Apr 10, 2013

Thrift Store Books

Ok, so I may have become addicted to hitting Savers on a regular basis to see what kind of good cheap stuff I can find. The latest round netting me some cool books and a surprise.


I was beyond thrilled to find I Am Legend was not a movie tie-in book like the cover would have you believe. It has the original title story and other shorts by Matheson. I've been wanting to read the story for a long time because it's what the movie Last Man on Earth, one of my favorite Vincent Price flicks, is based on. And also Chuck Heston's Shirtless Man...oh I mean Omega Man. Are we sure Heston isn't related to McConaughey? Three movies based on the same story, that's pretty impressive!

But, Scary Stories was the real find here. I would have picked it up anyway because I only have audio versions of the series. I think I missed these books by a generation when I was young because I only discovered them within the past decade when my love of Halloween and things spooky really kicked in. I had grabbed it off the shelf to check the print date,
as if the $3.50 cover price didn't make it clear it was an older book,
and found this when flipping it open...

alvin schwartz autograph

Is it authentic? I have no way of knowing but I also don't have much reason to believe someone would fake an autograph in a children's book so I'm going with it being real.

Last was this pair which I'm not sure if I knew even existed.


They're based on the Lone Wolf series of gamebooks from the late 80s/early 90s. What's a gamebook? It's like a Choose Your Own Adventure book except with a random element to the fighting. This series was great because you played the same character throughout the story, levellng up from book to book and picking new skills.

These are novelizations of the events that happened in the Lone Wolf series. Lone Wolf was a big favorite of mine to the point where I picked up the somewhat recent RPG books put out to get more info about the setting. What I didn't realize when I grabbed books 2 and 3 from the series here is that there are 12 books in total! I probably won't be able to track them all down and may end up putting them on Paperback Book Swap, which is a great site for swapping your old books for new to you books with other people.
That is, if you're like me and still enjoy holding an actual book.

9 comments:

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    1. It's like the Salvation Army thrift stores.

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  2. A good find Sir... thanks for sharing

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  3. Hey! You have a real vintage book theme going on lately! Great find with the Scary Stories book. Those were favorite books from my childhood. I'm glad you got one of the vintage ones from before the illustrations had to be redone. Supposedly, the drawings from my childhood are too scary for kids nowadays... How awesome that it's signed! I also doubt someone would fake that signature. I hadn't thought of looking for the audiobook versions of those stories, but now I want to. I had heard a few read online and that was fun.

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  4. Love to see some second-hand discount geekiness! Great finds!

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  5. Sweet finds! And "Last Man On Earth" With Price is a great movie and one I watched a few times as a kid. Surprised I have not seen it or the later Omega Man one on cable in more recent years.

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  6. "That is, if you're like me and still enjoy holding an actual book."

    YES!

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  7. The Scary Stories author signature is authentic.

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    Replies
    1. Would I be correct in presuming you're related to Mr Schwartz? :)

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