We had a bit of Book Fever these past couple weeks and the only cure was more books. Book Fever is a condition wherein you can’t get enough. Like a cocaine hophead doing lines off the back of the toilet lid in a scummy bar bathroom. Must. Find. More. Smelly. Old. Books.
It actually started slow. There is a 2nd and Charles near us. The physically closest bookstore. 2nd and Charles isn’t our favorite but for what they lack in quality they make up for in pricing. Plenty of books for a dollar. Sometimes even .50. This go around we got a little sampler platter; spy- Amblers, The Light of Day, sci-fi- Talking Man, horror- Voice of the Clown & Twilight Zone, fantasy- The Last Magicians, thriller- The Sky Block.
Our next stop was Bonnets where we always walk out with a stack of gold. We trade in our doubles and other random books we buy for trade and he always gives a hefty trade-in value. I’ll do a proper Bookstore Spotlight on Bonnets in the near future. As you can see, here is where our little snowball started to gain momentum. Lots of pulpy Spy and Men’s Adventure novels! Jack Higgins, Nick Carter, Death Merchant, Rat Bastards, Ted Mark, Phoenix Force, Roadblaster and three Edward S Aarons Assignment series. I only need two more and I’ll have the whole run.
Bonnets also has a great selection of hardboiled crime, noir, thriller and mysteries. I got a 1947 Bantam- Finders Keepers, Australian PI- White Meat, Carter Brown, a book called The Assassinator that I don’t know anything about but it looked cool, and a 1972 UK Pan book – The Malta Conspiracy. I always pick up any Pan book I see but they are few and far between. Also got a thriller, The Little Brother, “in the tradition of Silence of the Lambs.” Aren’t they all, my friend.
We got one horror- The Sisterhood. One porn book- Succubus Up. It looks to be some kind of demon fucking book. Muy Bueno. One non-fiction- The Santeria Experience. The wife loves witchcraft. Two sci-fi- Twice in Time by MANLEY Wade Wellman, which I got purely for the author and The Sleep Eaters which I got because I liked the cover. And one fantasy- Lord of Blood. Overall, a wonderful score from Bonnets. If you’re ever in the Dayton Ohio area I highly recommend it.
But that just wasn’t enough.
Next up was Dark Star Books in Yellowsprings, Ohio. Yellowsprings is a small little hippy town about 20 min outside of Dayton. Dark Star is another place in the area that is solid gold. They had many cool titles but we didn’t get too crazy as we were already buried in books for the week. We pulled Blood Offerings, The Dreamfields and Mantis out of the horror section. Got some sleeze- Penal Colony. The first Nolan book by Max Allan Collins. An Edgar Rice Burrows for a dollar. Alarm in the Night is a Fire Marshal detective story that I thought looked different and interesting. Shadow Girl is a sci-fi/horror book. The Sorcerers is a witchcrafty satan book. And last is Kyrik fights the demon world. Sensing a theme here? We love evil.
A few days later I had to drive to West Chester, Ohio to pick up some shirts for my screen print business. And I mean, while we’re down there we may as well stop at the Half-Priced Books. There are actually two in the same vicinity. This is the one in Mason. It was our first time at this location and though the horror section was average (Andrews/Koontz/King/Saul- you know the drill) the fantasy and sci-fi sections were packed with beautiful older paperbacks for cheap prices.
Sci-fi and fantasy- Wizard of Lemuria, Robert E Howard- The Moon of Skulls, two female fantasy authors- Asa Drake, Warrior Witch of Hel and J.F. Rivkin with the Silverglass series. That book even says on the back that it is a fantasy novel written by a woman, for women. Which is funny because look at the cover. Obviously, boner fodder for fantasy dudes but whatever, sell those books, girl.
Also got some cheap crime- The Remington Factor. A UK PI story from the 40’s repackaged for the 80’s- Love in Amsterdam. The Brownstone which was misfiled in the mystery section. The very first Rogue Agent. A few nonfiction- The Rocky Graziano autobiography, Voodoo in New Orleans and a beautiful hardcover double set about Egyptian Mummies. Also one classic- The Turn of the Screw and Daisy Miller by Henry James.
I thought we were done for the month, but we had to pass our local Half Priced Books in Beavercreek Ohio so might as well stop in, right? I mean, RIGHT?! Here we went for the super cheap. Deals only purchases. A few two-dollar spy books- Nick Carter, Morgan’s Assassin, Cairo Cabal and the Killing Season. I was very excited to find a book I was actively looking for, Cavender’s Balkan Quest. A part of a series I like. I did a review of another one on the blog that no one seemed interested in. HA! Good! More for me. Thriller- Enigma. Gothic horror- The Haunting of Drumroe. And another boxing biography- Rocky Marciano. I love boxing so, TKO. Also, in the picture is The Princess and the Goblin that was actually picked up at….
The Goodwill Outlet. We hadn’t been in a couple weeks and were driving by. It seems we have issues with self-control while driving by possible book finds. If you don’t know, a Goodwill Outlet is different from a regular Goodwill. It’s where all the stuff goes that doesn’t sell in the locations. Everything is in giant blue bins and for the most part, pretty gross to the touch. BUT they charge by weight, not by item. So, a big bag of paperbacks is like ten bucks. Oddly enough, we find stuff here consistently while in the regular stores we never find anything.
We got a few YA books- Goosebumps, The Time of the Witch and previously mentioned Princess and the Goblin. A couple sci-fi- Andre Norton. Men’s adventure- MIA Hunter. Empire Strikes Back novelization. Disaster- Gale Force. A very cool John D MacDonald. Cinnabar which I forget what it is. Sci-fi, I believe. Two westerns- Sundance and a very excellent Adult Western, The Scout. Also, one fantasy- Castaways in Time. We also picked up a bunch of books to trade into Bonnets. This is something I recommend everyone does to save some money for your book buying adventures. If you are in a place where books are very inexpensive, buy extra and trade them in at your local COOL bookstore for trade.
And that’s it for the month. See you next month.
Book Haul by Nick Anderson.
Instagram @next_stop_willoughby
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