An Embarrassment of Riches

I meant to mention about our recent weekend getaway that every time we head down to the Fredericksburg area, we always make a stop at Riverby Books, a used bookstore on Caroline Street downtown.

This time around, I was doubly gratified in that I stumbled across two books I'd never known of before from two of my favorite authors.

The first is Evelyn Waugh's Labels, his 1929 account of a cruise 'round the Mediterranean. True to form, Mr. Woo has plenty of acid things to say about tourons, touron-related activities and, well, people in general. (He starts by labeling the entire city of Paris as "bogus" and goes on from there.) Wickedly delightful, so far.

The second is Robert Graves' Watch The North Wind Rise. I know most of Graves' historical fiction (plus his two autobiographies) very well. This novel is his foray into futuristic Utopia. So far, the most fascinating aspects of it are the way it relates back to his writings on Ancient Greece and his theories about a pre-Olympian, pan-Mediterranean goddess-worship.

I'll let you know what I think of both.

What? You think I strolled out of a used book store with only two volumes in my bag? Perish the thought! I also nabbed a copy of the Countess of Longford's Wellington: The Years of the Sword as well as Antonia Fraser's biography of Marie Antoinette.

The Missus and the Llama-ettes are headed for the beach for a week or two shortly. I reckon these will keep me occupied nicely until they come back.