They've got me feeling deluxe, for just a couple of bucks

I take immense pleasure at finding books at out of the way used bookstores. Since you can get most items via abebooks or Amazon used books, you don't even need to go digging. Still the pleasure of the hunt and the discovery are hard to replace.

I stopped at one recently and found a few great treats. The first is Tears of Autumn by Charles McCarry. McCarry was long out of print, although he is finally back on the new shelves. This one looks at the Kennedy assassination. Yes, its been done too many times, but I suspect that in McCarry's capable hands it will be a winner.

I also found John Dickson Carr's the Burning Court, which came highly recommended on one of Michael Dirda's chats. This one is riskier as the prose is dated, and I don't always deal well with that.

Then there was Fire in the Sky and Risen Empire, which weren't all that exciting since you can probably get them just about anywhere. I suppose there is something hideously pathetic about taking such pleasure in finding cheap books. It's better than having a smack habit.