Bookstore Bonanza #1

I don't know how excited anyone's going to be to read another occasional/ongoing non-card series, but I'm gonna give it a go anyway. And I guess the folks that really don't like this, or the estate sale finds series that I just recently started, will probably not be too happy to know that I have two more series' of primarily non-card items in the works.

Before moving here a couple of years ago, one of the last things I expected to find was a used bookstore, let alone a really good used bookstore. I just didn't associate rural Tennessee with books.

To my knowledge, The Book Cellar also happens to be the only used bookstore anywhere near me, so I guess it's a good thing that's worth visiting on a semi regular basis. For lovers of variety, not only do they have a great selection of books, but they also carry magazines, CD's, DVD's, and my personal favorite, videos.

I've mentioned before that if I go somewhere that has VHS tapes, that is the section I will head to first 99% of the time. What I haven't mentioned before, is that I am also willing to travel fairly long distances just to go to a place that still has videos for sale, in fact I will be doing just that sometime in the next couple of weeks. Thankfully, I only have to drive about 1/2 an hour to get to the bookstore though.

At this point in my life, I really don't know if there is anything I enjoy more than searching through shelves/stacks of videos. I find it both, fun and relaxing. In a way, it also sort of feels like a form of time travel as well, taking me back to a time when VHS was king -- which in my mind, was a better time.

Since I have probably more books to read currently than I'll ever be able to get to, my sole purpose for going to the bookstore is almost always videos. At any given time they have around 200 or so to look through, so trying to go every other month usually ensures that, even with the sometimes slow turnover, I won't walk away empty-handed.

In case anyone hasn't figured it out yet, the posts in this series will more often than not, be VHS oriented. And just in case the one person reading ever sees something of interest, I will include not only the front of the box, but also the synopsis on the back as well.

So without further ado, let's see how well I did during last week's visit, in which I went hoping to find some stuff for the Halloween season:

Having never even heard of it before, I can tell this was going to really be one of those "hit or miss" movies for me, most like a miss, but it was still worth the chance.

I bought this one to be a backup copy as I already have it, also this one has a different cover than the one I already have, so that's always cool. For a movie you never hear about, I was surprised a couple of years ago when I first saw it, at just how good/funny it is.

One of the few Hitchcock movies I haven't seen.

 

I didn't include the synopsis on this one, as I'm assuming everyone is already familiar with Citizen Kane. I already have this in multiple formats, but this is a Nostalgia Merchant release, and they, along with GoodTimes , are/were my favorite video distributors.

I have never seen the original or the remake, so I figured it was about time to correct one of those wrongs. I probably won't ever bother with the remake though.

 

I had never seen or heard of this straight to video release before, but it looked pretty interesting. Having now watched it, I can say that, despite the weak storyline and the subpar acting, I rather enjoyed it... just don't ask me to try and explain why though.

 

I feel like I have spent most of my life trying to catch up with all the movies that came out before I was born, and even though I think I've done a pretty good job doing so, I still keep finding things that I should have seen by now... but haven't. All About Eve is a perfect example, I'm familiar with it, but just haven't ever gotten around to seeing it. Length wise, this will be a two-nighter for me.

 

Another one that has flown (pun) under my radar.

 

I hadn't seen it before, but here's another one I really enjoyed, not that I thought I wouldn't, as I like just about everything George Peppard ever did. I really liked how the timeline of this film took place over the entirety of the war. There are also some really great performances in here, most notably from, Capucine. Even George Hamilton, who will never be known for his acting ability, gave a good turn.

 

I did end up finding one Halloween related video, not one I would have expected, but that's part of what makes searching so fun. An out of print tape, this one is kind of hard to find outside of eBay. This video really made me nostalgic (even more so than usual) for Cartoon Network's early days.

And for an unexpected bonus:

There are a couple of boxes of free stuff in a shadowy nook off to the side of the entrance, that until this particular trip, I had somehow never noticed before. While waiting for my videos to be wrung up, I watched a girl that works there take one of their store shopping carts, that was full of items, out and start filling the boxes. So on my way out, I of course had see what these were all about.

They ended up being pretty bad, mostly old books on economics and other assorted snoozers. One of the boxes had just had a few loose videos added to it, unfortunately it was just a couple of 5-minute buns type titles. Underneath those though, was this loose Road To Bali DVD. I have seen all the Road to... movies, but didn't own any of them, so this was kind of neat to find for free. All in all, I considered this to be a very successful outing.


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