09 June 2007

The Wilds of Nova Scotia. With Books!

Yesterday, Deva and I had planned to go to Frenchy's, a secondhand place I've heard much about since moving here but never visited (I should clarify, Frenchy's is actually a chain, not a single store). We thought we might also make a quick stop at Value Village and perhaps Chapters, and then grab some groceries on the way home. After visiting the Frenchy's in Sackville, where I got a gorgeous velvet scarf for $1.50 and a couple of tops for work, we got back on the road and the conversation turned, as it often does when Deva and I are in the same place, to books. Somehow Wolfville (home of Acadia University) also came up, and I mentioned a bookstore I'd seen in the phone book that looked intriguing. Deva thought it might be a shop she remembered, and so we decided, what the hell, and drove out to Wolfville (in a car borrowed from Judy, Deva's mom).

Said bookstore, The Odd Book, turned out to be as wonderful as I'd hoped (though the "books about books" section was a bit of a disappointment). They had a lot of obscure old stuff for reasonable prices (plus a few things I though were priced a little on the high side). When we pried ourselves away from the books, we each had a substantial stack and had decided that semi-regular trips to book shop might be a good idea. Here's what I ended up with:
  • Edwin Mulhouse by Stephen Millhauser -- fiction by the fellow who wrote the short story that the movie The Illusionist was based on (fine movie, too)
  • Martin Dressler by Stephen Millhauser -- yeah, same guy; I've been devouring his short stories, and so decided to tackle his novels
  • The End of Faith by Sam Harris -- one to add to my atheist library; it was on my list of things to look for specifically
  • The Great Houdini by Williams and Epstein -- for my research on the history of magic that will eventually result in a novel
  • Tales of the Fairies and of the Ghost World by Jeremiah Curtin -- for the fairy library; I'm not sure if I used this one in my thesis--if not, I should have
  • On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin -- finally my own copy; I've been reading Darwin's Ghost by Steve Jones, which is sort of an updated version
  • Issues in Science and Religion by Ian G. Barbour
  • The Death of Adam: Evolution and its impact on Western thought by John C. Greene
So, lots of fabulous things to read.

And I have much more to write about, such as Sue's visit, my birthday (plus thanks to gift-givers), and my thoughts on the two new blogs listed to the left (Deva's and Ryan's, for which I am sort of responsible), and the change in appearance of this very blog.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I had a BLAST! The lovely weather, the rich spices and teas at Eos (health food & gormet kitchen shop), and the picture perfect landscapes were a treat. The best bits though, were wandering around the bookstore giggling over some of the absurd theories and antiquated notions we found in the books! Nik & I have so much fun, sometimes we attract an audience!
Deva

Unknown said...

It's true! I love book shopping with Deva. Sometimes we get evil looks (like the time in the christian book store), and sometimes the booksellers love our enthusiasm. I wish I'd bought that book of underground stuff, though. That was just so wonderful and strange.

Rowena Hart said...

I envy you two. Remember the good old days at Pickwick Books at 6-Mile, Niko? And the reverent silence and creaky wooden floors at Munroe's Books?

I made my own kind of book store pilgrimage this weekend - a 10-minute raid of the travel guidebook section in Bolen Books. I got two books on China and spent the rest of the weekend planning a trip around China. (I blogged the route, in case you're curious.)

Unknown said...

Yeah, I saw your blog post. I really miss Bolen Books. They had the best selection and were not an evil empire like Chapters. And Pickwick will always have a special place in my bookstore memory. Mmm. Books.