This weekend was the grand opening for the new Half-Price Books in Round Rock.
As they usually do, Half-Price was distributing coupons: 40% off one item on Thursday, 30% off on Friday, 20% off on Saturday, and 50% off on Sunday. (I heard one clerk complain that those coupons were only supposed to apply to the Round Rock store, but they made them valid for all the stores in error. I think that clerk was full of it, but that’s just my opinion.)
Anyway, I picked up a few interesting things Thursday through Saturday, including a copy of An Economist Gets Lunch: New Rules for Everyday Foodies (at 40% off of half cover price) and Appetite City: A Culinary History of New York (which I didn’t burn a coupon on, as the copy I found was marked down to $4.99).
Today was 50% off day. I had some things I was thinking about picking up, but then I got lucky. Fortunately, I had two coupons…
The new (2010) of Bill Warren’s magnificent book, Keep Watching the Skies! American Science Fiction Movies of the Fifties, The 21st Century Edition, complete with Howard Waldrop introduction. Cover is $99, so take half of that, and then take 50% off of that with the coupon…
Hoglegs, Hipshots and Jalapenos, the other collection of Skeeter Skelton’s work from Shooting Times. Some of you may remember me mentioning I found a copy of Good Friends, Good Guns, Good Whisky in a Las Vegas bookstore last year and paid (mumble mumble) for it. This was in a locked glass case at HPB and I nearly walked past it; I’m glad I didn’t. I won’t say how much I paid, but with the coupon, it was about half of the (mumble mumble) price I paid for volume one in Vegas, and nowhere near the asking prices on Amazon.
Squee!
Which RR HPB case was that in? I didn’t see it in the Nostalgia section (right corner of the store as you walk in) on Thursday.
The Warren book was actually out on the shelf, in the movies/TV section, at the main HPB on North Lamar.
The Skelton book was in a glass case in the “nostalgia” section at the HPB on 183 and Anderson Mill. (I had poked around on the shelves in that section for gun books, and set aside a history of the Winchester 1866 rifle. But then I found the Skelton book in the case; they also had some other gun-related rarities in that same case that I hadn’t noticed previously.)
I was proud of the “Hatcher’s Notebook” I scored from HPB last year but you did well.
I should have thought to go to another HPB location to use the coupon. Sunday at RR was packed.
Anyone who like Skeeter rates a spot on my blogroll. Done.
I used to hunt mulies in Colorado with a buddy who knew Skelton.
Jim:
I am deeply touched and highly honored. I was a fan of your blog even before I had one of my own. Skeeter and John D. MacDonald and Elmer Keith were big parts of my teenage years. (I know I’ve written about Skeeter and Elmer before, but I don’t think I’ve mentioned McGee.)
Thank you. I shall strive to be worthy of the honor.