Friday, October 9, 2009

It's Library Book Sale Weekend, People!!

It's time to get you some very inexpensive second-hand books!

Yes, it's time for the Friends of the Multnomah County Library Annual Booksale again -- the 36th Annual, if memory serves -- and I am legally obligated to demand that you -- YOU!! -- turn out in droves. And I don't care if you DO live on the East Coast: YOU WANT TO BE AT THIS SALE!!!

This is the biggest and bestest used booksale in all of the Beaver State, with gazillions of books and other media on offer. Most books are $1.50. It's also just a fun event, with lots of book-dork energy, browsing, and people-watching. It's fun.

Friday Night -- tonight, Friday the 9th -- is the Members only pre-sale, 6 to 9 pm. You can purchase your membership at the door for $30, and of course you should. Or are you a filthy commie library-hater? I don't think so!

General Hours are 9 am to 6 pm on Saturday, and 11 am to 5 pm on Sunday.

Monday the 12th is half-price day, 9 am to 3 pm.

So, come on down to the unfortunately abandoned Ecomotion dealership at 1625 NE Sandy Blvd on the beautiful East Side of the City of Roses. Hut hut hut!!!


Michael5000: Raging Sexist

When Jenners posted her quarterly reading tally today, I realized that since I've been tracking my own reading on GoodReads, I could do the same thing. The initial results were favorable: I read some 31 books between June and September, which makes me roughly 1.8 times as bookish -- or as I like to think of it, "pretty much twice as smart" -- as Jenners.

Mind you, 10 of my 31 books were audiobooks, but I think we can all embrace an inclusive definition of "read," right? Right.

Where it got disturbing, though, was in the gender breakdown. Where the enlighted Jenners had an exactly even gender balance among her authors, I had read -- get this -- a whopping 27 books by men, and only 4 by chicks! I'm a Neanderthal!

Obviously, I need to be reading more books by the ladies! I will have to pick some up at the Friends of the Multnomah Public Library 36th Annual Booksale tonight. See you there!

10 comments:

mrs.5000 said...

Well, you have been hitting the hard-boiled detective genre pretty hard of late, mon Neanderthal.

Here's an idea: check out the poetesses and memoiresses and chiquelitteresses at the specially cordoned-off "Lady Writers" table. JUST KIDDING! GOD FORBID! PLEASE DON'T STRIKE ME DOWN, ASTARTE!

Rebel said...

When I think of the most chauvanistic men I know... yes, M5K I think of you and your gender-imbalanced reading list.

I HIGHLY recommend: The Good Earth, by Pearl S. Buck (short but powerful), or Gone with the Wind, by Margaret Mitchell (long but full of awesomeness). Then there's Jane Austen who I've been reading quite a lot of lately. Sense & Sensibility is probably my favorite. Of course if you want to earn major 'chick-lit' cred, you could check out Ann Rand or Margaret Atwood.


Mrs5K - I'm sure you will be comforted to know that in Pattaya (official sex-tourism capital of Thailand) "lady writers" get their own whole shelf, where Edith Wharton and Danielle Steel sit side by side in sisterly (if not alphabetical) harmony.

Elaine said...

Hmmm. Feeling too suspicious about Rebel's post--would the Real Rebel use WHO when she meant WHOM?

I realize I'm being prejudiced, but: DO NOT read Ayn Rand (or even Ann-sic-Rand)...but DO read _The Handmaid's Tale (Atwood.)

SURELY you have already devoured all of Pearl S. Buck, Margaret Mitchell, and Jane Austen. I mean, they are hardly newly published! And if you like that hard-boiled detective stuff, PD James will serve, eh?

Christine M. said...

Well, of course you haven't read many books by chicks. They have little fuzzy wings and no thumbs and therefore don't write or publish much.


She's not exactly hard-boiled, but I like Cara Black's mysteries.

Anonymous said...

I'll be at the sale Sunday instead of Monday, Michael -- with a boy in tow! Point us to the geek section, please.

Michael5000 said...

It's ALL the geek section, Kate.

Rebel said...

Elaine honey - the fact that I can speak English at all after this whole year is a miracle. Let's not nit-pick.

Sarah Nopp said...

ooo- I know just what you need to balance it all out... something geeky & chewy that will look good on the bookshelf, and I think will equal about 3 of the other titles:
Women's Work: The First 20,000 Years by Elizabeth Wayland Barber. She also wrote The Mummies of Urumchi, with a great cover photo :)

Jenners said...

While I might agree with "raging sexist," I certainly don't agree with "that makes me twice as smart as Jenners." No way bud. That just means you don't have a little kid underfood all the time. So there.

; )

margaret said...

The "raging sexist" thing catches my eye and makes me think of that quote from Spinal Tap: "There's such a fine line between sexist and sexy."

So perhaps you could play up the latter?