Armfuls of books...

...that is how Tom described our take home prizes from the best part of a day in Archer City’s four upsized second hand bookstores. It could have been crate-fuls if the prices had been lower and other constraints removed. So what did we all end up buying?

Tom (pre-shave and haircut - he was a different man on arrival in Austin)


A Gabriel Garcia Marquez non-fiction work ‘News of a Kidnapping.' From the cover notes:


The topic is bit ‘off the norm’ for Marquez, but every bit as captivating as his other works – maybe more so because of the factual aspect.

Alan Moorehead’s ‘Late Education: An Episode in Life’ and autobiographical work covering his time as a war correspondent in the 1930/40s. I have recently read two other titles from this prolific and versatile author, ‘The Blue Nile’ and ‘The While Nile’ about 19th C British explorers competing to find the source of the river Nile and discovering there are in fact two. The river forks at Khartoum in Sudan with the Blue Nile rising from Lake Tana in Ethiopia and the White Nile from Lake Victoria on the Kenya / Uganda border. Travel was not easy for at least a dozen reasons which the books do a great job of describing. Tom was half way through ‘The White Nile’ by the time we stopped in Archer.

Stacy (posing on request)


Hard to find art books I can’t remember the titles of and some ‘Kiwi Taonga (treasure)’ in the form of two early 20thC green card bound illustrated booklets. One summarized the story of the discovery and anatomy of the long extinct Moa (NZ's largest known flightless bird, which looks like it might have been a rellie to the ostrich). The other featured a 19th C Maori leader in a south island area around Christchurch. These were picked from a collection of similar items that should probably be in a NZ national museum or iwi (tribal) archive somewhere.

Cathy (seldom in front of the camera)


I was a little overwhelmed by the size and scope of the collection, the price of some of the items and limitations of my already bursting at the seams luggage which had to fit on a plane a few days later. I chickened out on the U$50 price tag of an original edition of Livingstone’s journal from the Nile expedition – not because the late 19thC publication isn’t worth that kind of money. I also disciplined myself in front of a huge collection of African American history books and came away with none. In the end my rather mundane choices were ‘Street Corner Society’, a hard to find 1943 book on the social structure of an Italian slum, and a Robert Louis Stevenson autobiographical work ‘The Amateur Emigrant’ and ‘The Silverado Squatters.’ Stevenson has always inspired me. We share common roots in the wintry gloom of 'Auld Reekie' (Edinburgh), a passion for travel and telling stories. He is one of my absent mentors.

Other stuff (now installed in my living room)


This modest list does not fully explain Tom’s comment about ‘armfuls of books.’ Another reason for restraint that day was the large collection each of us had acquired over two and a half weeks weeks starting at The Black Cat used bookstore in Truth or Consequences. Stacy found a prize in a curious and beautifully illustrated book on boxers (men in gloves – not dogs!) Tom got a present of ‘Need More Love’ a gorgeously illustrated biography of Aline Kominsky-Crumb, underground comic artist and wife of Robert Crumb. Robert created many of my ‘naughty’ comic heroes from the 1970s. I did not know his wife was similarly creative.

I had another 7 titles in my bags along with the Archer City purchases by the time I packed to leave, plus one as a present for someone back home.

Two more Cormac McCarthy novels – ‘The Road’ and ‘Cities of the Plain’

Daniel Goleman’s ‘Social Intelligence’ and co-authored ‘Transparency – how leaders create culture.’ (A bit of back to work thinking there.)

‘Native Science - Natural Laws of Interdependence’ by Gregory Cajete. This New Mexico-based author visited Auckland a few years back. A colleague lent me his book, which offers a valuable and accessible perspective on science.

2 x New Mexican recipe books were put to good use as soon as I got home.

Much of the pleasure of the day spent in McMurtry’s stores was climbing a ladder to explore the high shelves, parking on the floor to examine a rare 1880s title and picking over the treasure without feeling the urge to acquire and carry it home. Archer City scores high on the list for another visit, despite the distance and limited scope for other indulgences. We could take a picnic next time, or see if the Spur Hotel could serve us a wild pig dinner from its well-stocked freezers!