The Haul: VNSA Book Sale, Part the Second

Ah, used books. Having already gleefully shown off my myriad discoveries in the Children’s Books section of Ye Olde VNSA Book Sale, it may surprise you to find out that that wasn’t even half of my overall take. Or maybe not. You may know me, and know I have a book problem.

A very big problem indeed.

After a thorough combing of the kids' section, I headed a couple tables over to the science fiction and fantasy area, where I scrounged up most of the contents of that there box. I think some old-school SFF geek must’ve cleaned out their stash this year, because there was a lot of really cool stuff—WAY more than I remember from my brief perusal of the section last year. Among all the books and authors I was unfamiliar with, I found quite a few keepers, such as this lovely collection of Douglas Adams books:

I love The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, as you may remember, and I think I might’ve actually gasped out loud when I saw this one with the vintage cover art. I thought it was a US first edition, but on closer inspection it appears to be a book club edition. My research stopped there. At any rate, the dust jacket is pretty rough, but it’s still really cool to have a copy of this classic that has survived all the way from its original publication in 1979! As far as I can tell, the two sequels there are first US editions. I like to think that they all landed in the VNSA pile from the same owner, and that they’re happy to have been adopted together as a family. I know, I know, I’m anthropomorphizing…

I also found this cool group of Charles de Lint hardcovers:

He’s one of the original urban fantasy pioneers, and is definitely a writer to check out if you’re into folkloric, mythic sort of fiction. The two on the left are collections, and Forests of the Heart is a book from his Newford series (though I think Moonlight and Vines fits into that series, too).

I was equally psyched to find this set of the first two books in Guy Gavriel Kay’s Fionavar Tapestry trilogy. It bugs me a little that the third volume was nowhere to be found (MUST HAVE COMPLETION), but it’s awesome to have copies of his first fantasy novels from when they were originally published in the 1980s. Both are US book club editions, providing further support of my theory that I picked out a bunch of books that were probably all previously owned by the same book-club-member, sci-fi-fantasy-nerd reader.

I also picked up some other classics by Jane Yolen, Diane Duane, Lois McMaster Bujold, and so on:

Was excited to find a copy of this Thursday Next novel in excellent condition (and with a clipping of its NYT book review hidden inside!), an autographed copy of the UK edition of a book in a series of mysteries that take place in ancient Rome, from none other than Phoenix’s own Poisoned Pen Bookstore (Saturnalia! It reminded me of Susan, of course, and our ongoing attempts to write a script for an anachronistic ancient Roman comedy TV show), and some other randomness that looked intriguing.

These two books from a trilogy looked fun, and turned out to be Mythopoeic Award nominees from 2005! Again, where was the second book?? I want it to be complete!

And to finish things off, I ended up with some juvenile classics…

…and some fantasy/historical juvenile and YA books.

With friends and family in tow, I (clearly) had a lot of fun digging through the stacks and finding some great books in really good condition for below bargain basement prices (keep that last bit in mind before you judge me too harshly or call me a book hoarder!). Have you read any of these? Made any epic used bookstore finds in your years as a bookworm? In a couple days I’ll wrap this up with my final VNSA Book Sale report, wherein we venture into the rare and unusual books division… ((cue Twilight Zone music))