There are worse ways to spend a day

With gas prices starting to temporarily come down, I can, in theory, start "traveling" again. Like most years, I had many plans for the summer before it actually arrived, then when it gets here, I find that I'm too busy to partake in any of said plans. I seem to be the opposite of most folks, in that my down time comes during the winter. Which of course does me no good at all, as I have no want to go anywhere when it's cold and dreary out. I don't why I always think that things will be different. It's the same every single year. 

It's not what most people would call "traveling", but I did take a day off to go to Knoxville two Fridays ago. And if you're me, you can't go to Knoxville without going to McKay's (a happy place for lovers of all things physical media). I went there back in early June too, brought home a bunch of books, but didn't feel like doing a post on them. This time I ended up getting more variety, but less stuff overall; and do feel like making a post about it...

Might as well start off with my biggest purchase of the day. Even when using credit, five dollars is my upper limit for a book (every single book that I've ever bought for more than that has disappointed me), and it's not very often anymore that I'll even go that high, but I've wanted to read this since it came out, and this is the first time that I've seen it in the wild. Knowing how things are these days, it's not inconceivable to think that I may never come across another one, so I sort of felt like I had to get it now, just in case. 

This appears to be in the same vein as the Ripley's Believe It or Not! books that I got from Scholastic as a kid. Without getting up and looking, I'm pretty sure too that the coffin story is even in one of them, though I'm guessing it'll be covered a little more in-depth here.

I didn't pay much attention to them at the time, but in recent years I've really been enjoying the 90's Marvel novels quite a bit. Depending on where you're looking, it can be difficult to find these books for reasonable prices; even at McKay's. They usually have a lot of them, at least at the Knoxville store, but are rarely under $4.50. I always look at them anyways, hoping to find any that have been marked down or possibly underpriced. I hadn't seen any books from this trilogy before, and since it was in really good shape, I didn't feel too bad about the $3.50 price tag.

I didn't know that there was a middle grade bargain section until about a year ago, but since then it's become one of my favorites. It's tough to beat 90's "horror" books for a quarter. Plus, there's film/TV themed stuff like this in there too.

I have a couple of books from this series now, but still don't understand who they were intended for. I mean I was 11 when The X-Files debuted on television, and was a devoted viewer from the get-go. These books were just novelized episodes (in this case, "D.P.O."), which were presumably targeted for kids in my age range when show got going (though I would've been 14 when this book came out). I'm not sure why a kid would be reading a random episode when they could've just been watching the show on television. Most folks did have a TV in the mid 90's, and the show was on a network, so one didn't even need cable to watch it. I don't know, like I said, I don't get it. All that being said, I do enjoy getting these books all of these years later.

This is the kind of book that you, or rather I, usually find in that middle grade bargain section. 

I haven't had much luck in finding cheap CD's (that I would listen to) my last couple of times there, but did a little bit better this time. It doesn't get too much better than Time-Life compilations, still in the shrink wrap, for less than two bucks, although...

... used ones for under a buck are pretty great too!

I've been tempted by this set at Walmart many times in recent years. $10 for six films didn't seem like that bad of a price, but I always thought that I might be able to get it cheaper someday. Apparently I was right. I wasn't even looking for it on this particular day, but cut down a book aisle and noticed it sitting out of place on one of the shelves (somebody was obviously too lazy to take it back to where that had gotten it), saw the price, checked the discs, and put it in my basket. I thought it was kind of funny that this set, which isn't that old, already had four different stickers on it. 

I've already got movies 4-6 on video, but it'll be nice to have them upgraded, as well as to have the other three that I didn't already own.

I know that folks are gaga over the Marvel live-action flicks these days, but for my money, DC's animated pictures are the best thing going as far as superheroes are concerned. I already bought this one at Big Lots a couple of years ago, but the disc with the main feature was all messed up. I took it back to get a replacement, but they didn't have any more, so I ended up just getting my $3 back. This one was 95¢, and after now watching the movie, I can say that it was well worth the wait. Very enjoyable!

I don't suppose anyone reading this is familiar with Light's Out, the radio show, or the subsequent television program? I have a few box sets in different formats for the radio show, and a couple of these Alpha releases for the TV show. This was the first time that I've seen one of the DVD's in the cheapie bins (95¢), and thankfully it wasn't one that I already had. On a semi-related note, I always thought that Alpha did themselves a disservice by colorizing the images for the packaging on a lot of their black and white releases. They do say B&W on the back, but I'm sure that more than a few people missed that and ended up being disappointed by the lack of color when they went to watch it.

I would've liked to have found some more music, but other than that, I was pretty content with what I left with. 

