Houston Public Library book sale

Yesterday I stopped by the Houston Public Library's annual book sale - they get rid of all the extra or worn out books in their libraries inventory...and if you go on Sunday morning of the sale, everything you can fit in a brown paper shopping bag is $10.

It's pretty awesome. But it's also a lot of sorting through 10,000 Danielle Steele and Nora Roberts novels to find those rare gems you might never have come across otherwise.

I didn't find quite as many gems this time around, but I still had a full bag and decent haul. A few music books, lots of new fiction. All in all, worth the trip, time and $10 - plus is supports the library.

I always seem to have a theme when I go bargain book shopping. Yesterday's? Books set in the 50s, 60s & 70s.

Here's what I scored:

Fiction
Scoop by Kit Frazier
London Calling by Deborah Grabien
The Seance by John Harwood
Purple Daze by Sherry Shahan
The Man Who Would be F. Scott Fitzgerald & The Woman Who Fell From Grace by David Handler
Scrapped Princess by Ichiro Sakaki
The Unquiet Night by Patricia Carlton
The Red Devil Battery Sign by Tennessee Williams
Bergdorf Blondes by Plum Sykes (my obligatory chick lit purchase...)
The Ruins of California by Martha Sherrill
Hotel No Tell by Dahne Uviller
Town House by Tish Cohen
The Muse Asylum by David Czuchlewski


Nonfiction
Inventing Late Night: Steve Allen and the Original Tonight Show by Ben Alba
On Record: Rock, Pop and the Written Word - ed. Simon Frith and Andrew Goodwin
The Show I'll Never Forget - ed. Sean Manning

The Help

 I was home sick with the flu last week. For most people, being home sick means lots of movies and TV. For me, it's always meant time to read books.

I'm already on my fourth book of the year thanks to last week. I finished the third Nikki Heat/Castle book (my one word review: eh) and decided I should finally read "The Help" - mostly so I can return it to the friend I borrowed it from and get back the books she borrowed in return.

About 10 pages in, I started wondering why in the WORLD I waited so dang long to read this gem. I'm always a year ahead or two years behind the curve when it comes to what's trendy reading. I remember my mom flying through this book when she read it in anticipation of seeing the movie.

I did the same. I couldn't put it down. Aibileen, Minny and Skeeter were such compelling storytellers, and though I could not accurately gauge for you whether their voices were legitimate in the troubled South at the height of the Civil Rights Movement, I can tell you this - they made me want to soak in every last word and keep reading to find out what happened to them. They reminded me why I love southern literature so much.

They became my friends.

I'm a third of the way through my next book, but I'm still thinking about these women. I feel like I haven't left Jackson yet. It's one of those books that sticks with you. I can't wait to read it again.

Things I Love Thursday

I remember a time when I used to be blog every day. It was a necessary part of my to-do list, just like eating, brushing my teeth or sleeping for 10 hours. Oh college, some days I miss you...

Things I Love Thursday

• Reading. More specifically, reading about social media. I ordered "Socialnomics" by Erik Equalman from Amazon a few weeks ago. This is one of the few books that's held my attention this summer. It's all about how social media has integrated into our businesses and lives. Very interesting stuff. It's making me want a social media job. I also got "The Facebook Effect" and the Social Media Bible, which is more of a resource guide.

It All Ends.

weheartit.com

You fail to recognize that it matters not what someone is born, but what they grow to be. - Albus Dumbledore

I was sitting in the hallway of my high school, waiting for driver's ed to start and sneaking glances at the boy in my group who I thought was cute. He was sitting against the industrial brick wall, deeply buried in his book. And I felt a little pang of jealousy.

He was reading "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone."

I had just come off a summer working my first real job. It was a very demanding position: part-time summer school receptionist at my junior high school. My favorite part of the job? Since there was a lot of downtime, I was allowed to read a book when I had nothing else to do - which was often because I was efficient. My mother had bought books 1-3 in the Harry Potter series, hoping my brother would give them a try and discover he loved reading.

Instead, her voracious reader of a daughter quite literally stole them all and devoured them in a matter of days, savoring every last word of this new, magical world she had stumbled into. I never wanted it to end, and I couldn't wait for more.