Books!

Last week, when I got stuck in Friday traffic for about 2 hours (freeway was so slow so I figured I'd take the side streets according to my GPS and I ended up in Compton/Watts area for a whole lot longer than I would have if I had stayed on the freeway), I decided to stop by a Goodwill store to shop their books.

After finding about 8 books to haul over to the counter and wondering why none of them had prices on them - they had price tags, just no prices indicated on them - I was shocked to discover that this particular store based the sale price on the publisher's price on the book cover. So, a paperback that was originally $7.95 would be $2.99, and anything that was over $15 would cost you over $7.

I think that's outrageous! I took them all back and kept only one small paperback by Tami Hoag, Dust to Dust, and even that dinged me $2.99 plus tax. Highway robbery, I tell you.

So yesterday, stuck in the PCH traffic from my studio to home, I decided to give my "real" favorite thrift store a try - Salvation Army. They're pretty straightforward. Prices are on the covers and the prices range from $1 for a paperback, $2 for those larger paperbacks, and $3 for hardcovers. Besides, I'm tired of sitting in traffic. Just that morning, I drove to client's house 40 miles away for 1.2 hours and then to my office 29 miles away (same direction as home, though, not farther away) for a speedy 40 minutes (I was lucky. The 405 south wasn't as packed as it would have been if I had waited another 2 hours. So a few minutes at the Salvation Army's book section was a perfect respite from Los Angeles traffic.

So, I ended up with a lot of books and I can't wait to dive in and read all of them! I just wish they were all audiobooks and I can listen to them while I knit or spin!

My score, so far:

Possession, A Romance, by A.S. Byatt - $1
The Other Boleyn Girl, by Philippa Gregory - $2
Wicked, by Gregory Maguire - $1 (this was a large book, btw, but the clerk was nice enough to label this and another unmarked large book $1) I saw the Broadway play and it was wonderful, but I always love to read the original source! Lots more information than one can include in a 2 hour play.
Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed, by Jared Diamond - $2 (This title seems to reflect our current economical situation, don't you think?)
The Wheel of Darkness, by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child (hardcover) - $3 (I was really hoping to find "The Relic" but I'll settle for this one for now. I did see them have "The Reliquary" so I may just return and get that, too)
False Memory, by Dean Koontz - $1
The Mummy Congress, the Science, Obsession, and the Everlasting Dead, by Heather Pringle - $3
Women Who Run with the Wolves, by Clarissa Pinkola Estes - $1 (I have this in hardcover and love it! But on paperback, it's perfect to slip into my knitting bag!)

TOTAL COST: $14 - not bad for a great selection of books that were also in wonderful condition! They're all going to find perfect homes (well, most of them - some of them are destined to be donated back to the Salvation Army) in my library.

I usually pick up cool knitting books when I visit thrift stores but lately, I haven't found any. But a score on non-knitting books works great for me, too. I definitely need it these days when all I hear and read in the news is how everyone on Wall Street is getting everything and then some, and how the current administration has no plan whatsoever to deal with this crisis. They talk about plans, and seem to execute said plans, but I'm talking about plans that actually work - not the ones that backfire on them, and the public - why no one in the administration foresaw the $165 million in bonuses to executives (some of whom received $4 to $6 million each) who then bailed out of the company afterwards is beyond my comprehension. So there. I'm also tired of all the rhetoric. I love to listen to NPR but lately I've been tuning it all off. It's depressing.

In the knitting front, I haven't done much knitting because my elbow has been acting up. Ever since I strained it from moving boxes in the garage over a month ago, it hasn't recovered. I can't knit for over half an hour without the elbow hurting - but, thank goodness for this - I can spin! So my WIP's have been languishing all over the place.

However, after discovering over 3 large trash bags filled with yarn conveniently hidden in my closet (away from DH's eyes - what he won't know won't bother him eh?), I have launched OPERATION STASHBUSTER. As long as I don't overdo the knitting, then I plan to knit a few rows each day and slowly get through the current projects and then move on to newer projects. After all, Christmas is only 9 months away. By Christmas, hopefully, I'd have birthed at least 20 projects.

Oh, ambition...