The Renaissance art book was published in 1985, and though most of its illustrations are black and white it does have a few sections with color illustrations, including a few full page plates. Seeking more information about it on the Internets I found that a second edition (2005) of it is still in print, and I'd be able to pick up a new paperback copy at Barnes and Noble for $190.38, which is 11% off the regular price. Of course other sellers have used copies for much less, but the shipping and handling on those would be more than the buck and a half I paid for the hardback at the Goodwill store, so I probably got a good deal.
I also picked up two slightly lighter books. One is a hardbound volume of five Agatha Christie novels, only one of which I already have in a different edition, an the other is a thick paperback of A. M. Sperber and Eric Lax's 1997 biography Bogart, which has been hanging out on the shelf there for some time, probably because it's in somewhat crappy condition, but I figure for a buck, what the hell. It even has a few photos I've never seen before.
Finally, there are five very light paperbacks; a Modern Library edition of Twain's Huckleberry Finn (to replace the one I lost in the fire,) and a volume of Edith Wharton's novel Ethan Frome, which is accompanied by four of her short stories. The other three volumes are poetry (harder to come by at the Goodwill store than I'd have expected,) these being The Collected Poems of Wilfred Owen, Goethe's Roman Elegies (including a selection of his other poems,) and The Half-Finished Heaven, by Nobel Prize winner Tomas Tranströmer, translated from the Swedish by another of my favorite poets, Robert Bly. Altogether a decent haul for little more than the price of three burritos from Taco Bell, or two and half coffee drinks from Starbucks. But then I might have to ice my shoulder, as carrying all those books back to the apartment put quite a strain on it.
Anyway it's been a long day and I'm going to try to get to sleep a bit earlier tonight, and maybe I'll get up early enough (and have sufficient energy) to do something tomorrow before (or after) the rain hits. If it's too rainy and I have to stay here I've got plenty of stuff to read.
