We Have a Winner!

As y'all may or may not know, I had a giveaway a week ago. The prize is a choice of one of the six books I bought at a recent 50-Cents-an-Inch book sale. And today I have the distinct pleasure of announcing the winner!

The Haul and the Giving

Compared to past book sales, this time around was not as rewarding. I bought eight inches ($4); that's down from 22 inches last time. It was an odd day, that's for sure. For some reason, the weather decided, "Hey, it's almost November, let's get freaky cold, freaky fast!" And since the clouds and the wind are followers, there was no stopping the resulting dip in temperature.

I was unprepared. And I couldn't get a close parking spot to the library. I was supposed to take my grandmother with me to make up for lost bonding time, but even that didn't work out as planned. 

So, there I was. Freezing and staring at tables full of romance novels and John Grisham paperbacks. Slim pickings for the connoisseur that I assume myself to be. Don't even ask me about the YA section. I kid you not, there were THREE boxes full of copies of Twilight and New Moon. THREE. One foot by one foot boxes. At least 20 books in total. 

I should have taken a picture. But I was too tired and cold for that. And I wasn't surprised. 

Anyway, here is what I managed to find despite all of that: 

1. The Magician's Apprentice by Trudi Canavan 

2. Middlemarch by George Eliot (Admittedly something I should keep and read.) 

3. The Good Thief by Hannah Tinti 

4. A Place to Come To by Robert Penn Warren

5. A World of Great Stories ("115 stories, the best of modern literature")

6. Library of Choice Literature Vol. V: Humorous

I wish I had better choices for y'all! Hopefully the next book sale will be a bountiful book harvest. 

Aaaaaand here is the Rafflecopter thingy! Go crazy!

A few things though. I am a poor college student, and I can't afford to send packages to most foreign countries. Therefore, this contest/giveaway is open to U.S./Canada only. Sorry! I wish I had lots of money. I'd buy more books that aren't being sold 50 cents by the inch. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Potential for Some Giveaways

Bloggy friends! It's that time of year again. The time of year when my local library has its Fall 50-Cents-an-Inch Book Sale!

It happens rarely, but when it does happen, I get really excited. So excited, that I make memes.

But this time around, I had an idea. What if I bought these gently used books (some of them have probably only been read once! The travesty!) and then had a blog giveaway? Does that sound like a good idea? 

There are always some good finds at these sales, but I never really know what I'm going to find. Usually I just buy whatever appeals to me. Hopefully, I'll find some books that y'all will like too! If not, then I guess I get to keep them... *fails at looking sad*

I don't know if any of y'all are "old" book fans like me, but one great thing about these book sales is that a lot of older library patrons participant and bring in books that they've had for decades. This gives me the chance to snatch up some awesome first editions of books that you don't find very often. 

I wrote about one such instance of rare book finding in this post last year. I found a collection of poetry by the infamous Ossian. I may or may not have squealed like a little girl being tickled by her father when I found that book. Okay, I did. Every once in a while I'll pick it up, smell the old yellowed pages, and clutch it to my chest like it might disappear. 

Anyway, back to the idea at hand. Once I make my purchases and throw my back out carrying the books to my car, I'll do a catalogue of books, put together a giveaway thingy, and then let mayhem ensue! Feel free to share this with others, or not depending on how greedy you're feeling once the books are revealed. 

I may just find some super awesome books at this sale. Or I may not. One never knows how a 50-Cents-an-Inch Book Sale will turn out until one finds oneself there. 

Until next time...

The Post I Alluded to In Another Post

Here is the post I promised in that list of random facts in the prior Versatile Blogger post. Don't ever say I don't finish what I say I'm gonna start. Or something like that.

Every once in a while, my local public library likes to have a special event for people in the know. I call it the book addict's non-anonymous. We all know that libraries get donations in the form of books that people either no longer want (scandalous!), have left behind (...they're in a better place, but books can't come...which is sad), or that some kind, generous, pious individual has decided would be better loved in a library where children and adults can appreciate them.

However, due to the overwhelming amount of books or lack of space for said books, my library likes to hold 50 Cents an Inch Sales at least twice a year to raise some money. Who can blame them?

Well, who other than someone who donated half of her collection of treasured books that she fully expected to be able to check out if she wanted to read them again but found that none of the books she donated were to be found in the actual library, can blame them?

Regardless of past issues, this sale has quickly become somewhat of an addiction for me. I've already established, pretty much from the first post, that I'm addicted to buying and reading books, but this is on a whole new level. This sale is EPIC.

I bought 22 inches worth of books for only a measly $11! That's insanity! Eleven bucks is less than half of the price of a new hardback, and I bought about ten hardbacks (not new, but still) with it.

I only wish someone had thought to take pictures of me combing through the book tables and uttering cries of "Yes! It's old! It's an anthology! It's a book!" and other things. There may have been a few instances where I may have pushed an older patron slightly in order to reach a book before he/she did. Hey, what happens at 50 Cents an Inch Sale, stays at 50 Cents an Inch Sale.

Anyway, I've included pictures of some of my buys, and my prize purchase of the day, the poems of Ossian. There's a lot of controversy in the literary world surrounding the authenticity of the poet's identity and the creation of the epic poems, but I think it's awesome that I managed to find a copy that doesn't have a publish date in actual numbers.

It's in Roman Numerals. Neat, huh? MDCCCXCVI translates to 1945 in case you're trying to figure that out in your head. I couldn't, which is why I'm so glad for Google and its ability to find little plug-in things that translate things for me. Magic!

Addendum: Colin Smith alerted me to the fallacy of my Google thing, and it turns out that the year it was published was infinitely less recent. Try 1896, not 1945. In a word: jackpot!

Here's Colin's math:

The numerals on the page pictured are MDCCCXCVI. And this is 1896. M=1000, D=500, CCC=300, XC=90, and VI=6.

Thank you, Colin. You've further provided evidence that it's a good thing that I'm not trying to be a math teacher or count things for a living. Not even Google can help me.