Booksale!

Charleston has a book sale once a year where they sell books from the libraries that they want to take out of circulation. Paperbacks were 50 cents, hardbacks were $3.00. I walked away when it was getting difficult to carry all the books I wanted.

I bought some polisci staples: Henry Kissinger, a Bob Woodward book, the Washington Times' Starr Report. The classics: two by Faulkner, two by Hemingway, one Dostoevsky, one Salinger (NOT Catcher in the Rye). I filled out my philosophy shelf with some Aristotle and another version of the core Plato dialogues: Apology, Meno, Crito and Euthyphro. These four are almost always presented together, and when I see another version/printing that I don't own I feel compelled to get it. I have four so far. I bought a book of short stories by Jonathan Sanchez called "Fools All of Us: Tales from the White City." They're all about Charleston.

All of those, I think, were worthwhile purchases. But my favorites were several Better Homes and Gardens recipe pamphlets from the 70's and an Esquire cookbook from 1958. The Better Homes and Gardens ones have some frightening pictures of meals using jello and cheese. Microwaving is a primary cooking method, and the backgrounds are gloriously kitschy Brady Bunch kitchens.























Appetizing, no? I like these for some reason! Maybe just to look through them and gasp at what people actually found appealing. They remind me of this, Weight Watchers recipe cards from the 70's. Yum.

The Esquire book is different. It doesn't have any pictures, and it's a discussion of foods in Europe with some tips for men cooking for themselves. It's a companion for a "gentleman bachelor," because you know in the 50's if the man was married the wife would do the cooking.