First Saturday Book Sale at Swanson Library, Omaha

I did rather well at today's sale. Among the great finds were the Larousse Gastronomy from 1961, an oversized Life magazine cookery collection (featuring stories that ran in Life) from 1958, and a book on Philip the Fair that begins, "Philip the Fair is a hard man to know" which made me laugh, seeing how he's been dead since the 13th Century. Sorry, nerd humour. Anyway, we also came home with various field guides to identify insects, some sort of, "How-to" book of witchcraft (Mr. ETB insists it is technically a reference book), and a US army publication from the 1950's explaining the Soviet threat to newly deployed officers in Europe.

I'm now the proud owner of a book on making mead-several varieties of mead. I have no idea if I will like mead, but I do like an interesting challenge. I found a 1972 copy of the Ball Blue Book which has some interesting recipes that seem to have disappeared in subsequent re-printings. Also discovered were a copy of Maryland's way, a collection of historical recipes, and a copy of The Colony Cookbook, from the long-defunct (but still kinda famous) Colony restaurant in New York. More stories than recipes in that one, but still fun.

I think the way the book sales have been re-arranged in an improvement. Rather than a three day quarterly sale, they do every Thursday, and the first Saturday of each month. It is easier on the volunteers, and it keeps a nice flow of new materials through the place. I certainly didn't have any difficulty finding things to purchase, and I was just there Thursday. People were in good spirits, the weather was lovely, and I finally own a copy of the Larousse. Not a bad afternoon.