Encyclopedias

The Meals on Wheels book room, like most book stores, does not keep encyclopedias. They are obsolete. The Internet is a much better source of information. Can you believe that it was not so long ago that we would spend a lot of money to get an annual update book to our encyclopedias?

We did take it what I would have to call a brand new set of World Book from 1973. The original owner was convinced by a door to door salesman of the value of having this set of books. And he was right. The books contained plenty of information. It would be of benefit to their children. Alas! I think no one ever looked up anything in the set of books. We decided to see what would happen.

The books are sitting on our shelf untouched.

No one wants them.

David Sneed

Ray Bradbury, the science fiction writer, died today at age 91. The Meals on Wheels Book Room frequently has his works available though I don't think anything is there now. 

Bradbury is best known for his 1953 novel Fahrenheit 451. Paper will burn at 451 degrees fahrenheit. In 

the story the job of the fire department is to burn books. The government has decided that books can make people unhappy and therefore books are banned. The heroes in the story each become a book by memorizing it and constantly repeating it. 

Bradbury also wrote Martian Chronicles. 

In one of his short stories a man is arrests for talking a walk and for not having a tv. 

The basic theme of Bradbury's work is the problems with love of technology. 

He will be missed. 

David Sneed 

A Sad Day in the Book Room

I heard early today that a large number of books was coming in to the Meals on Wheels Book Room.

We got there and began to empty the boxes. Most of the books were wet. I don;t know if they had been left out in the rain or of something else had happened. Is it possible that someone had some water damage and used Meals on Wheels as a free dumping ground?

Anyway it was a sad day.

David Sneed

French Language Novels

Today we got a number of French novels in French. There is also a book, also in French, called "French Novels in French."

We did put them out on the end cap shelf.

It would be great to find someone who can read French who could take them.

We'll see what happens.

David Sneed

Ever heard of Mack Bolan?

Today we got in a lot of Mack Bolan books by Don Pendleton. According to Wikipedia:

Mack Bolan, alias The Executioner, is a fictional character who has been serialized in over six hundred novels with sales of more than 200 million, according to Amazon.com. Created by Don Pendleton, Bolan made his first appearance on the printed page in 1969's War Against the Mafia. Pendleton wrote thirty-seven other novels featuring Bolan, often referred to as the "Mafia Wars". In 1980, Pendleton sold his rights to the character to Gold Eagle who hired a number of ghostwriters to continue publishing Bolan monthly to keep up with reader demand worldwide. Don Pendleton remained credited as the sole author and supervised these new adventures which traveled the Bolan character all over the world fighting terrorism. This new series of books featured Bolan as a principled warrior fighting larger than life adversaries in the spirit of a tougher American version of James Bond. The demand for the books continued and Gold Eagle began releasing as many as fifteen titles annually. In addition, Bolan was "spun off" into several new adventure book series which also carried the Mack Bolan/Don Pendleton names and sold extremely well. As of 2009, there are more than twelve Mack Bolan novels published every year worldwide by Gold Eagle Books, a division of Harlequin Books.


We also got in a number of Zane Grey plus quite a few westerns.

David Sneed