At the library sale April 2024

At the library sale 

April 2024

Earlier this month, it once again was time to patronize the annual library sale, held at a shopping center in the northern part of town. 

With each passing year attendance continues to grow, and on opening day, the lines to get in the door are getting longer and longer.

I made a couple of trips, and came away with a decent enough selection of hardcovers and paperbacks.

I was surprised to see that Robert Sheckley had authored an entry in the 'Aliens' franchise, 1995's 'Alien Harvest.' Given Sheckley's penchant for humor in his writings, it will be interesting to see what he does with the sci-fi horror theme that marks 'Aliens.'

The Alfred Hitchcock anthology is a monster of a book, at 631 pages. It has some entries from sci-fi stalwarts such as Barry Malzberg and Ron Goulart, as well as authors more anchored to the crime / thriller / horror genres, such as August Derleth, Bill Pronzini, Lawrence Block, and Brian Garfield.

'Psychlone', from Greg Bear, is an earlier work (1979), so I'm not sure what to expect there.

While I like Bruce Sterling's short stories and novelettes, his longer works can be hit-or-miss. I'll have to see how 'Holy Fire' turns out.

The 1970 Dell reprint of 'Cotton Comes to Harlem' was part of a movie tie-in. And I'm always up for another collection of Shirley Jackson short stories.

And that's the story of the library sale, April, 2024. Quite a lot of inventory for the sci-fi and fantasy section of the floor, but lots of the books were one I'm not overly interested in: many, many Stephen King hardbacks, Anne McCaffrey, Piers Anthony, Peter Hamilton, Dean Koontz, David Eddings, etc. The dealers usually wind up taking the bulk of those books. 

I was happy with what I got, it didn't cost me all that much, and with my car insurance and my cable bill going up by big margins this Spring, I'm looking for cheap thrills..............!