Used Book Love

I can think of dozens of reasons I buy used books, including the availability of out-of-print titles, price, and the happy feeling I get from knowing a book is being "reused" instead of recycled.

What about you? Do you buy used books? Why do you? Or don't you?

For fanciers of used and rare books lucky enough to be in Portland this weekend, try to stop by the Rose City Used Book Fair, where 40+ dealers will offer a treasure trove of cool books and ephemera. 

If you need further encouragement, check out this spify "info-graphic" the folks at Thriftbooks came up with and asked me to post.  

Review: A Prefect's Uncle by P. G. Wodehouse

A Prefect's Uncle is P. G. Wodehouse's second published book. Like his first, The Pothunters, it is set in an English boarding school for boys. Except in the long passages describing cricket matches, it is a charming and funny book that hints at the hilarious style Wodehouse later perfected.

The initial gag about the Prefect's uncle arriving at the school provides the title and is quite funny. But that storyline peters out and the main plot involving a poetry contest is not as clever.

The big weakness of the book is Wodehouse's unrelenting concentration on cricket. He describes cricket matches play by play and devotes pages to cricket strategy and other bits of cricket minutia.

Diehard Wodehouse completists may be willing to skim over the cricket passages to glean the funny bits. But those new to Wodehouse should start with one of his later, more popular books.


OTHER REVIEWS

If you would like your review of this book listed here, please leave a comment with a link and I will add it.

NOTES

A Prefect's Uncle was one of my books for the MT. TBR CHALLENGE (hosted by Bev on My Reader's Block) and the OFF THE SHELF CHALLENGE (hosted by Bonnie on Bookish Ardour). 

Teaser Tuesday: Tales of St. Austin's by P. G. Wodehouse

The qualities which in later years rendered Frederick Wackerbath Bradshaw so conspicuous a figure in connection with the now celebrated affair of the European, African, and Asiatic Pork Pie and Ham Sandwich Supply Company frauds, were sufficiently in evidence during his school career to make his masters prophesy gloomily concerning his future. The boy was in every detail the father of the man.

-- Tales of St. Austin's by P. G. Wodehouse, from "Bradshaw's Little Story."

I had to read it through twice, but that is the funniest thing I've read in a long time.  Such a brilliant construction and tone of mock-historic epic.

Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by Should Be Reading, where you can find the official rules for this weekly event. 

Mailbox Monday

Thanks for joining me for Mailbox Monday this holiday weekend! MM was created by Marcia, who graciously hosted it for a long, long time, before turning it into a touring event (details here).

Dolce Bellezza is hosting in June, where she also just launched the seventh Japanese Literature Challenge.  Be sure to visit her elegant and inspiring blog.

While I was in Davenport, Iowa for work last week, I went to the local library where they had a Friends of the Library sale shelf.  I found several, including and M.F.K. Fisher I've been looking for for a while.

The Oasis by Mary McCarthy (I want to read more of her books)

 

The A. B. C. Murders by Agatha Christie (I'm on a roll)

 

Revenge of the Middle-Aged Woman by Elizabeth Buchan (looked like a fun book for summer)

 

All That Work and Still No Boys by Kathryn Ma (winner of the Iowa Short Fiction Award)

 

Sister Age by M. F. K. Fisher (essays on growing old)

Kitchen Remodel, Week 15: Nothing Doing

Progress on our kitchen remodel was infinitesimal this week. We got doorknobs on the powder room and basement doors -- big whoop. We got screens on the windows that are to have screens, but they are all but invisible, so don't show in photographs.

The holdup is still the tile. The white subway tile for the backsplash is 2 x 6 instead of 3 x 6, so had to be special ordered. We finally gave up on the California company that was supposed to send the tile three weeks ago. We've ordered replacement tile from our local Pratt & Larson, which we should have done from the get-go.

So it will still be two weeks before the tile gets here, and another week or two to get it all installed. It's looking like our kitchen will be done mid-July, not mid-June as originally forecast.

At least the weather here in the Rose City is beautiful for Rose Festival. Being able to grill outside and eat dinner on the porch makes us forget we are still operating out of our "camp kitchen" in the dining room.

WEEKEND COOKING

Hosted by Beth Fish Reads