The Richness of Books
Went to the Princeton Library today where I may have mentioned, they have a plethora of good books for sale, all the time. It's difficult to resist, and I find myself even wanting to buy books I already own, like Love in the Time of Cholera, just because it's so inexpensive and pleasurable to purchase good books.
Here is what I got for $10---all chosen from the mystery thriller section:
No Country for Old Men, by Cormac McCarthy. I never saw the movie version, but I have read McCarthy's All the Pretty Horses (never saw that movie either), and the book has a killer first line: "I sent one boy to the gas chamber at Huntsville."
The Small Hand and Dolly, by Susan Hill. A book with two short novellas chosen solely for its cover. First line of The Small Hand: "It was a little before nine o'clock, the sun was setting into a bank of smoky violet cloud and I had lost my way."
The Affair, by Lee Child. A Jack Reacher novel, and I know I've read Child before, I think it was Gone Tomorrow. First line: "The Pentagon is the world's largest office building, six and a half million square feet, thirty-thousand people, more than seventeen miles of corridors, but it was built with just three street doors, each one of them opening into a guarded pedestrian lobby." A bit of snooze, that opening and I'm not always keen on political thrillers.
Faith, by Len Deighton. I also think I have read his work before, but maybe not. These thriller/mystery writers are prolific. First line, "'Don't miss your plane, Bernard.'"
I will start with McCarthy, because I like that line the best.
Here is what I got for $10---all chosen from the mystery thriller section:
No Country for Old Men, by Cormac McCarthy. I never saw the movie version, but I have read McCarthy's All the Pretty Horses (never saw that movie either), and the book has a killer first line: "I sent one boy to the gas chamber at Huntsville."
The Small Hand and Dolly, by Susan Hill. A book with two short novellas chosen solely for its cover. First line of The Small Hand: "It was a little before nine o'clock, the sun was setting into a bank of smoky violet cloud and I had lost my way."
The Affair, by Lee Child. A Jack Reacher novel, and I know I've read Child before, I think it was Gone Tomorrow. First line: "The Pentagon is the world's largest office building, six and a half million square feet, thirty-thousand people, more than seventeen miles of corridors, but it was built with just three street doors, each one of them opening into a guarded pedestrian lobby." A bit of snooze, that opening and I'm not always keen on political thrillers.
Faith, by Len Deighton. I also think I have read his work before, but maybe not. These thriller/mystery writers are prolific. First line, "'Don't miss your plane, Bernard.'"
I will start with McCarthy, because I like that line the best.
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