Book Haul

[zephroar]

Last Monday was a day where I had a bit of extra time on my hands and I made the decision to stop in at a local secondhand bookshop to browse their shelves. I used to stop in at this book store every Saturday to see what they had and usually came away with a few books that were added to my personal library. A few months ago I made the choice to see how much money I can save if I were to cut unnecessary expenses, including the amount I was spending on books.

It was difficult to restrain myself from buying a lot more books, but I did get a bit of a haul. Most of them are classics. I've been trying to stay away from classic literature since I've got way too many of them on my shelves and I am worried that my reading tastes may be changing. However, I always go to the classics section of secondhand bookstores because it's now a habit of mine. Since there needs to be some organisation here, I will be separating books in categories.

With the secondhand bookshop I went to, I had a lot of book credits since I regularly unhaul books and bring them there in exchange for credit so I got a few of these books via that credit.

Category I: Ancient Classics

• Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Colonus, Antigone by Sophocles
• The Peloponnesian War by Thucydides
• The Trojan Women and Other Plays by Euripides
• Electra, The Phoenician Women, and The Bacchae by Euripides
• The Oresteia by Aeschylus
• The Histories by Herodotus
• Metamorphoses by Ovid
• The Aeneid by Virgil
• The Conquest of Gaul by Caesar

Category II: Medieval Literature/Classics

• The Life of King Arthur (Everyman Classics) with works by Wace and Lawman

Category III: English and French literature from the 16th Century to the Victorian Period

• The Old Arcadia by Sir Philip Sidney
• The School of Scandal and Other Plays by Richard Brinsley Sheridan
• Letters of a Peruvian Woman by Françoise de Graffigny
• Cecilia by Frances Burney
• The Heart of Midlothian by Sir Walter Scott

Category IV: Victorian Literature to Modern Literature

• The Oxford Book of English Ghost Stories
• The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
• Casting the Runes by M.R. James
• The Old Peabody Pew by Kate Douglas Wiggin
• Westwood by Stella Gibbons
• The Great War in Verse and Prose (Printed by Order of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario)
• Mythology by Edith Hamilton
• When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit by Judith Kerr

Category V: Medieval Murder Mysteries and Sherlock Holmes Retellings

• The Credition Killings by Michael Jecks
• Sherlock Holmes & The Christmas Demon by James Lovegrove
• The Adventure of the Peculiar Protocols by Nicholas Meyer

In the end, I spent about $80 on books. Many of the classics were between $0.50-$5.00 depending upon their condition and how many copies were available. Due to the fact that the store is located in a city where there's a college and university, a lot of the ancient classics were in a box and were reduced in price due to how many there were on the shelves. Some of them are in really good condition, but due to them being studied they are written in and highlighted. Though one student did the sticky notes method- which is interesting to see since I've only seen this method with science students.

The most expensive classic was a vintage edition of The Old Peabody Pew which was marked at $14.95.

Anyway, I have enough books to last me for a long time, but I am a little disappointed that I didn't look for other books and I just stuck to classics. If anybody has any recommendations for YA fantasy, YA historical fiction, or general historical fiction- please let me know since I feel that I am only sticking to classics because that's what I am comfortable with.

Comments

[octahedrite]

What a haul! Nice hunting. I would love to hear your thoughts on The Oxford Book of English Ghost Stories. Also, are you European? lol

For historical fiction, I have enjoyed When the Angels Left the Old Country by Sacha Lamb and The Girls at the Kingfisher Club by Genevieve Valentine. They are kind of recent history though.

[zephroar]

Sorry for not responding to you right away! Between my depression, issues in real life, and being sick I haven't been on here for so long. I've read some of the stories in the Oxford Book of English Ghost Stories and they are really good. I thought that they were going to be limited to a specific timeline, but I was pleasantly surprised to find a range of ghost stories from the Victorian Era to the mid 20th century. I love ghost stories so the stories I've read were great fun to read.

I haven't read my way through all of the stories right now. I've since found another book called 'The Oxford Book of English Detective Stores' that I got from one of my local libraries monthly book sale. It does have a Sherlock Holmes story which I think is to be expected given how well known Sherlock Holmes, but it's got so many short stories from the genre (or subgenre?). I've been really enjoying my time with these little stories as well.

I just wish that Oxford did something with a collection of women detectives. I do have the Penguin Book of Victorian Women in Crime but I haven't read any of the stories yet. I have to finish reading all the library books I've recently taken out since I got a little crazy with placing holds on books. O.o

I am going to search up the books you recommended for historical fiction. I've really, really been loving historical fiction lately. If you like historical fiction, I found some self published authors that you might like. I found some amazing books by looking for Indie authors on Amazon. In time, I hope to do some book reviews on here so I can tell people about the books that I've read!

[octahedrite]

No worries! And thanks for sharing your thoughts. I'll look forward to your next review :)