Since it was still early, I decided to go to the Bargain Hunters (flea market/antique mall - I've talked about them before), which is about five miles deeper into Knoxville. One of my great joys from going in that direction is that I get to see the Sunsphere, going there, and coming back...

I, of course, had to get a few pictures for the blog, as per usual. I never get tired of seeing that thing.

I didn't end up buying anything at the Bargain Hunters, but did take a couple of photos of things that were calling my name...

Despite the beat-up box, if this one worked, $27.99 was a pretty good price. I didn't want to take out of the box to see what kind of condition it was in, lest I be even more tempted. I knew a kid that had one of these way back when, and I thought it was cooler than shit at the time. Oh, what am I saying, they're still cooler than shit!

If this had been any time prior to the end of last year, I would've bought this little darling as soon as I laid eyes on her. However, I've got a bit of a life plan that I'm trying to work towards now, and having excessive amounts of stuff around isn't going to help me towards making it happen, so she stayed behind. I can honestly say though that, I have not been tempted to but anything more than I was with this television in recent memory. I took multiple pictures, but this is the only one that wasn't blurred, so it's hard to tell from this one that it didn't look like this set had ever been used. There wasn't a single sign of wear on it's entirety, and you just don't ever see sets from that era in this kind of condition. At $45, I fully expect this to be gone by the next time I'm there; it was priced to sell.

I doubt that anyone cares, but here were the specs.

Not a bad day, if I do say so myself. Well, trying to get out of Knoxville proper was kind of bitch that day (SO MANY PEOPLE!), but other than that it was a good day.

******Bonus Content******

My birthday was last weekend, and I got a couple of things from my mom, one of which fits in with the rest of this posts theme.

I've seen these online before, but had never looked to see what was actually on them. That was a mistake on my part. I've only watched the main feature so far, and it was really fun. The bonus features on this one are killer, I'll probably have gotten to Bail Out by the time this post goes live. Any body remember that one? It's got the Hoff and everyone's favorite little pea soup vomiter - albeit a bit more grown up at this point - Linda Blair. I vaguely remember watching it on cable back in the 90's, but aside from the plot, I couldn't tell you anything about it.

Speaking of birthdays, I splurged on a few cards for mine. The two purchases didn't turn out as well as I would've wanted (what else is new), but I'll be doing a post for them over on the 'Penny Sleeve' blog sometime in the near future. 

What I've been reading

... not that I think anyone cares.

Have you ever started a post, then decided that it wasn't very interesting, went to delete it, but couldn't quite commit yourself to doing so? Well, I've done that three or four times now with this one over the last month or so. The only thing that's prevented me from clicking on the little garbage can is knowing that I did spend a few minutes taking the pictures, and editing the photos for the books in this post. And I really dislike the thought of having done that for nothing. So, I'm gonna try it again, this time with more pictures. After all, a month has gone by, and more books have been read, or in some cases, attempted to be read.

I really know how to get people excited for my posts, don't I?

And I'm not sure how far back this group of reading material goes, maybe two months, at the most. It doesn't feel like it's been that long, but I will just go with it for the sake of transitioning out of this awkward opening.

I keep a list of books that I'd like to read, and this one had been on there for years now. I could've bought it online, as it's not very expensive, but I was always just hoping that I could find it out in the wild someday. Finding it at the Book Cellar a couple of months ago felt rather fortuitous, as I didn't have nearly as much time as I had wanted to look around in there on that particular day. Because of this, I was skipping the history section (among others), but did glance over at the books on the end cap as I was walking by, and wouldn't you know what was sitting right in the front of that day's display, West with the Night. I have seen so much praise heaped upon this book over the years, so now that I had a copy, I was almost beyond excited to finally tear into it. I think that may have been my downfall, my expectations were too high. 

To say that I was disappointed would be a an understatement. I flat out hated everything about this book. Beryl's (for those that may not know, she made the first non-stop solo flight across the Atlantic) writing style, which receives most of the praise from reviewers of this book, did absolutely nothing for me. And what's worse, her non-fiction book reads like fiction in many places, which is often a compliment, but not in her case. The dialogue from incidents that took place 40-50 years prior feels like it was made up at the time of the books writing, and some of it just downright bad; especially the parts where people are talking up how brave she is/was, which is frequent. There's no doubt that she thought very highly of herself, and according to her, so did everyone else that she ever met. Everyone. Apparently she was the baby Jesus, Mahatma Gandhi, and Henry Winkler all rolled into one.

I was only able to make it a little over halfway through before pulling the plug on this one. Thank goodness I only spent two bucks (in credit) on it.

Being a former long-time Coast to Coast AM listener, I'm very familiar with Jenny Randles, but had never read any of her books before. Now that I have read one, I'd be willing to read more. There was a lot of stories that I hadn't heard before in here, and couple of her possible explanations at the end were pretty interesting, one more so than the others.

