AAR

So I went to Texas for a visit over the weekend. It was an eleven-hour drive down (hitting Houston at rush hour on Thursday) and ten and a half hours back (three unplanned small detours, thanks Google Maps.) Driving for ten hours straight is kind of tough, but, it turns out, doable.

The itinerary was not vast; in fact, it was mostly “we didn’t get to play mini golf last year.” We also got lost looking for the Houston Underground entrance.

Observations:

• No one roadtrips in a Kia, apparently.
  • (“You know, if I drivin’ and somebody pass me in a Kia? Oh boy, I gettin’ rid of that car. I gettin’ rid of it, man!”)
• Include at least one winter outfit when traveling in the winter.
• Fishtailing during abrupt deceleration is unpleasant, avoid doing it.
• Why and when did Texas decide to rotate all their stop lights by 90 degrees? It’s weird.

I also hit up a bookstore.

• Dracula – Bram Stoker
• Cosmic Tales anthology, edited by Toni Weisskopf
• None But Man – Gordon R. Dickson
• The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe – C. S. Lewis
• The Star Road – Gordon Dickson
• Moon Called – Andre Norton

send help

The only positive about this is that I stayed under budget: 12$ total.

• The Silver Chair – C. S. Lewis
• The Prince – Machiavelli
• Star Rangers – Andre Norton
• Dorsai! – Gordon R. Dickson
• The Blue Sword – Robin McKinley (THE ONE WITH THE AWESOME COVER…..I may consider donating this to the homeschool group but seriously, a) those guys probably wouldn’t read it anyway, b) their mothers probably wouldn’t let them read it, either. Also, c) THATS AN AWESOME COVER I DON’T WANT TO LET IT OUT OF MY HANDS.)
• The Defiant Agents – Andre Norton
• The Metal Monster – A. Merritt
• This Fortress World – James Gunn
• The Best of Leigh Brackett – as edited by Edmond Hamilton
• The Black Arrow – Robert Louis Stevenson, because.
• The Thorn Birds – Colleen McCullough (for The Mother of Skaith, who loves the movie, although honestly I may have already bought her a copy….)
• A compilation of Weird Tales edited by Marvin Kaye

I also bought, in the interests of providing more books for the homeschool group to ignore:

• Star Ka’at – Andre Norton (a duo with the previously acquired Star Ka’at World)
• Just-So Stories – Rudyard Kipling

bloody hell

So I just bought:

• Timestorm – Gordon R. Dickson (one of the very formative books of my reading career)
• The Demon Breed – James H. Schmitz
• Majyk by Design – Ester Friesner
• Thieves Carnival / The Jewel of Bas – Karen Hober/Leigh Brackett
• JRRTolkien’s:
• Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring,
• Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
• The Silmarillion

Oh, and they also gave me

• some animated movie called “Mosely” which I devoutly hope is suitable for four-year-olds to watch, otherwise I’m going to be in trouble.

no, I don’t know when I’m going to read them, either

They were free on the library free bookshelf, OKAY?

• The Sands of Mars – Arthur C. Clarke
• Cheaper by the Dozen – Gilbreth & Carey (do I have a copy of this already? Whatever, it free.)
• Julius Caesar – Shakespeare
• The Canterbury Tales – Geoffrey Chaucer
• Homeworld – Harry Harrison
• Tales from the “White Hart” – Arthur C. Clarke

Not actually free, but only 50 cents was

• The Children of Hurin – Tolkien

That’ll learn me to play hooky, I guess. Send help.

Midafternoon Haul

– Soul Music – Terry Pratchett

– The Magician’s Guild – Trudi Canavan

– Quag Keep – Andre Norton

– To Sleep in a Sea of Stars – Christopher Paolini (New York Times Bestselling Author of Eragon)

– History of Indian and Indonesian Art – Ananda K. Coomaraswamy (it was free)

Dear God I Love My Local library

It is super nice.

It had, collected on one shelf inconveniently at eye level:

• Hour of the Dragon – by Robert E Howard
• Red Nails
• People of the Black Circle

And these were directly opposite the intriguing-looking

• Enter the Wolf – by E. E. Knight. Not sure, but it seems to be a vampire novel in the Larry Correia school of EAT HOT LEAD FOUL SPAWN variety. Which is the only way vampire novels should be written, honestly.

I also had to renew

• Veteran of the Old West: Pistol Pete –  by Frank Eaton. Last week was slightly too hectic to sit down and give this biography the attention it deserved.

There was also a free books table outside from which I snagged a very nice copy of

• Pride and Prejudice – by Jane Austen. This one is going to be my contribution to the white elephant gift exchange for the Winter Solstice Pagan Festivities.

Why no, I do not have enough books

Shane – Jack Schaeffer
Persuasion – Jane Austen
Space Opera – Jack Vance
The Weapon Shops of Isher – A. E. Van Vogt
Kristin Lavransdatter – Sigrid Undset
Drowned Ammet – Diana Wynne Jones
Shogun – James Clavell
Isle of the Dead – Roger Zelazny
Cheaper by the Dozen – Frank Gilbreth & Earnestine Gilbreth Carey
Earth’s Last Citadel – C.L. Moore & Henry Kuttner
Byron’s Poetical Works
Lord of Light – Roger Zelazny
The Prisoner of Zenda – Anthony Hope
The Gripping Hand – Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle
Retief At Large – Keith Laumer
Scaramouche – Rafael Sabatini
Mattimeo – Brian Jacques
Pasture Management for Horses and Ponies – Gillian McCarthy
Life in Ancient Egypt – Adolf Erman
Spinning Silver – Naomi Novik

Not bad for $19!