Inspiration Saturday: A haul from Half Price Books

There are two kinds of shopping trip.  The first is mission-based, like stopping in the grocery store for ten ears of corn because they are 6 for $1, as I did yesterday.  The second is more along the lines of 'the journey is the destination', where you meander into and around a store just to see what you can find.  I am more of a meanderer by nature, and even when I have a mission, I tend to explore areas of the store that have nothing to do with the mission.  Just in case.  But some shopping trips are strictly a case of being in the general area and not having been in there in a while.  This is usually how I end up  in Half Price Books.

Half Price Books is such a dangerous place.  It blends my intrinsic desire for a good deal with my voracious hoarding of books.  There's no way I could ever have the time to read them all, but the idea of reading them is too alluring to ever leave them behind.  Eventually, I tell myself, I will get to them.  And for a dollar, it seems silly not to.

So last Saturday, before seeing the free form lace at Gauge, and even before swirling frozen yogurt at Yogurtland, we stopped at Half Price Books.  I ended up with two distinct stacks: literature and knitting.

First, the knitting books:

The Art of Knitted Lace by Crown

I just love lace so much.  I most want to try Sea-Foam Top, although one day the Silk Stockings might be fun.

Rowan's Greatest Knits by Rowan Yarns

The Long Leaf Coat is epic, but never, ever going to happen.  The Geneva Camisole, however, that's a possibility.

Japanese Inspired Knits by Marianne Isager

We all know how much I love anything that reminds me of my trip to Tokyo.  And I am in love with The Carp, although I must admit that looking at the construction is kind of traumatizing.  It's done with mitered squares in long strips, and turning that into the cute tee is pure magic as far as I'm concerned.  But I want to try it.

Lacy Knits by Alison Crowther-Smith

Now technically this book is all patterns for mohair-silk yarns, but I'm thinking more alpaca for the Spiral Shrug and Sunday Night Mitts.

Okay, that's it for the crafty books, now the book books.  I was clearly missing my college days and decided to recreate my own personal 18th-century literature class:

Evelina by Frances Burney

After reading some of the highlights of classic literature, now I'm trying to find some other authors of the era that remind me of what I liked, so Fanny Burney is someone I have to try.

Cecilia by Frances Burney

Another Fanny Burney.  I like the blurb on the back: 'Cecilia is an heiress, but will inherit her estate only if her husband consents to take her surname.'  Scandalous!

Memoirs of Emma Courtney by Mary Hays

I hadn't heard of Mary Hays before, but we're talking about a late 18th-century feminist author writing about a passionate young heroine.  I'm in.

Okay, so I know what I should be busy doing for the next few years.  Except I know that next week I'm also going to be busy with Knitting and Crochet Blog Week.  I've already started some of my posts, it's so much fun!  I hope to see (um, read) you all there!

Until then, there's more inspiration at Woolen Diversions.