Glad there's another garbage picker out there! Some of my
favorite books
have been found at garage sales, church bazaars and
fleamarkets, usually
this time of year. I scored a box of old pre-McGee John D.
MacDonald's at
a nickel apiece at a flea market a few years back. Another
fond memory is
hitting a church bazaar, and scooping up a shopping bag full
of paperbacks
from ther fities and sixties, including Evans' Halo series, a
bunch of
Shell Scotts, Robert Martins, Gaults, Ross Macdonalds and the
like, for a
quarter a piece. Thinking I had conquered the world, I
proudly marched to
the table where some sweet elderly volunteer was toting up
the purchases.
She started tallying my total, and then started to glance at
the books more
closely.
"Oh, my, sir," she says, "I couldn't charge you twenty-five
cents for this.
Why, that's almost as much as it was brand new! I'll charge
you a nickel,
okay?"
Because Montreal isn't a real collector's town, I've also
found some real
treasures at fair prices in used book stores, but I've had to
act fast.
There are just enough collectors out there to make sure stuff
doesn't stay
on the shelves long. I've been to some towns where there is a
real market
for older books, and the prices are sometimes ten times what
they are here.
Not that I'm a real collector; I just like readin' 'em.
Sure, it's easier to just pay the freight, and order online,
but there's a
real pleasure in stumbling across some rara-avis in a bin at
a drugstore,
or in a box of old school textbooks at someone's yard sale
down the street
on a warm summer day...
So, keep your eyes peeled....
Hmmmm...looking back over this, it's sort of a summery,
nostalgic, cozy,
warm, feel-good little message...let's see, okay, so I hit
her over the
head with a copy of Webster's Third, Unabridged, emptied the
cash, and
caught the number eight downtown....that better?
**************************************************
Kevin Smith
It's summertime, and the living is cheesy...What are you
reading this summer?
Tell us in this month's P.I. Poll on The Thrilling Detective
Web Site
http://www.colba.net/~kvnsmith/thrillingdetective/
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