My mom got me this one last summer at book sale. The only reason it took me so long to get to it was, that I knew it was gonna pull on my ancestral heartstrings, and I was right, it did. Seems like the older I get, the more the motherland is calling. The way things have gone thus far, it doesn't appear that I'll ever make it there; thankfully it doesn't cost anything to dream though. Awesome book by the way, highly recommended if you're into this sort of thing.

I went to McKay's about two months ago, during a brief dip in the gas prices, and did pretty well book-wise while I was there. I didn't do my usual recap if only because, well, I just didn't feel like it. I was there again a couple of days ago, and will do recap in the next post. Anyway, I got this during the previous trip, and it was yet another book that I had been wanting to read for awhile, that was also a massive letdown. I finally find a cheap copy ($3 in credit), and it was the absolute shits. I don't know what it is with Stephen King and his obsession with putting children in kind of fucked up sexual situations, but he did it again here (not as extreme as in It, but still uncomfortable to read as an adult), about 50 pages in, which took me right out of the book. Having wanted to read it for so long, I tried to power through, but was taken out again around the halfway mark. This time for good. There are still a couple of books of his that I wanted to try, but I think I'll just pass on those after this latest disappointment.

I got this book during the same stop at the Book Cellar that I got Jenny Randles' book. I've been going there about every two weeks, and have been having quite a bit of luck finding these. I was already very familiar with the stories behind a couple of these discoveries, but didn't mind reading them again. All of these discoveries took place back when there was still adventure and romance in archaeology, which is the kind of archaeology that I fell in love with as a kid. There is no adventure (or romance) in archaeology anymore, now it's just satellites and computers, which is all terribly boring to me. A lot of other people like it though, so it's probably just a me thing.

I vaguely remember, Ms. Shaw, my 1st grade teacher, reading this to the class over a week or two period way, way, back when. That faint memory was enough for me to grab this on whim at McKay's for 25¢. And I'm glad I did. I didn't remember anything about the story itself, and none of it came back to me as I was reading it, but nevertheless, I enjoyed it considerably more than I could've imagined I would. I don't know if they are, but I sure hope kids are still reading this one, or at least having it read to them. They'll be the better for it. I learned too from the forward that Mrs. Burnett was a transplant to here in Tennessee from England, and wrote this book while living here as well. I wouldn't have cared about that before I lived here, but now that I do, I find it kind of interesting.

I was surprised to find this one at the Serenity thrift store last month, as they don't usually have any books for me. It's a shame, because they have a flat per-pound price on books, so they're pretty cheap if you can find them. This was like 60¢ after tax. 

Like a lot of other celebrities from her era, Betty's life away from the big screen was anything but glamorous, and this book pulled no punches while discussing hers. Good book though, that is unless you don't like having the curtains pulled back, then I'd say to try and avoid it. 

I already showed this off a few months ago when I got it, I'm even recycling the old picture. This was a very dense book, and it took me a bit longer to get through it than normal. It started to bog down in a couple of the chapters that focused on politics, a few of which I ended up skipping. Speaking of politics, David let his creep into a few of the chapters, which I could've lived without, but at least it wasn't as bad as a lot of more modern books (this was released in '93) where the author has to put a spin on, or try to revise, everything that goes against their beliefs. Not a bad book, but I wouldn't recommend paying too much for it.

When I started this post up again last week, I was gonna end it here with these finds from the free boxes at the Book Cellar. I felt a little weird taking some free books on a day when I didn't buy anything, but I've bought plenty of stuff on other occasions and didn't take any of the free offerings, so it probably balances itself out. I thought I might've had the In Search of, but I didn't, and I've since tried to read it, it sucked. Apparently NBC did this special that was loosely based on Erich Von Däniken's work, and this book was a follow up/behind the scenes written by the producer. It's mostly about him and his journey into the things that EVD already covered in his first book. This guy was not very interesting, so I tried to skip the " all about me" parts and just read the sections about the actual things, but they started blending together too much for my liking so I just called it a day. It'll be going back to the free box. As for The Aeneid, I think we might've read that in high school, but I can't remember for sure at this point. I haven't gotten to it yet, but will be doing so in the very near future.

Since another week has gone by, I've started, and am mostly through yet another book...

This was in the last McKay's post that I did, so I won't rehash all of that again. I will say though that it's been everything that I hoped it would be, and then some. Although, to be fair, I kind of knew that this one couldn't let me down.

As mentioned somewhere up top, I did go to McKay's again last week, and while I don't know if the stuff that I brought home is any more interesting than the stuff I got last month that didn't make it into a blog post, I feel like posting about it this time, so I will be; probably at the end of the week if all goes well.