Sunday, February 11, 2007

A Box Of Books From Bronson









It was last Wednesday evening, and I had given up all hope of receiving mail for the day.


I was in CanadaBoy's office, playing with his dog, Ollie, and watching CanadaBoy razor recipes out of Men's Health magazine. Oooh wait...what's this issue? Josh Holloway on the cover? Shirtless, with his trademark cocky grin?...

A knock on the door. Annoyed, I looked over, wondering just who was messing with my Josh Holloway reverie. My frown changed to a smile. It was the campus post office student worker, and he was holding a box out to me and bowing.

CanadaBoy grunted and didn't even pause with the razor. He knew the drill: box, Bybee's office is next door...must be books.

Yep, it was books, all right. From my friend, Bronson. We went to graduate school together. He now lives in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. He looks like Vincent D'Onofrio.

Manfred Jr.'s share of the haul included a couple of books by Richard Roeper and a stack of new comic books. My share included:

With Six You Get Eggroll [movie tie-in paperback with Doris Day and Brian Keith on the cover]
Mutiny On The Bounty -Nordhoff and Hall
Daisy Fay And The Miracle Man -Fannie Flagg [Fannie Flagg's debut novel. I started reading it and got about halfway through and could not finish. The narrator is a young girl, but her voice feels too young and too thin and it just goes on and on for pages and pages. It's like hearing an unpleasantly high-pitched voice talking fast for hours and hours, and maybe it's saying something, but by that time, all you want is some aspirin and a billy club.]
All Creatures Great And Small -James Herriot
The Lord God Made Them All - James Herriot
Is There A Doctor In The Zoo? - David Taylor
Cat Stories -James Herriot
50 Great Short Stories -Milton Crane, Editor
Fiction 100: An Anthology Of Short Stories -James H. Pickering, Editor
Damon Runyon Favorites - Damon Runyon, foreword by Walter Winchell [this small paperback was published in 1943! There's a note at the front that says that our boys overseas need books, so when you're finished with this book, take it to your local public library, and they'll send it on.]

Wow, it's a great haul! Lots to look at. Thanks, Bronson!

6 comments:

Les said...

That is a great haul! Too bad the Flagg book didn't work for you, though. I read it a decade or so ago and loved it, laughing out loud as I recall, but now I haven't a clue what it was about. I loved Fried Green Tomatoes and Standing in the Rainbow, but couldn't stand one of her more recent books (Redbird Christmas or something of that sort).

Anonymous said...

Wow! Isn't it great to get books in the mail?

I read Fried Green Tomatoes and enjoyed it but have never felt the urge to read any of her other books.

Vincent D'Onofrio, you say? Mmmmmm

MissMiller said...

Oooooh a whole box of books. How fantastic! Now that should keep you busy for awhile.

Bybee said...

Les, I really wanted to like Daisy Fay. When I used to watch "Match Game", I always liked Fannie Flagg the best. And it's cool that she was close friends with Rita Mae Brown. Maybe I'll try Fried Green Tomatoes. After all, Daisy Fay was a first novel.

Lesley, Yes, Vincent D'Onofrio. Everyone says so, no kidding.

Acquisitionist, Yes, it's great to get a box of books, but on the down side, my whining and bleating about the dearth of books in Korea is going start sounding a little lame and unbelievable. Still, there is a dearth of bookstores with English language books in the town where I live. Maybe I can coast on that for a while re: sympathy.

Kim said...

Hi, looks like a great haul you got! I just love getting books...it makes me so happy :0) By the way, thanks for stopping by my site! I have added your site to my blog roll and I have enjoyed looking through you posts! Happy reading :0)

Anonymous said...

If you're into D'Onofrio you should check out my blog and the links that lead off of it!

 
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