Used Books

My town doesn't have a real bookstore. We do have a couple of used bookstores. I'm not crazy about touching books others have touched, but I can do it. The largest source for a new book here seems to be part of an aisle at Wal-Mart. Our used bookstore is moving and so is having a sale ahead of time. For a few dollars I got a book that is the two-volume autobiography of General Pershing. Its in pretty decent shape and was written in the 1930's. I think it could be one of those things that you could take to an antique dealer and be told its worth a lot of money. I might be sitting on a gold mine. Probably not, but maybe. The front of the book has a sheet of tissue paper like old books used to have. I don't know why they did that, but it adds to its charm. I don't know if I'm going to read it. Its just cool having it.

Pershing was underrated, I think. He was the leader of the U.S. troops in WWI. He chased down Pancho Villa. He should be a national hero. He also had a great nickname - "Black Jack" Pershing. If I was going to have a nickname, I could go for either Black Jack or Captain Fantastic. Either would be fine with me.

A couple days after that I bought a set of encyclopedias at a yard sale. I've always wanted one. When I was a kid I would read encyclopedias my parents had. It talked about "The World War". That's how old it was. The ones I bought aren't that much better. They're from the 1970's. But when you consider the full span of history, percentage-wise, I've got things mostly covered. I asked the lady how much she wanted for them. She said, "I don't know - $2?" Out of guilt I gave her five. I started reading some of the articles. I'm already up to "Aachen". Did you know Charlemagne is buried in Aachen? Neither did I. I'm not really all that familiar on what Charlemagne did that made him famous. But I'll know by the time I get to the C's. That should be at least by 2020 I figure.