Best Book Scouting Day Ever!

So yesterday, I had an amazing day.  On 4th of July weekend 2011, I started seriously collecting books.  My main focus is scifi and horror by minority writers, but I also will pick up books by others that I really love that don’t fit into those categories.  In a little over a year, I have found some really good stuff.  Gems include:

• Dawn by Octavia Butler (1St)
• American Gods and Neverwhere (signed) by Neil Gaiman (both 1st)
• Signed copies of Lady Oracle and Dancing Girls by Margaret Atwood
• Lion’s Blood (1st) by Steven Barnes
• Signed copy of Invisible Sign of My Own by Amiee Bender (review copy)
• 16 signed books of Roger Zelanzy
• The Road (1st) by Cormac Mccarthy
• All three Dragon Tattoo books (1st)
• A few other books by Octavia Butler, Steven Barnes, Tananarive Due, and Samuel R. Delaney

Yes, this year has been good to me.  But yesterday I found a Fist Edition of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale.  I am a huge Atwood fan and I lost my &!@% when I saw it on the shelf.  It is officially one of the most expensive books I have ever found.  So cool!

I needed the boost.  Not only is my company still on shakey ground, but it is very discouraging when you need to get your car repaired and it takes your whole paycheck.  But it had to be done.  Luckily I have perfected the art of living as a struggling artist, so I had the money to pay.  I just hate seeing it go out as soon as it comes in.

I have started my new semester at JHU.  So far so good.  Lots of reading this semester and I’m mixed in with some nonfiction students, so this is a new experience for me.  I even picked up a copy of Didion’s Year of Magical Thinking to read in between semesters.

I also picked up Infinite Jest to read over break.  Ambitious I know, but I’m feeling like I need to read more.  Just flipping through it intimidated the heck out of me.  So many dense passages!  But I may love it, so I will dive in head first in late December.

Wish me luck!