Sunday Salon: May 16, 2010.

I finally feel like I have a chance to breathe this weekend! I have been on the go at work for a while and I thankfully am enjoying a 4-day weekend that started yesterday. The break is much needed and I have a lot of plans for what I want and need to accomplish.

We went to a wedding yesterday for a good friend I went to college with. We really are at that age where everyone we know is starting to settle down a bit.

Today I am going to relax with my little sister, bake some goodies, and have a Disney movie marathon. It will be a great time to relax and chill out, and cuddle with the kitties.

Yesterday I made a post giving the details of the Cranford Read-Along. If you haven't already, go and visit (and perhaps sign up) to participate! Later on today, you're going to see the sign-up for Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift if Cranford is not your cup of tea. Either way I hope you will consider reading at least one of these with me.

I went to my library's used book sale on Friday, which I had been looking forward to for weeks. Imagine my disappointment when I went in to find that there were not nearly as many books as in past sales. I made it a point to ask a volunteer if donations were down, but she told me that on Thursday a man and a woman came and loaded up 35 boxes of books. When they were asked about the quantity they were buying, they said they were buying them to sell on Ebay.

I was really upset with this. I understand that the sales are open to the public and anyone can come in and buy the books, but I was always under the impression that the sales were also for the community, not for someone to make a profit. I said as much to the volunteer, but she told me the library still made money off what the couple bought, so it was all the same to them.

When I went to the sale in September, I went armed with the list of books I am planning to read. I found a great selection and ended up bring home something like 40 books. I even left a great number there that I wanted so I wasn't going overboard. However, by the time I made it to the literature and classics section, I was lucky to find a grand total of 30 or so books there (there were hundreds at the previous sale). I picked through and found a few that I wanted, but it is obvious that the couple who purchased so many really picked out everything.

So, that was a huge bust and I am sorely disappointed, but I ended up with a couple of great finds, including a beautiful green hardcover collection of some of Mark Twain's novels. I also found a great teaching resource book, as well as 4 more books off of my list. I also bought a couple of fun things for the future, including a two book collection of D.H. Lawrence short stories, and another Willa Cather novel.

I managed to finished The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy yesterday, and I rather enjoyed it. I was worried I wouldn't like it, since I have quite a number of Hardy novels on my list, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was a wonderful novel.

I think I am going to dive into Of Mice and Men to finish off the LOST books challenge, and try to get through some more of Holmes.

Happy Reading!