Friday, July 6

Will Undergo Surgery for Books

So, I had pretty much just planned to sell my left kidney and send the whole bag of cash to Yesterday's Classics, along with a note (probably written in my own blood) to please send me every book they've printed and launder the change.

Then I remembered that somewhere, deep in the hidden recesses of cardboard and camel crickets in the basement, I have a set of Robinson Curriculum disks. Hmmm. I wonder if... well, yes; with enough coffee, I can find almost anything! So I spent most of the last two days puttering around there to see if there's anything I can use. (Of course there is. Silly me.)

Tomorrow, I get to call Staples and find out if they'll have their binding services on sale any time soon.

But I'm so glad I printed out the book list and looked around for actual copies of the books, first. As handy as it is to have the books printed and bound (and with a laser printer, it really does come out to about $3 a book), we're not really 8.5" x 11"-size-book people. A book that size won't fit nicely on your lap on the couch, and it's horribly difficult to read in bed with a book that's wide enough to poke your husband in the head every time you turn the page or reach for chocolate. Not that these books are for me. Not all of them, anyway. *ahem*

Turns out there are just shy of a trillion places now re-printing old books! Of course, there are the Usual Suspects, but thanks to a little poking around on Amazon, I also found a few others. For instance, 1st World Publishing seems to have a nice selection of books. (I found them while looking for The Rover Boys series - the precurser to The Hardy Boys, et al.) There's a company called IndyPublishing, which has a big "get your book back in print" promotion going. There are quite a few options now, it seems. How fun!

Tom Swift? Back in print!
Rover Boys? Back in print!
Famous Men of _____ series? Take your pick of publishers!
Pyle? Synge? Pollard's histories? All in print.

*happy sigh*

So now I will have to divvy up the kidney funds among various vendors, but that's okay. We'll get more use out of a good pile of books than I would out of that one organ.

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

4 comments:

Melora said...

I'm with you on selling the kidney for books (isn't that why we were given two?), but braving camel crickets for educational materials? THat is devotion!

I find myself suddenly looking for something to teach reading Comprehension, something which I always sort of though just Happened. Of course, we were supposed to be doing narrations, which would teach comprehension, but T. hates narrations (he did find the comic strip amusing, thank you, but it was very heavy on the silliness and light on the content) and we never do them. His lowest score on the CAT was in comprehension, which is pretty sad. (Somehow, a lower score in math wouldn't have upset me so much.) Anyway, now I'm looking for something Cheap (or Free) that teaches comprehension -- any ideas?

Laura said...

ABE books works for me every time!

Anonymous said...

You have GOT to stop linking to things.

I will NOT spend money, I will NOT spend money, I will NOT spend money...

Cheryl

Emily said...

Dy, I would LOVE it if you would someday post a list of your favorite "boy" books! (You know, with all that spare time you have :) ).

We are in a constant struggle for good read-aloud books for the boys. They just finished Danny, Champion of the World and Q cried when it was over. He loved it so much!