“The buying of more books than one can read is nothing less than the soul reaching towards infinity.”
—A. Edward Newton
About two weeks ago, I read from a friend’s Facebook post that she was going to the One Dollar Bookstore because she needed more books. Then it hit me. How could I have almost forgotten the One Dollar Bookstore by the Chula Vista Shopping Center?! I’ve only been there once, and the visit has been months ago. Needless to say, I found myself there a week later—allowing myself to drown in books once again. These are my current loot. Twenty-six books. On sale for only a dollar each. =)
Got myself another copy of Calvin and Hobbes, and a picture book called Images of Beauty featuring A.A. Milne's version of The Ugly Duckling and Marianna Mayer's Beauty and the Beast
Chinese retelling of 2 classics: Lon Po Po (Red Riding Hood) and Yeh-Shen (Cinderella)
Nikolai Popov's wordless picture book, Why?, and Barbara Softly's informative collection called Magic People around the World
Good buys!!! Maria Kalman's Roarr Calder's Circus (mixed media, kind of reminds me of Dave McKean) and the really awesome The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales by Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith
Two more Zilpha Keatley Snyder books: The Gypsy Game and The Headless Cupid, and another Newbery book Mr. Popper's Penguins
Books from authors dear to my heart: Jerry Spinelli's The Library Card, Louis Sachar's Dogs Don't Tell Jokes, Lois Lowry's Anastasia Krupnik, and Kevin Henkes' Words of Stone
Two familiar books: Jon Scieszka's Your Mother was a Neanderthal from his Time Warp Trio and Lemony Snicket's The Bad Beginning from A Series of Unfortunate Events. I had to grab the latter because of its old-school cover. I like different editions, and classic covers are hard to find. New discoveries: A Modern Fable by Jim Schembri and the bizarre novel by Patrick Jennings called Faith and the Electric Dogs.
Mikey grabbed Garth Nix because his current obsession is his Abhorsen Trilogy. Yes, this 3-volume special of The Seventh Tower is also $1. Next to it is another Newbery book, The Slave Dancer by Paula Fox. Gotta love the cover!
Bought another book about death and grief: Each Little Bird that Sings by Deborah Wiles. And my most interesting loot of all: Dogeaters by Filipino writer Jessica Hagedorn. Ho-ho-awesome.
Three adult fiction: J.M. Coatzee's Disgrace, Sherman Alexie's The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven, and my first Roddy Doyle book The Deportees and Other Stories
This is way better than Green Apple. You got a good thing going here, girl. I should have gone with you when I had the chance. Or you should have kidnapped me at that same instant you found the bookstore! Hahahhaa. How I wish we could pass through San Diego on our way back and hopefully this time around the GPS would be kind and find the bookstore.
It’s by sheer luck I found these books. I really had to go through each book in each shelf. I’m sure I missed a few more, but I can go back some other time. Or maybe next time I get paid. For now, I think I’m good. I think I got the good stuff they have. I rarely ever go to thrift stores so I appreciate any nice book I could get my hands on.
That’s precisely what I like the best. The sifting through the dirt to find the gold. I can spend hours just going over Books for Less (BFL) back in the Philippines. They basically have the same thing. I recall buying Stinky Cheese Man from BFL for roughly around 80 pesos then. That’s a little more than a dollar.