There are a few used book stores here in town.  Two are pretty good, one is so-so, and I’m not sure the fourth isn’t a front for something else.

Anyway, the one I consider the best is closing.  The owner doesn’t have a lease but owns the storefront.  As a result, he’s not in any hurry to shut his doors.  This is good, because he’s got a pretty thorough inventory.  It’s one of the great second hand stores where there are stacks of books in all the aisles, and a few minutes to see if a particular title is to be had turns into the better part of an afternoon.

I passed through the other day and picked up a few things.  At the moment everything is half off.  That percentage will increase as times goes on and the day the store shuts its doors for good draws nigh.  You know I’ll be going back.

The first picture shows the paperbacks.  (Click to see an enlarged image.)  Some of these were titles I’d considered buying for a while,  A while in the case Davy by Edgar Pangborn would be years.  Just never got around to it before.  There are half a dozen titles by David Gemmell.  I’ve read very little Gemmell, although I did have the privilege of meeting him at the 2000 WFC.

I don’t have the collection of Robert E. Howard’s westerns, at least I don’t think I do.  I’ve got The Bloodstone in the Nightshade edition of Wagner’s Kane novels.  I picked up Them Bones simply because it’s Howard Waldrop, and you can never have too much Howard Waldrop.  Petaja I’ve not read before, but these look intriguing.  They’re based on the Kalevala, which is a series of Finnish folk tales. I know very little about it, but it looks interesting.

I grabbed P. C. Hodgell’s God Stalk on the basis of the review Fletcher Vredenburgh’s review of it over at Black Gate.  Keneth Bulmer wrote the Dray Prescott series of sword and planet novels under the pen name of Alan Burt Akers.  I’ve been reading the first of the series on my phone (review should be posted within the week).  This isn’t part of the series, but the cover looks promising, as does Banners of the Sa’yen.  I’ve never heard of B. R. Stateham.  The others were titles that caught my eye.

There are a number of early DAW titles in the mix.  DAW published some wonderfully pulpy stuff back in The Years of the Yellow Spines.  No one else seems to be publishing that sort of thing anymore.

I only picked up five hardcovers.  The reason Rogues is included is I had a coupon which got me the book at half off.  The lineup on the ToC is pretty impressive.

I’ve never read Beau Geste, although I’ve heard good things about it since I was in high school.  Great Sea Stories has some interesting things in it.

The Robert E. Howards are book club editions, but they’re in good shape,  And speaking of Howard, The Collected Works of Pierre Louys is why I went into the store in the first place (and see what else I came out with).  For those of you scratching your heads and wondering what the connection to Howard is, this is the book he gave Novalyne Price for Christmas that had her so scandalized.  This edition is illustrated, and I can see why she reacted that way.  It looks like something along the lines of James Branch Cabell, only somewhat raunchier.  I might read a little of it, but I don’t think it’s going to be to my taste.

Anyway, that’s the latest haul.  Don’t ask me when I’m going to find time to read any of these.