Halloween Book Sale 2019

If there's any kind of universal force among bloggers it's that each of us has a recurring feature we write more for ourselves than any attempt at gaining fans. In all seriousness if one were to look at the site statistics there's a noticeable dip every time the annual fall book sale pieces pop up. Metrics be damned says I! The local library book sale has been a fixture of my Halloween celebrations for around a decade as it provides the perfect chance to seek out old horror novels and there's no way I'm gonna stop sharing it now. Besides my overall stubbornness this particular sale was a total oddball worthy of posting. Preamble out of the way let's dive into this years experience.

The usual process for visiting this event involves making a small party of family members before heading over in the late-afternoon or early-evening. This time was much different with only two of us and our abnormal sleep-schedules planning on staying awake and heading in as soon as the doors opened at nine in the morning. Upon arriving I witnessed a sight I'd never before encountered in life... a line, a line outside my local library! Some of these folks were hardcore book bugs but a handful were that most dreaded of shopper by which I mean resellers. I failed to notice them initially though my companion encountered a couple of them riffling through books at lightspeed while scanning each for their online value. Combined with how some of the major readers also had their own systems for quickly searching through books and loading anything of interest into their bags, yes they brought their own bags, and the atmosphere was hectic to say the least.

In those early morning hours space is a luxury few can afford which changes the act of browsing into some kind of four-headed tango with different shoppers artfully switching places all while keeping their eyes focused and scanning for treasures. At one point I felt sympathy for a mother who had to juggle caring for her toddler at the same time. Still; emotions for others have little breathing room when the threat of being trampled by the elderly is at its peak. The whole thing felt like a fever dream granting the passage of time a totally ethereal quality. Our usual browsing speed at night is close to an hour yet we found our our trip only took twenty-minutes despite feeling like only a few moments and an eternity. Before this week I never believed shopping for books could be an adrenaline sport.

Given the madhouse vibe of the morning I took a shot at returning to the library in the evening and was a bit perturbed at how much the inventory had shrunk, much more so than in past years. Even with how hectic things had been I was still able to notice individual titles that were missing and major chunks that had been shrunk down by half or more, and this event has to hold on till Saturday. As if to add insult one of the resellers was back as well, cross-checking items using three cellphones. I know times are tough and selling off stuff on ebay and the like can be a nifty way to stay afloat but there's a point when you cross the line into being a pest. Even so this second trip allowed me to view a few sections that were inaccessible earlier which let me bring back two more items.

So how about the bounty itself? Honestly the first haul wasn't half-bad on its own. Not the greatest in my history with this event but far from the worst and the revisit gave it a nice extra bit of gravy. The first title to pop out at me was Night of the Moonbow by Thomas Tryon. He may not be a household name these days but this former actor obtained a decent level of success in the 70s when he authored thrillers like The Other and Harvest Home. His main style was period-piece Americana thrillers often featuring people in small towns encountering hidden terrors. This particular book apparently focuses on an outbreak of violence at a christian boys summer camp in the 1930s. Probably not the sort of thing to read in October proper but when the need for camp themed thrills inevitably returns during the winter months I'll be glad to have this around.

Not certain if The 6 Messiahs totally qualifies as horror though it definitely has the look of it and hails from Twin Peaks co-creator, Mark Frost. Guess this one's a sequel to a previous work where Arthur Conan Doyle teams up with another character who's something of a real-life Sherlock Holmes so the pair can deal with doomsday prophecies and other outlandish threats.

The Curse by John Tigges stands out as likely the most stereotypical horror novel of the whole endeavor with a standard set-up. Stressed-out family moves to the country, awakens something evil, pure comfort food. This is the sort of book that keeps me coming back to these sales with the tacky cover art and statements about unrelenting terror.

Reliquary is a sequal to a book I've never read. The trick however is I've seen the movie of part one, The Relic more than a few times. Since Hollywood never saw fit to bring this second installment to the screen this gives me a shot to dream one up. On the downside I recall my brothers complaining about this one sucking big time back when it was new.

The Revelation is the first novel from author, Bentley Little. Never bothered with his work before but the overall promise of an Arizona town besieged by dark forces is enough to draw me in. The last horror find came during the second visit with Haunted America, a collection of short stories with one for each state in the union.

It's not all scary stuff though as evidence by a blu-ray of Kubo and the Two Strings. Been meaning to see this for years with a recent burst of extra interest as I wanted to seek out more decent animated fare after a relative clumsily accused me of disliking animation due to my seething hatred towards Pixar films. Unfortunately a good deal of the good looking animated films out there are difficult to find on streaming services while some seem to be going out of print which made this a great score. Bookwise I also nabbed First King of Shannara. Only ever read a few installments from the larger franchise, some I adored while others took a big shit on all the good that came before them. Clearly I'm hoping this standalone outing will be on the better side of the series.

Lastly we have an outstanding find from the second trip, The Kelloggs Cookbook. Hailing from the late 70s this book consists of mostly normal, though very outdated, recopies until the addition of cereals comes into play. There's some freaky shit in here like one I believe was called Corn Custard Surprise. Then there are those that seem like they should be ok, Tiger Cookies for instance utilize crushed up Frosted Flakes. Expect a couple of cooking posts coming in the next few months thanks to this baby.

Much of the day went along fairly normal with leftovers for dinner and a gleeful viewing of Godzilla: Final Wars, god is that ever a silly film. Nighttime arrived and was so perfectly autumnal even Washington Irving himself would have struggled to imagine it. Everything from temperature, light, and wind was exactly what a person could want from October. Thus I went out on a moped ride cruising for other Halloween displays in town which was a good-enough time until I came upon a peculiar sight. A house had some decorations oddly close to the road, and upon closer inspection one of them was hanging off of public property. After looping the block I found this to be a classic case of curbside freebies alongside the likes of fishing rods and coolers. Surely I didn't have the room to properly transport medium-sized ghouls on my bike but a car was unavailable, so I returned home to get some bags to make it easier. 15 minutes later I'm in the road wearing my helmet and a reflective vest waving at a passing truck as I struggle to pack up free, and dirty, seasonal décor. Finding the bags weren't up to the task I ended up transporting the items between my legs like a pregnant woman all the way home.

All in all it was a fine day in October though it's not something I mean to rub in your face. No instead I'd prefer it stand as a further example of how this season can make otherwise normal activities into something special. So hope online and find yourselves some goofy local event or maybe go for a walk in a different neighborhood. We're twenty days for the main event which means there's still plenty of time to make the season unique.