book sale haul

I had a grand day at a giant used-book sale that helps fund public libraries in the next town over. Spent the entire morning there, happily getting a crick in my neck and shoving a box that gradually got heavier, along the floor with my foot. I haven't done this kind of thing in three years (after all, there are still over a hundred and fifty unread books in my bedroom) so it felt like quite a splurge. I always try to be really picky, but of course you can't beat the price or the cause, so...

Found these which I've been wanting to read- quite a few are on my current TBR. The top two I've just heard about somewhere- the name Pyewacket is so lodged in my memory I must have heard of it when I was a kid, I really feel like it was mentioned by a character in another book, but no idea which. Whatever You Do, Don't Run is a book I saw in a shop during travels, more than a year ago. A few gardening books I've seen on other blogs, George Adamson's book I've been wanting to read since I finished The Searching Spirit and of course I have to mention Wendell Berry! My father is a big fan of Wendell Berry and has been telling me to read his books for years now, but I never got around to it yet. This is the very title that has been recommended to me. (Now I'm going to feel obligated to read it soon since I mentioned it here!)

These books I grabbed because I know the authors. The top one is My Way Was North by Frank Dufresne (author of No Room for Bears, a book I recall from growing up- it's on my dad's shelf). I've always wanted to read more Nevil Shute, more Norah Lofts (the one you can't read the spine of is her A Wayside Tavern). I can't believe I found a book by Attenborough. I love his films, haven't read any of his writing yet.

And these books I just got because they looked interesting! Snapper is fiction featuring a guy who studies birds. A few gardening books in here (memoir type), a book on aquarium fish. Roadrunners just because I don't know much about them. What's That Pig Outdoors? is about the author's experience with blindness.

These I already own but I wanted to replace some old falling-apart mass market paperbacks. It's becoming more and more common that I spot dear favorites at the books sales. I always want to snatch them up and buy them so I can give them to someone, but I just couldn't afford to. But one I pulled out from the press of spines and left it sitting faceup across them all. Maybe someone else will notice it and take it home and find out how good it is- Dalene Matthee's Circles in A Forest. Someday I will read it again and write about here. I still remember distinctly a day in high school when I was reading this in class (sitting in a mobile classroom because the buildings were being remodeled- it was hot) and the teacher plucked up my book to comment on it in front of the class. He asked me to tell everyone what it was about but I was rather tongue-tied!

Not pictured: four books I got for my kid.