More books = more gooder

Tuesday was a good day. I finally got a chance to go to my PO Box, and there's two titles in it from the Hard Case Crime book club. I love good hard-boiled crime books. It's a weakness I have. First, there was Erle Stanley Gardner's Top of the Heap. Looks good; I don't know anything about his work, but I've seen the name around. Second, there's Charles Williams' (I'm assuming not the same Williams who was in The Inklings with Tolkien and Lewis, but who knows?) A Touch of Death. The cover makes me shiver. I love a good pulpy cover of a dame in distress (yeah, I just said dame), except that if you really look at it, she's far from distress. She'll kick your ass if you're not careful. Always good to see some books from Hard Case. I love their covers and I love the mix of reprints and original work they're publishing. Really fantastic stuff.

Then there's the ARC of Barth Anderson's The Patron Saint of Plagues. This is one of my most-anticipated titles of this year. I'm excited to get the chance to read it before it comes out. I've enjoyed Barth's stories and his blog is a pleasure to read in its own right.

It's always cool to go the PO Box and have meaningful stuff in it. (unlike the attempts for more credit cards and loans that I usually get) Also got a coupon for Cold Stone Creamery. Score! Not that I need such decadence, but when I can have it for a bargain, I'm going!

Then I get home on Tuesday. My wife says, "We got a box from Amazon. Did we order books?" Why yes we did! Rick Bowes' From the Files of the Time Rangers (A book I've waited FAR too long to pick up; I heard Rick read some of this at KGB before it came out and it sounded fantastic) and Tamar Yellin's The Genizah At The House Of Shepher (a book that's been recommended to me from many sources) to be specific. I was not-so-seriously chastised by my wife for spending the money on books (she's a high school English teacher, she never gets all that mad about more books coming into the house) instead on things for our soon-to-be-born baby. But have you met Rick? I'm sure he's great with babies!

What an awesome day! Five in one day. That's almost like the giant-killer.