really, it had to come home with me.


*I'm sure that anyone who knows me will find it hard to believe that Brad would have to drag me into any bookstore. But the fact of the matter is, I'm a used bookstore kind of girl. New, shiny stores just don't have all that much appeal for me--particularly when I know I can walk out of a used bookstore with 4-5 books for the cost of one that's new. And...I'm just not gonna find what I want in Border's or Barnes & Noble. I'm generally on the hunt for little-known Golden Age mysteries (preferably first editions). Not going to find those waiting patiently on the shelves of a place with a Starbucks cafe sitting in the corner.