Book Sale Bonanza

Yesterday I went to the opening of the 10th Annual Planned Parenthood Book Sale, one of the biggest book sales of the year in Santa Barbara. Located in a large hall at the back of Earl Warren Showgrounds, there was plenty to go through. Being “The Press,” and having written on the event for my column, I got in on the “pre-opening” day, where the serious book dealer wages angry battles over rarities. While many carried around large cardboard boxes for their finds, I relegated myself to what I could carry under one arm. I got five books for a total of $18. And they were all things I’ve been looking for or come under the categories of interest below:
William S. Burroughs: El Hombre Invisble by Barry Miles (The “I Need to Know More About Authors I Like” Category)
Beowulf (Seamus Heaney trans.) (The “I Must Read More of the Classics, But Only If the Translation Is Great” Category)
In Watermelon Sugar by Richard Brautigan (The “Reread Authors from Impressionable Teenage Years” Category)
The Onion: Our Finest Reporting (The “Now You Have to Pay for the Online Archives, I Better Buy the Books” Category)
Austerlitz by W.G. Sebald (The “Books Jon Has Recommended, Nay, Insisted, I Read” Category)
In the meantime, I’m stuck into the Chabon book. Wheee.