Book Sale Finds for the week

First order of business: I'm coming to the sad conclusion that there's probably no way I'll make my reading goal for the year. I just wrapped up book #219 (Murder Most Frothy (Coffeehouse Mysteries, No. 4) by Cleo Coyle), and with 20 days left to go in the year, I'll need to read 1.55 books a day. I'm hoping to at least get close though.

So of course, instead of reading this morning I went to a book sale at a local library. I found few books of interest in fiction, but snagged quite a bit of non-fiction.

• The Italian Secretary: A Further Adventure of Sherlock Holmes by Caleb Carr. I"ve read all of Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes so I guess it's time to move to other versions. I'm a little hesitant, but who knows? Maybe it'll be like visiting an old friend.
• Dark Summit: The True Story of Everest's Most Controversial Season by Nick Heil. I'm still obsessed with all things Everest, this should do nicely.
• American Eve by Paula Uruburu. I won't lie, I bought it because the spine looked cool.
• Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void by Mary Roach. I read her most recognizable book Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, but wasn't really interested in this one until I heard her on NPR's Wait Wait Don't Tell Me! She was terrific on the show, and she made it clear that her ten-year-old boy syndrome (obsessions with all things gross and disgusting) carried over into this book. 
• Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood. I still have not read a single book by Atwood, but I get the feeling I'm going to enjoy her books. This makes book #3 I own by her.
• The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher: A Shocking Murder and the Undoing of a Great Victorian Detective by Kate Summerscale. Sounded cool, and for 25 cents not a lot of thoughts were going through my head other than that when I put it in my bag.
• A Crossword to Die for (Crossword Mysteries) by Nero Blanc. I'm on a cozy mystery kick, and this was the only one I found.

I also picked up two true crime books for my mother, all for the grand total of $6.50. See why I love book sales? If you want to see if there are any in your area, check out http://www.booksalefinder.com/. It's a great resource, and I check it weekly. If you want the best selection of books to choose from, go on the first day of a sale. If you're not picky and want to save money, go on the last day. They usually do some sort of special to move the books. Bring your own tote bags if you can, it'll make shopping much much easier (I have a nice canvas Ikea bag with huge straps,which eases some of the stress on my shoulders - laugh until you try to carry around 50 pounds of books around for over an hour). The big ones (20,000+ books) usually have a great selection of collectible books as well, but you'll need to go to the preview to get anything valuable. You can also pick up movies, audiobooks and puzzles at these sales. Happy hunting :)