Into the Archives: Well, That Was An Adventure

The Complete Short Stories of Mark Twain Hardcover – January 1, 1957 by Mark Twain (Author), Charles Neider (Editor)

1957. 676 pages.

Hollywood Anecdotes – August 12, 1988 by Paul F. Boller Jr. and Ronald L. Davis

Authentic and apocryphal anecdotes about the American movie industry and various aspects of American filmmaking. 460 pages.

Urban Legends: The Truth Behind All Those Deliciously Entertaining Myths That Are Absolutely, Positively, 100% Not True  – January 1, 1999 by Richard Roeper (Author)

Recounts dozens of stories that have become part of contemporary folklore even though they have no basis in fact, and reveals the truth behind each legend. 285 Pages.

The Grand Miracle: Daily Reflections for the Season of Advent

This full-color, 64-page booklet features the writings of C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Dorothy Sayers, George MacDonald, and others, with daily reflections penned by modern influencers.

The Giant Garden of Oz Hardcover by Eric Shanower (Author) 178 pages.

As fans of L. Frank Baum's Oz books know, Dorothy not only returned to Oz but eventually brought her Uncle Henry and Aunt Em back to live there. Now they have a little farm miles from the Emerald City, but one night when Dorothy stops to visit the farm isn't little anymore -- overnight everything growing in the garden grows to immense size. With an also growing Henry and Em trapped in their home Dorothy has to find her way through the giant garden for help, but things get even worse when the unfriendly cause of this calamity appears. – Mark R. Hunter

A Man for All Seasons: A Play in Two Acts Paperback – April 14, 1990 by Robert Bolt (Author). 163 pages.

Consciences of Sir Thomas More and Henry VIII are poles apart in the religious conflict over the king's marriage to Anne Boleyn.

The Uses of Enchantment - The meaning and importance of fairy tales, by Bruno Bettelheim. 323 pages.

The great child psychologist [since disgraced] gives us a moving revelation of the enormous and irreplaceable value of fairy tales - how they educate, support and liberate the emotions of children.

Letters To Young Churches by J. B. Phillips 1960 with Introduction C.S Lewis. 225 pages.

A translation of the New Testament Epistles with introduction by C.S. Lewis. 

I got a couple of nice monetary gifts for Christmas, and I asked my brother John to squire me around town so I could put some of it to good use. He suggested we look up a new bookstore in Geronimo, a little town not far away, and I agreed. It is called Second Chance Books, and is in a sort of industrial-style strip mall. It was very basic; they sell books for $2 per pound, and there is an automatic checkout with a scale. The shelves and warehouse are very basic; in fact it is the closest place to Yesterday's Warehouse I've been to in years. No frills, and the selection seems to be made of the dross of library and bookstore closeouts, with the detritus of decades of once popular 'hottus shittus' publishing on shabby display. I find this very exciting; there is about one grain of gold to 999 grains of sand, and the hunt for that gold is what makes the search exciting. As you can see, I found a trove, as did John, and I left volumes behind that were marginal, but so cheap I was tempted. And there were shelves I was too tired to search. So for the first time in a while I have a nearby bookstore to whet my appetite, and have 'at least one interesting tomorrow to look forward to.' I got copies of two books I had sold before and several volumes connected to the Inklings, including Letters to Young Churches (the copy I found was in much better condition). I've wanted to get that Eric Shanower Oz book for years; finding it there was the surprise gem of the haul.