on secondhand book stores

so, i went to half-price books sunday night after i got back here in austin. it has kind of become a tradition for me every time i make my way back home...i've always finished all the books i brought with me, can't live without finding this one particular book (which i could afford to buy along the dozen others i want to read), or need something new to bring with me on a trip in place of an old friend that i've read over and over (i.e. candide, narnia, we the living, etc.). this trip was kind of all of the above.

i walked in, family in tow since we had just had dinner across the road, with the promises rolling of my lips - i'm just looking for two books, i'll be in and out. of course, i get sucked in and search for a million different things. i walked away with the following


in the religious studies section. i'm obsessed with c.s. lewis and with mythology...so what more could i ask for? i don't really know what to expect from this one, but i won't start it until i get back from my trip.


these three are actually the ones i was really wanting to find, along with the next one. half-price didn't have out of the silent planet, but two really cool fifth edition copies of the second and third books in the series, so i picked them up. i wish i had a complete set all in the same edition, but after checking two other locations, i ended up buying a currently print of the first one. i'm already halfway through it. i might finish the series before i leave saturday.

a friend recommended this to me, and we seem to share similar tastes about a lot of things. maybe if we lose touch, this will stay with me at least. i'm trying to be optimistic however. i'm two chapters into this, as well, and it is great so far. i'm definitely not disappointed.

my favorite find of the night. it is really a coffee-table size book, full of images that either c.s. lewis took, his friends took, pictures of him or his friends, or pictures of places that he references or that influenced his work. i'm in love. this is the union of so many things i love about life, all in concert with one another in this amazing, tangible form. i really need to spend a day outside somewhere, taking it all in. love it.


i picked this book up in the clearance section (along with two other photography books that i'm too lazy to search for on amazon to include in this blog) simply because of the author's biographical excerpt inside the front cover. "Here Emily Kimbrough - the most ardent adoptive Greek since the Emperor Hadrian- is back among the people she knows and loves so well." That alone, along with the $1.00 price tag made it a necessary purchase. Oh witty classicists...

these last two were essential. I need to learn as much italian as possible before saturday...we'll see how that goes. the latin/spanish background definitely helps with vocabulary, but i know i'm going to make silly mistakes, like with my ch/c and v/w sounds. we'll see. this will be my little cheat sheet while i'm there. i read the whole greek island guidebook cover to cover (okay, i skipped the ionians...so shoot me. there's no way i could make it there, and i didn't want to know what i would be missing) between last night and today. all 580-odd pages. i'm so excited, and such a nerd...i know. reading the little greek phrases made it all come back to me so quickly...i forgot how much i learned the last time around.

well, time for dinner, then cinco de mayo celebrations. until next time.