Although I don’t travel very often or very far, and I have never gone on any kind of “book buying trip,” I am definitely a happier traveller when I am able to steal time from the “real” purpose of any trip I might take to visit a few stores that sell used books. Last Friday, for instance, my wife, our son, and I drove from Regina to Calgary, via Saskatoon, to attend a wedding, and over the next few days, return trip included, I managed to spend a couple of hurried hours browsing through a thrift shop and four different bookstores… although, unfortunately for me, only three of the four sold used books that I could afford. The fourth — which is actually the store in Calgary that I visited first, and only because it was located near a comics and Magic card shop that our son wanted to visit — was clearly designed to appeal to upper-middle-class bibliophiles with discerning taste and deep pockets, i.e., not me. I was fairly happy with both the selection of books and the prices at the two “Fair’s Fair” used bookstores we visited in Calgary, however, and very happy with the selection and prices at the store that we stopped at, briefly, in Saskatoon on the return trip.
And so now, here I am, typing this post while sitting about a metre from two-dozen vintage paperbacks, all newly accessioned to my collection, including this one, with cover art by Jeffrey Jones, which has been on my “want list” for a few years now:
[CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE]
More later, of course!
Ragged Claws Network 