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I recently spent alot of money on books... (cont.)

"I'll show you some treasures" In a bookstore, as in life, you wait your whole life to see treasures. And the owner of this shop; she had them. Three Books from Fantod Press 1+2. The Beastly Baby. The Wuggly Ump, The Vinegar Works, The Unstrung Harp, A Limerick, The Broken Spoke. Lovely stuff. I would have bought them all. Still laboring under the extreme delusion that I wasn't going to spend a lot of money I grabbed most of the books south of $50. The others were seriously out of my price range. I was just happy to see them.

The two books that gave me serious pause were Mr. Gorey's first, The Unstrung Harp. At just over $100 I felt I could justify it based on it being his first and not in terrible condition. A small tear, a few chips but otherwise a very nice copy. The other was the three book collection entitled The Vinegar Works of which Mr. Gorey's most famous creation, The Gashlycrumb Tinies is apart. If a singular book can encapsulate an author's work than it is The Gashlycrumb Tinies. It is also the first in a Gorey tradition of Alphabet books, but I am digressing. The important part here is that I wanted it.

I wanted both actually, but it was one or the other. The stack in my hands, The Unstrung Harp, or The Vinegar Works. I went with the stack because quantity over not exactly quality, but you get the point. Beside The Unstrung Harp I had seen at show before. I knew there would be another chance. The Vinegar Works was difficult to let go of, but as I walked out of the store I was certain that I could find it cheaper somewhere down the line.
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