I had the day off today, so I went down to the annual Salt Lake City Library book sale. The bad news was that this was one of the last days of sale (everything has already been picked over), the good news was that I got everything even cheaper. I think I still managed to get some decent books because the majority of the population around here (that might buy Christian theology) are either Mormon or VERY conservative evangelical.... neither of which would typically grab the books that would be of interest to me.
It is a bit like an Easter Egg hunt - digging through the piles of stuff I don't recognize - hoping to spot a name or a title I want. Glancing through a few unknowns that sound interesting. The emotions ranging from "Meh... I'll try that for a quarter" ... to uttering "No $***" in the religion isle because I found a like-new Marcus Borg.
At one point, a gentleman was drifting into my isle and I felt myself get a little territorial. I clutched my books tighter and gave him the evil eye. In his arms he had books by Joyce Meyer and Tim Lahaye. Whew! No danger there. Then he looks up and down my stack of books and shakes his head. I could see he was debating whether to give me a lecture, which would most likely be dripping in Christianese. Fortunately for me, his economic sense won out and he went back to his searching; I was in no mood to be evangelized with cliche's and single syllable words.
Before leaving, I drifted through the LDS section, just in case there was any Robert Millet in there. Nope. But wedged in between some copies of "The Work and the Glory" was a book co-authored by Borg and Crossan. My ecumenical nature had struck pay-dirt!
So what did I get?
Total Surrender - Mother Teresa
Words to Love By - Mother Teresa
Beyond Theology - Alan Watts
Who Killed Jesus? - Dominic Crossan
The First Christmas - Dominic Crossan and Marcus Borg
The God We Never Knew - Marcus Borg
Meeting Jesus Again For The First Time - Marcus Borg
Resurrection - John Shelby Spong
Why Christianity Must Change or Die - John Shelby Spong
The Power Of Now - Eckhart Tolle
A New Earth - Eckhart Tolle
Reading Judas - Elaine Pagels
The Sign of Jonas - Thomas Merton
Soul Survivor - Philip Yancey
The Road Less Traveled and Beyond - M. Scott Peck
Traveling Mercies - Anne Lamott
Religious Literacy - Stephen Prothero
Spontaneous Fulfillment of Desire - Deepak Chopra
Letter to a Christian Nation - Sam Harris
The Death and Life of Michael Servetus -Roland Bainton
Failing America's Faithful - Kathleen Kennedy Townsend
Freedom in Exile - The Dalai Lama
How then shall we live? - Wayne Muller
The 5 People You Meet in Heaven - Mitch Albom
All of these are spread out in front of me, and it feels like Christmas morning.
Total spent: $9
Adding to my library: Priceless
13 comments:
nice score andrew!
One silver lining of not fitting in!
(That was pretty harsh about the single syllables, though...)
The Eckhart Tolle books are and continue to change my life.
I won't critique your selection other than to say when you shop at the supermarket, their are 15 other aisles of sweet and savory treats. John Shelby Spong, Marcus Borg, and Mother Tereasa...its like confining yourself to the dairy section. Read Tony Blair's autobiography stat!
And who reads physical books anymore? There's a reason why they're 25 cents.
dude! that is a crazy good batch of books for 9 bucks! Alan Watts alone should be worth it (he's my new favourite of the moment. am currently reading "The Wisdom of Insecurity" and am highlighting tons). That Yancy book is the only one I ever liked by him, and I really liked it. Holy cow... I've never had a used book buying take as good as that one! I wanna fly out there just to revel in that pile too! the bit about the "evil eye" run in with the older gentleman made me laugh. I kind of wish you had gotten "scolded in Christ". I always love those stories...(as long as they happen to others).
Oh, BTW, I only chastise you on the physical book thing because I have officially become an elitist "Kindle" snob. :)
When you read "The New Yorker" on your Kindle (as I do now) you enter the realm of the shallow and the pathetic. Save yourself! Go get that hard copy Thomas Merton for $.50
Can I borrow the Sam Harris book when your finished with it?
What a score!! My goodness, you hit paydirt! I love that list. Have you not read any of those that you purchased (stole)? If not, you are in for a treat.
Hey Adam!
Red - Yeah,it was a little tongue in cheek, a little reality. I have gotten about 3 of those lectures in the past two weeks and that was the thought drifting through my head at the moment. :)
TGD - Haven't read him before, but I have seen him quoted a fair bit.
Steve - I read other stuff, but I find theology is the only thing I care to keep. I did drift over to the politics section, but got nauseas after seeing about 10 copies of Ann Coulter.
That Kindle with 3g is tempting.
Brook - We gotta find ya a cheap flight out here sometime during the book sale (correction, it is twice a year).
Kevin - Yeah, I assumed you already had it otherwise I would have picked up another. I may not get to it for a bit, so I'll bring it to a show.
Don - I have read Borg's "God We Never Knew" and already owned it, but for 25 cents I figured it is a good lender. (BTW, on your blog... it is Bruce, not Bob.) :)
BTW, I got a lecture today on another post... check the last comment on
http://mrhackman.blogspot.com/2009/05/bart-campolo-on-limits-of-gods-grace.html
:)
Thanks Andrew. I blame it on old age!
See, I told you I left you some good stuff! I actually thought off buying you a number of the books you ended up getting but I only had so much cash on me!
Happy reading.
-Mark
Wow, you did hit the jackpot. I loved Traveling Mercies.
Happy Reading . . .
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