They were asking $125 for this entire set, two of which are on eBay for $250. My dad got them down to $60 and bought them for me. The second day of a garage sale makes the sellers more open to lowering prices, they had a lot of older books that didn’t seem to be moving, unfortunately. I almost bought a really good book on the Boer War that I already had, so, my list continues to pay off! The Folio Society makes great books, so this was a really good deal.
Eyewitness Pacific Theater • I have the companion book “Eyewitness D-Day”, so this was a nice find, and will compliment my other volume.
Victory at Sea • Wow, the cover of this one reminds me of another book I have. I hope I didn’t already have it!
Stalingrad to Berlin • Same with this one. When you have a lot of books on the same topic, sometimes they start looking alike.
Hitler: Downfall 1939-1945 • This is the second of two books, but published four years ago so the info inside is going to be different from the 1967 book I read on the same subject. I have others like this but the more views I read on this, the better.
It is so interesting to read old books. This one is from 1902, which is more than a decade before World War I, and a decade before the loss of the Titanic. Yet, there is still a lot that is correct in it which can still be learned from. I have to wonder exactly when all of these notes were taken, I think it would have to be soon after the book was originally purchased, so more than a hundred years ago.
A FEW DAYS LATER: I found the American History version of this book at a yard sale for two bucks! It was published ten years after the Western Europe one! What are the odds? I think these history books were for students and many were made. But still, a neat, and timely find!
I passed on this last week (ARC thrift store half-off Saturday) because every single page had writing on it, which is a shame because this is a $35 book from two years ago. Dad bought it today as it was now half-off ($4 > $2), but I can’t stand it when people write in books like this.
Wow, this book is right up my alley… wait… aw.
I bought this set for $200 about ten years ago, but mine isn’t quite as pristine as these. This is the only set on the internet I can find, back when I was shopping for my set, there were around twenty options. Now, there is just this one. They were only published for libraries, so they weren’t available to anybody until a library was done with their set, if they ever had them in the first place. The photo of mine here, has the World War II set as well, purchased for about the same price. I didn’t see the World War II set online at all when I looked this week. Just the World War I set. for $710. I consider these two sets part of the core of my library, if I ever had to pare down my library to the core essentials, these two sets (among some others) would be staying, without question. They are great reads, too. They’d better be!
A book on Grant, and on Lee, in the same day! Amazingly enough, between my dad and myself, we only had… zero books on Grant. Now, we’re up to three. This is really odd considering how many Civil War books we have. This book on Lee is a deluxe reprint, amazing nobody else picked it up, and I got it for just under two bucks.
Never in Finer Company is only a few years old, and on the Great War. I never find books like this at thrifts. The Last of the Doughboys was probably from the same person, and I bought it since it was a hardback, I have already been reading the paperback copy that I have.
Fighting Vehicles is another one of those books I don’t understand why I haven’t seen before.
I bought these last week, they are actually eight books condensed into three, at about a thousand pages each. They are conversations and first-hand accounts of the Second World War, and the guy who put these together is a history teacher, who self-published them. I saved a lot of money by getting these omnibus volumes as opposed to the regular books. There is a ninth volume I don’t have, but I’m going to wait for that one to be combined with the forthcoming tenth and maybe eleventh book.
I have a difficult time understanding how people who aren’t interested in this kind of thing, can’t just give them a read, putting themselves in the positions of the people telling their stories, especially as all of this is real and not fiction. It is interesting no matter who the reader is, if the reader comes at it from an apathetic view, as in putting one’s self in their place.
Even more so, there is a lot of interesting and valuable things to learn by listening to what they have to say. We’re so distracted with trivial things that we miss the value and importance of knowing about things like this.
There was snow this morning, and a lot of ice on my windshield and windows, but after backing my car up out of the shade the sun took care of things rather quickly! Not a lot of people were out today, at least at first. The roads were fine. We did our usual stop at Culver’s, which is always great! And for once, we got my favorite seat at the window where we get to watch cars go through the drive-thru, instead of the parking lot, and nobody was sitting near us even though things were busy and this was a usually busy area. Pesky people and their needs! We hit three ARC thrifts and called it a day.
I saw this “Marches of all Nations” a few weeks ago, but didn’t look at it. I’ve been into Marches and Cadences lately, so I gave it a look… didn’t expect to see 8-Tracks in here!
The John Toland/Hitler book, I actually have the two-book version of this, and am about to finish the first book. But I had to buy this combined version, it was only a buck-fifty! There is something to how they published this, with staggered pages, they type they chose and how it fills the page. Plus, it is very interesting stuff, not just about Hitler, but about how Germany grew to do what they did, how the politics worked, and how people work in certain situations… not just in the book, but the parallels to things today, and throughout history. Fascinating stuff. Most people shy away from the subject matter, but that is on top of ignoring history int he first place. This is stuff we need to learn from.
The “Never Call Me a Hero” book is right up my alley because it is a first-person account of Midway. I really like books by the people who experienced the events.
“Ghost Army” details the clever deceptions by the Allies to fool the Germans before D-Day. Not sure they could get away with this now?
“On Killing” is the second, actually, third book I have on the subject of what learning how to kill can do to people over the long run. “Hitler’s Willing Executioners” and “Moral Combat” are the other two. “Hitler’s Willing Executioners” is the most difficult book I’ve ever read, due to the subject matter, and how it was written. I was constantly re-reading paragraphs as to understand them, and I re-read the book when I was done.
Hancock • I watched this a few months ago, and it is actually a pretty good movie. Far better than what Marvel or DC is putting out these days.
Employee of the Month • Not the best comedy, but it’s worth watching. I was in the middle of re-watching this on YouTube, and they moved it behind the pay wall the next day when I went to finish it. I’m already paying them money to watch things. This is why I’m into physical media.
Django Unchained / Passengers • Both of these were still in the wrapper brand-new, for only two bucks!
1911 / Shock Wave • Just because they looked like they might be worth watching…
Sixteen Candles • Not my favorite John Hughes movie, it is more like supplemental material to the Breakfast Club.
Entourage • I watched all of these years ago, and I see them a lot at the thrifts for next to no money. What I remember most is the really great performance and character of the guy who was their lawyer. I didn’t think I’d see this movie again, so hey. I think I’m going to get the first season only (a buck-fifty) next time I see it, just to see if I really do want to see these again. Also, this was in the wrapper, so that was three brand-new ones today!
Thunderbolt • Looks like a good documentary on the plane that preceded the A-10 Thunderbolt II / Warthog.
Careful music selections: the Ravel is a double-CD in perfect shape, the Rimsky-Korsakov is a dual CD as well, and the Sibelius is a composer I’ve only come to appreciate in the last few years, and for some reason BIS puts out a lot by him.
012024 • I found the second of these two books at a thrift… took quite a few years to find it there!
randyrydberg.org 