Bargain Books – Page 17

Yodelayheehoo! (The Very Persistent Gappers of Frip)

Lane Smith (of The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales, Hooray for Diffendoofer Day, The True Story of the Three Little Pigs and many others) is one of my all-time favorite illustrators, and I’ve got a growing collection of his books (mostly the result of foraging in bargain bins!).

I’d been eyeing the book The Very Persistent Gappers of Frip by George Saunders (illustrated by Lane Smith) at a specialty bookstore for ages. Earlier this year, I finally scored a copy at one of the book store sales for only P59!

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Trivia, trivia

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I’ve thrived on a steady diet of trivia books since childhood, because I’ve always been a sucker for useless information.

The compulsive book-finisher that I am, I like trivia books because I can read them in fits and starts, and I don’t have to worry about losing the storyline. They’re also great for cleansing the palate in between books, warding off boredom in the middle of a book thats difficult to finish, or getting some breathing spac (erm, procrastinating much?) while taking on a tedious task — in my case, that’s often writing, or painting.

I just finished four of these books around roughly the same time: Lang’s Compendium of Culinary Nonsense and Trivia by George Lang; The Book of General Ignorance (A Quite Interesting Book) by John Lloyd and John Mitchinson; The Monopoly Companion by Philip Orbanes and Rich Uncle Pennybags; and How to Become Ridiculously Well-Read in One Evening: A Collection of Literary Encapsulations compiled and edited by E.O. Parrott (books #162-165 for 2009). Continue reading “Trivia, trivia”

Loot!

It’s been a busy couple of weeks, and I hardly had time to sit down to blog over the weekend… or the past few days, as things are going crazy outside of my blogging life. But in the meantime, here’s a photo from our weekend raid at the Scholastic warehouse sale!

(Sorry, no warehouse photos, we just went ga-ga at the sight of the books… typical!!! Haha, when you’re with a pack of bargain book hunters, you have to move fast or miss out on the spoils! )

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The figures:

1 Sunday morning
1 warehouse sale
4 book addicts
2 hours of browsing
over 70 books
3 bags nearly splitting at the seams (at P795 each)

Totally exhausting, but so much worth it!

My loot:

Twelve books, coming down to a grand total of P360 (around US $7), petering out to P30 ($0.70) each. And four of them on my wishlist too!

Squee!

Am in the middle of composing a long-overdue review series, will have it up soon, I promise! :)

Vintage Parade! (Picture Book Roundup #9)

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It’s been months since my last picture book roundup, and I miss doing it, even though it takes a bit longer to put one together. I love picture books and have a growing collection of them, because buying them doesn’t make me feel guilty about adding to my TBR (hehehe!)

So far I’ve done eight picture book roundups this year (here they are if you want to check them out: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven and a special on The Three Little Pigs), and I’m aiming for at least ten for this year, so here’s another one.

Today’s roundup covers some vintage picture books I’ve acquired lately: An ABC of Children’s Names by Doris and Mary Ewen (facsimile of the Oxford edition); The Real Mother Goose (75th Anniversary Edition); Sam, Bangs, and Moonshine by Evaline Ness; Millions of Cats by Wanda Gag; and Curious George by H.A. Rey (books #145-149 for 2009).

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Match Me if You Can

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I remember reading a couple of Susan Elizabeth Phillips romances back in high school (historical, I don’t remember which), but I’ve never read any of her contemporary novels. I’ve been reading positive reviews about them, though, so when I spotted a hardcover copy of Match Me If You Can (#144 for 2009!) at a roving book sale last year, I decided to get it so I could check it out.

My plans to read this book got derailed when one of my sisters (the one based in Singapore) found the book on my shelf while she was on vacation here and took it with her, so I didn’t see it for a year or so until I reclaimed it when I visited her there a few weeks ago.

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