This quote is becoming more and more true for me all the time. "Hello, my name is Emily and I am a book-a-holic."
Don't believe me? I've gone to Half Price Books twice today. I managed to score 19 books for just over $30. But, while I am becoming a HPB groupie, a few things have come to my attention. First, I find book buying to be an intense, solitary activity. I like to look for books in silence, look at the type, imagine myself reading them, go extremely slowly through every single book in the literature section. I pay intense attention to detail and have a list of books that is constantly growing of things to watch for. Second - I am extremely frugal. I go through every single copy of a certain book to find the cheapest (yet still readable) edition. I have scored some amazing deals this way, but it is something that can't be done without patience or with company. Third, I am obsessed with books....and my list keeps growing!
Check out my haul today!
First, a trip this afternoon with my cousin scored me:
Swann's Way - Marcel Proust ($4.48 - this killed me a bit, but the copy is gorgeous, was the only copy available, and it is in impeccable condition)
Beloved - Toni Morrison ($2.00 - on clearance, the original HPB price was $6.98)
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides ($2.00 - on clearance, the original HPB price was $7.49)
The Picture of Dorian Gray and Other Stories - Oscar Wilde ($1.99)
Siddhartha - Hermann Hesse ($1.98)
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte ($1.98)
Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky ($1.48)
Emma - Jane Austen ($1.25)
A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens ($1.13)
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer - Mark Twain ($.98 -- less than a dollar!)
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain ($.48 -- less than fifty cents!)
The Jungle - Upton Sinclair ($.30 -- yes THIRTY CENTS. A personal best, ever. So proud of this!)
Total: 12 books for $21.07 -- average $1.75 per book
Second, a trip this evening in perfect solitude:
Dead Souls - Nicolai V. Gogol ($6.98 - this killed me a LOT but the print is perfect, the pages are still the perfect creamy white color, the copy is in impeccable condition and the cover is GORGEOUS. I fell in love.)
The Canterbury Tales - Geoffery Chaucer ($1.75)
Four Great Plays by Chekhov - Anton Chekhov ($.88 -- less than a dollar!!)
The Inferno - Dante ($.88)
Billy Budd, Sailor and Other Stories - Herman Melville ($.82)
The Iliad - Homer ($.38 -- what a steal)
Typee - Herman Melville ($.30 -- another THIRTY CENT score. woot!!)
Total: 7 books for $12.60 -- average $1.80 per book
Some Data:
Number of books total: 19
Number of books UNDER $10 - 19
Number of books UNDER $5 - 18
Number of books UNDER $2 - 15
Number of books UNDER $1 - 8
Number of books UNDER $.50 - 4
Books by Male Authors - 15
Books by Female Authors - 4
Genre: Classic Literature - 19
Sub-genre: Prose - 3
Sub-genre: Drama - 1
Sub-genre: Novel - 15
In the end, I am so ecstatic about my purchases! I don't even know where to begin... so, ready. set. READ!
No comments:
Post a Comment