This afternoon I went to the Goodwill store and did find some books to buy. The shelves have been largely restocked, and a few interesting things that might not last long turned up, so I picked up an almost pristine hardbound copy of Amy Tan's Saving Fish from Drowning, plus a somewhat-the-worse-for-wear copy of an omnibus edition of four detective novels by Dell Shannon. Shannon is a nom de plume of Barbara Linington (1921-1988,) who wrote over eighty books, mostly pulp novels, using several pen names. I've never read any of her stuff before, though I've long intended to.
I have read Amy Tan before, of course, and before the fire I had a copy of The Joy Luck Club, a novel I enjoyed very much. When I see her books in the "general fiction" section at the Goodwill store I'm tempted to move them into the "literature" section. But that store still puts Carson McCullers' books in the general fiction section, so Ms. Tan is at least partly in good company.
But the chill is seeping into the room, and I'm eager to get into bed and under the electric blanket, so I'm cutting this short. I'd best bring in the baby jade plant form the back yard first, though. I've lost those to cold nights before.