In Which I Die and Go To Heaven, But Don't Bring Enough Money

So, I get a flier in the mail, the other day, for a new business called 2nd & Charles. The flier stated that they sold used books, dvd's, cd's & whatnot. It also said they had 3 miles of used books. Huh.

So, I decided to ride down on my lunch hour and check it out!

The drive from Pelham into Hoover can take a little while, especially during the holiday season. 2nd & Charles is across the street from the Riverchase Galleria, the largest shopping mall in Alabama. I usually avoid that area like the plague, during November and December. It took me 25 minutes to get to the store. So, I only had about ten minutes to browse.

Wow! I mean fucking Wow! The place was a little larger than your average Books-a-Million or Barnes & Noble and stuffed with neatly organized used media, the vast majority of which, consisted of reasonably priced used books. It was even set up much like a BaM, with the addition of a large customer service area to the side, for accepting trade-ins. In my short ten minutes, I saw many, many items I wanted. Not just would buy because they were cheap, but stuff that was already on my Want List.

You ever read Bazaar of the Bizarre by Leiber? Or Needful Things by King? The idea is of a shop of some kind that's just too good to be true. Everything you might would want you'll find. Of course, it's all an evil trap, but the idea is one I've always enjoyed. 2nd & Charles isn't that good, but the selection of cool, cheap stuff in nice condition is good enough that I'm still geeking out about it!

As Santa has spoken for most of my fundage this month, I only bought one thing. An out-of-print SFBC hardcover omnibus of The Compleat Dying Earth, with the Brom cover. The exact edition I wanted to get. $6.83. Nice shape overall, with just two small nicks to the jacket.

I have some stuff in storage, mostly left over from my ebay buying and selling days, which I'm going to take to the store tomorrow and try and trade in. In particular I noticed an omnibus of The Book of the New Sun and a copy of the Stormbringer RPG (later edition, but still!) which I would like to get. I didn't see any 1e in their rpg section, but they have a bunch of 2e, 3e and various odds & ends like Gurps and In Nomine, which I want to finish looking through.