B is for books (and other things)

Continuing with my "flurry" of activity from a couple of weeks ago, today's post sees me going to one of the only events that I've come to look forward to on yearly basis, that being the Uplands Village community book sale.

I've written about this sale in years past, but since I don't think that anyone actually ever goes back and reads old posts from new links, I won't bother adding them. But the skinny, for those that are interested, is that the sale is held by the folks in the Uplands Village retirement community, which is located in the small (less than 600 people) town of Pleasant Hill, about ten miles up the road from me.

Uplands Village is kind of an exclusive little community, not in a gated sort of way, but it's been set up to where they don't have to worry about any undesirables moving in, and by that I mean, troublemakers, or people with troublemaking relatives that might think that they can just show up live out of their RV in someone's driveway. Because of these regulations (as well as some of the other amenities), this is a pretty desirable place to live, attracting residents from all over the world. Speaking from a personal standpoint, I really like the people that live there, most of them are highly educated, and most were successful in whatever line of work they were in, which makes for very interesting people to talk to.

The people in Uplands Village hold a couple of different sales each year, raising funds for the assisted living center that takes care of some of their needier residents, as well as things like their aquatic center. The book sale is the main event for me though. In the four years that I've been here now, I've gone to three of the book sales -- I missed last year's because I forgot about it!!!! Don't ask me how, I had been looking forward to it, and then the day of I just blanked it out, although I did technically remember it later in the morning, about two hours after it had started, but I knew that anything that I would be interested in, would've been gone by then, so I didn't even bother trying to go.

I was not going to forget about it this year though, especially since it was only a couple of days after my trip to McKay's and Red Rhino (already covered on the blog). I was so raring to go that I ended up getting there about forty minutes early, just in case the doors opened early, they didn't, but that's okay, I was there, and that's all that mattered. I was also #2 in line, so that was kind of exciting (it really wasn't, but I figured it was still worth mentioning).

Even though there's literally thousands of books at these sales, my primary interest is in the small amount of non-book items that they usually have (don't worry though, there are books in this post), DVD's, CD's, videos, records, etc. -- so once the doors finally opened, I made a beeline to where all of these things are set-up, which is just inside the entrance and to the right.

I thought initially that guy that was first in line would be heading that way too (he's a flipper), but he didn't, so I got the first crack. I could tell right away that there wasn't as much of the non-book stuff as there has been in previous years, a couple of things however did jump right out at me almost immediately, including the above Columbo movie collection. I never watched this show when I was younger, but with all of the never ending crap that keeps being produced these days, I'm finding myself becoming even more nostalgic than I already have been for shows and movies from the 70's-90's. I've had some pretty good luck with new-to-me shows as of late, Columbo now being one of them, I kind of wish that it hadn't taken me so long to give it a try.

The other two DVD's that stood out were these Carol Burnette Lost Episodes, which I believe came from a box set. It would've been nice to have been able to get the entire set, but these were better than nothing. I paid $6 total for the three DVD's, which isn't too shabby considering that between the three there's something like twenty hours worth of entertainment.

To my immediate left was a table of stuff, now that a few weeks have passed, I've already forgotten most of what was on said table -- save for the box of records (vinyl), that I do remember! In previous years, records were $0.25 each, this year though, they were 5/$0.25, I never finished my degree in mathology, but I believe that that comes out to roughly a nickel apiece :)

The pickings were slim this year, maybe 25-35 records in the box, but I can't not look! I ended up finding two of interest, even though it wasn't five, I still paid a quarter for them -- I'm not about to start nickel and diming these folks, that'd probably be a good a way to incur some bad juju, and I got enough of that already.

It might seem a little odd for someone like myself, who is perpetually single, to buy such an album? But what can I say, deep down, way deep down, I am a hopeless romantic! As for the record, not bad, much better than I thought it would be.

You can go ahead and keep those pithy comments to yourself :)

After the box o' records, it was finally time to hit the books (so to speak):

I have wanted to read this book since it came out, but have never come across a cheap copy, sometimes waiting pays off though, as I will be able to finally read it, and the ability to do so only set me back fifty cents.

This is probably a good time to mention that paperbacks were $0.50, and hardbacks were $1. Plus they always have a wall of specialty books which vary in price.

In years past, both the crafts, and hobbies, sections have yielded some very interesting books at this sale -- this year was no different, well, at least for one book. There wasn't as much stuff in these two sections this year, but this Block Printing with Linoleum sure stood out. I wasn't familiar with the technique (called linocut), but after reading about it, I plan to give it a go at some point in the not too distant future.

Michael Crichton's work has always been hit-or-miss with me, that being said, I am looking forward to reading this one, if only because it had apparently flown under my radar.

He doesn't seem to have a lot, but I really like James Rollins' standalone books (Ice Hunt is one of my favorite post-2000 books), the series' not so much. This is another one that I've been waiting to find a cheap copy of.

I went through a biography phase back in my late teens/early 20's, which saw me reading pretty much any biography that I could get my grubby little hands on, however, I've probably only read less than ten in the fifteen years since that phase passed.

I can't for the life of me remember the title anymore, but there's an out of print biography on Robert Ripley that at one time was my most desired item. I don't know if anything has changed, but it used to be terribly difficult to find, but after many years of searching, I finally found one, paid around $15 for it -- I lost pretty much all interest in biographies before I was even halfway through that book. I had admired his work through most of my childhood, so imagine my dismay when I found out what an a**hole he was, and at times, an absolute terror to everyone around him. After that book I decided that I really didn't want to know too much about those in the limelight anymore.

Despite all of that, there was no way that I could pass up this George Raft biography, I didn't even know such a book existed! There's no synopsis on the back (hence the no picture), but if you know who he was you'll probably think that this looks like it's going to be good -- and if you don't who he was (an actor, among other things), you're not going to care, so I don't know how important the synopsis actually is.

With that big yellow sticker on the front there's no need to guess where this book was originally sold, Dollar General, here they're like Starbucks back home, there's one on practically every corner.

My last book purchase was a big one, literally, it's huge! No synopsis again, but for lovers of history, this looks like a good one. Lots of old photos, posters, and other assorted memorabilia. Plenty of text too, it appears to be a lot wordier than most pictorials.

I am so glad that I didn't forget about the sale again this year, I had a lot of fun looking through everything, got some neat things, and was able to talk to some really interesting people -- and best of all, I only spent $10. Since I'm on a fairly tight budget these days, it's really nice to be able to go somewhere like this, and be able to get a bunch of cool stuff for not a whole lot of money.


Thanks for taking a moment to look at my page.