Library Day

I've been rereading stuff I have at home for the past week or so. This is not a bad thing, but I've been doing it not because I've been dying to reread things, but because I didn't have anything new around to read. Today I decided to remedy that situation.

At lunch I went to the library and got three books:

The Finishing School, Muriel Spark -- I've never heard of her or it, but if I don't have anything particular in mind (I forgot my book list today) I often grab something off the new(ish) book shelves.

No Idle Hands: The Social History of American Knitting, Anne L. Macdonald -- I love social histories, and come on, it's knitting.

The Art of Mending, Elizabeth Berg -- I've read several of Berg's other books and I know it'll be a relaxing, quick read. Sometimes you just need that, you know?

Guess which one I started while I was waiting for/eating lunch?

After work I went to the local library book sale (I need to mention that, for some reason, I've begun collecting young adult novels from the mid-60s and earlier. I don't know why I do this, but I do, and am building quite a collection...) :

Teen stuff:

Hi There, High School, Gay Head -- Okay, not technically a novel, but how could I resist a teen etiquette guide originally published in 1953?

"HI, THERE... The doors swing open on a new school term. You're back and you-- but there come Bev and Bud! You catch their conversation.

"Hiya Bev!" Bud calls. "Say, where did you get that swell sun tan?"

(That is the first few lines of the preface. I was going to go longer, but, frankly, I just couldn't.)

I Never Promised You A Rose Garden, Hannah Green

First Love, 14 warm and glowing stories selected by Gay Head

The Highest Dream, Phyllis A. Whitney

The Chocolate Cobweb, Charlotte Armstrong

A Summer To Die, Lois Lowry (I know this isn't in the time range, but I like Lois Lowry)

A Steady Kind of Love (original title: How Wide the Heart), Elisabeth Ogilvie

Other:

The Day the World Went Away, Anne Schraff -- I think I read this as a teenager. This edition is, oddly, put out by XEROX.

The Dispossessed, Ursula K. LeGuin

Witness, William Kelley and Earl W. Wallace -- Yeah, that Witness. It was filmed here 20 years ago. Ebbie claimed the book was better than the movie, but according to the cover, the book is based on the screenplay, so we'll see.


Well, this was quite the confessional post. It definitely has the most links I've ever put in a single post. I'll let you know how these fine selections are as I go through them, provided I can remember as I finish them.

Wish me luck for the school picnic tomorrow, it's only supposed to rain in the morning...

(Oh, with an author with the name "Gay Head" in my list TWICE -- and here once, I'm really glad I don't check stats on how people get to this site.)