My last few purchases have been for my personal collection. This past Saturday I picked up a copy of Louis Bayard's Mr. Timothy and Joan Hess's Out On a Limb for $1 each. Both are 1st/1st's and were well worth the two bucks, even if they don't have much actual value yet. I'm going to pick up Bayard's books because he's one of my favorite authors and writes pseudo-bibliomysteries. Mr. Timothy is a mystery that involves Dickens's Tiny Tim, all grown up and living in a whorehouse, tutoring the madam. I intend to get The Pale Blue Eye and The Black Tower as I go along. The Joan Hess book is a prime, albeit inexpensive, bibliomystery. It reads like a cozy murder mystery and involves Hess's protagonist, bookstore owner, Claire Malloy.

And after spending the day book hunting with my wife, we enjoyed a coffee and a couple magazines at the Barnes & Noble in Danvers. While going through pregnancy magazines, I showed her Oliver Jeffers's The Incredible Book-Eating Boy. Jeffers is my new favorite children's book illustrator and luckily, my wife enjoyed him too. First thing we did when we got home, was to buy four of his books on-line. We purchased The Incredible Book-Eating Boy, The Way Back Home, Lost and Found and How to Catch a Star. I'm not sure if any of them are firsts, but we got these to enjoy for years to come. I hope our baby will devour them. All four cost $32, counting shipping.

All in all, a pretty good book day.