Book Binge

Half Price Books, a store that I have sold to and bought from liberally over the years, had announced a clearance sale at Wright State University in Dayton this weekend. The last thing I need is more books, but I was intrigued by a reason to go to Wright State University, a college that I think did not exist during the years I was growing up just 40 miles to the north, and which now has actor Tom Hanks as a long-term supporter and co-chair of a major fund-raising program for the university, according to the ads I see during the news on my television most mornings.

So off we went to Wright State on Saturday morning. I did not expect to run into Tom Hanks, but I did think I might find a few books, and how could I go wrong when nothing would cost more than two dollars?

It took only 40 minutes to find our way up I-75 and I-675 to the Nutter Center, where the sale was. Once inside this sports arena, there were tons of books, all on 30 or more tables, each marked by subject: Fiction, Children, Young Adult, History, Cookbooks, Home and Garden,  DVDs, and more. I have to admit that I went crazy at the cookbook tables. I was probably inspired by the Food History lecture I had listened to on Friday, as well as by my preparations for both a Danish smørrebrød and a Spanish tapas dinner next month. I didn't find any cookbooks to complicate my already-planned menus, but I did see a few to feed my addiction to "company cookbooks" sponsored by the big food brands. Here's a selection of what I spent two dollars apiece on:

• The Heinz Tomato Ketchup Cookbook (complete with a little Heinz history).
• Betty Crocker Ultimate Bisquick Cookbook (a heavy volume of over 400 pages with, surprisingly, a handy metric conversion guide on the back page).
• Great American Favorite Brand Name Cookbook, Collector's Edition. This 600-page giant has recipes for brands that I may never buy, but the recipe is not the thing--it's the indication that those brands probably created their own cookbooks that I can be on the lookout for in the future.
• The Garlic Lovers' Cookbook, volume II, from Gilroy, California, the Garlic Capital of the World.
• Flavoring with Olive Oil, a small volume with nice pictures. I can't imagine how I can use more olive oil than I already do, but maybe...
• Cooking in Style the Costco Way and A Decade of Cooking the Costco Way. Who knows whether any of the Costco products in these books from 2006 and 2011 are still in Costco's inventory, or if I would want to buy them, but I love company histories!
• The Food and Cooking of Malaysia & Singapore. I rejected purchasing this big book--or one very similar to it--when we were in Malaysia and Singapore two years ago, because it was too heavy to carry back. Now it was not.
• La Cocina Cubana Sencilla / Simple Cuban Cooking. Even though I have not yet gotten to Cuba, I can start looking forward to it.
• Uncommon Grounds: The History of Coffee and How It Transformed Our World, by Mark Pendergast. Definitely in line with the food and world history theme I had experienced the day before. And besides that, I like coffee.

We never got to the main campus of Wright State. By the time we emerged from the book sale we were dying for coffee, and in the words of one of us: "There were two long tables marked Coffee Table but no coffee anywhere to be seen!" We escaped and made straight for coffee. The rest of Wright State will have to wait until another day.