This week has ended on a nicely high note. As you may have noticed, I’ve been very quiet on the blog posting front recently, because I’ve been deeply involved elsewhere. No worries, the involvement has been with good and enjoyable things, but oh my goodness, time consuming things, they all were.
This week I’ve put in an uncountable number of hours on the upcoming Performing Arts Festival preparations – I’m a member of the organizational committee – plus another 24 hours on the road driving the dancer of the family to classes (twice to Prince George and back, 5 hours driving each time), plus another 5 hours each day waiting around in town for her. That time was spent sitting at the laptop working on Festival stuff, so was not a complete waste of time. Yesterday off we went down to Vancouver to work with her choreographer – more hours waiting around tip-tapping on the laptop in between being summoned to watch progress – and then back home again this afternoon/evening – 14+ hours of driving for that little episode, of the 36 hours we were away. (I’m still moving. Must find my land legs …)
I was rewarded for my Super-Mom-ism when, on our single non-dance-related stop, in Hope for a flying visit to the great little secondhand bookstore there, I scored a tall stack of D.E.Stevenson paperbacks. And even better, guess what I paid? Listen to this. Two dollars each. Unbelievable. They’re all well-read, but in really decent condition.
Where should I start? I’ve read only a few of these before, and though I know these will vary widely in quality, I suspect the process of exploration will be highly enjoyable.
So the first thing I’m doing upon entering my own house and sitting down at the computer, even before checking my stacked-up email, is gloating to you, dear blog readers. I know there will be a few of you who will understand my deep inner thrill at this romantic little jackpot!
Here’s what I brought home:
- The Baker’s Daughter (read it – loved it)
- Vittoria Cottage
- Crooked Adam
- Shoulder the Sky (read it – very good)
- Fletcher’s End
- Rochester’s Wife
- Green Money (read it – ho-hum)
- The House on the Cliff
- The English Air
- Celia’s House
- Katherine Wentworth
- Spring Magic
- Amberwell
- Kate Hardy
- The Four Graces (read it – liked it a lot)
- Anna and Her Daughters
- Music in the Hills
- Smouldering Fire
- The Tall Stranger
Logging off now, to go to bed. Not to sleep, though. I’ll be dallying for a while with a book, of course. Though not one of the new acquisitions quite yet. Still trying to make it through the Canada Reads books before the debates start on Monday. So far I’ve read Indian Horse and The Age of Hope, am halfway through the brutally tedious Two Solitudes, well into Away, and am frequently glancing hopefully at as-yet-unopened February, which, from all reports by fellow bloggers whose tastes I share, may well be the best of the bunch.
I’m thinking of dumping Two Solitudes unfinished, and concentrating on the other two. I think I’ve got McLennan’s theme figured out in Solitudes, and I honestly don’t really care what happens to any of his boring characters. Might be different in a less busy time, but right now the reading hours are even more precious than usual, and I’m resenting time spent on dullness. Engage me, authors, oh please!
Leaves & Pages 
Wow, what a deal on the DES books! I have read a few of those, Amberwell probably being my favourite of the ones you brought home. Enjoy!
Oh lordy, what riches! Go slow and savour each one.
I was planning to go down to the basement and seek out my copy of Two Solitudes, which I read in school a million years ago — okay, 40. I liked it (more the second half than the first) and reread it several times. I wonder if I should leave it alone now and let it live in my memory.
I’m surprised it was on the shortlist, because it’s from a long long time ago, and everything — EVERYTHING — has changed since then.
I really want to give February another shot.
My eyes are like saucers reading this post. When I was a kid, we used to scour the used bookstores, and later the internet, in search of used DE Stevenson books to get for my mother, and it was so difficult to find nice copies of them. Nowadays she has close to a full complement of hardback copies, but if I’d found a stack of $2 paperbacks as a kid it would have been her best Christmas ever.
This is wonderful! I had a similar experience in the late 80s or early 90s when I arrived at my local library and they were discarding DES books. The librarian sold them to me for fifty cents each, all hardbacks. I’ve been collecting her books since the late 60s and have found them all for myself and my two daughters who also enjoy them.
You have an excellent blog!
I’ve only recently discovered D.E. Stevenson – and quickly learned how hard her books are to find. I have book envy!
This was absolutely unexpected! I’ve been watching for D.E.Stevensons in all of my rambles, and have only come up with one prior to this windfall, a rather pricey hardcover. There have to have been zillions of these in print – they were so popular in their time. Where the heck *are* they, then?!
I will be saving these little treats for times when most needed, for sure!
Wow wonderful finds! Heard about this on the DES list and am thrilled for you! I love hearing these stories – gives us all hope!
Where are they all, you ask? They’re on our bookshelves, because we all keep them forever. Until we release the lot because we can’t take them with us.
You know, Susan, that’s the only sad thing about finds like this. You always strongly suspect that the pile of obviously-once-beloved books has been dumped off at the store because of the death of, or, at best, change in living circumstance of someone – ie. from a house to an apartment in the seniors’ complex, or someplace even more restricted.
My own children already have firm instructions as to the eventual disposal of my beloveds; I don’t mind if they go out of the family, as many of them doubtless will, but I’d like them to end up in places where fellow booklovers can hopefully get their hands on them; I have a few “treasures” which have little monetary value but which would be priceless to a younger version of me just getting going on the book acquiring and discovery game!
In the meantime, I have every intention of keeping my lovingly assembled books on my own shelves for my personal “forever”! 🙂
Wow, I’m so envious! I just read Shoulder the Sky and The House on the Cliff. Both were so good!
Amazing! How fortunate, what a haul! Very exciting indeed, I know just how you feel, if I’d found that many at once I might have swooned 😉