How I Got that Signed, Doodled Vonnegut and How the Book Gods Shown Down on Me

Ok, just a few days ago, I showed off my Vonneguts, including the awesome signed, doodled, Hocus Pocus. In the original post, I stated how I did not recall what I traded for it. I did some research and found my journal entry for the day. Let's see how time has treated my book collection efforts for October 23, 1996:

Wonderful bookday, everything bought on credit so I paid no cash for anything today. Book Time - [paperback] 1st [edition] of [Charles] Bukowski's Ham on Rye and War All the Time: Poems, 1981-1984, both $5 each & the War...was signed! Also: 1st of Gabriel Garcia Marquez' Love in the Time of Cholera. Then, library sale where I picked up for 50 cents, 1st of [John] Irving's Hotel New Hampshire.

Then, an untitled bookshop where I traded my signed 1sts of Elmore Leonard's Get Shorty and Bandits, a signed [by the translator] Farewell My Concubine [I had picked up this copy 2 days earlier at Vroman's for $3.98, a signed 1st of John Barth's Sabbatical & an old edition, but not 1st [book scout friend Brian says "book club ed.(?)"] of William Maxwell's 2nd book ALL for $75 value Hocus Pocus signed and doodled by Vonnegut!Yay! Then, at Bookman, lots of trade credit got me Neil Simon's new book, a collection of his comedies, a [Richard] Brautigan pb, Vonnegut's Fates Worse than Death in hardcover, Clive Barker's In the Flesh ($50 at Book Alley, $9.95 here) and the coup de grace: 1st edition of [Salman] Rushdie's The Satanic Verses.

Ah, what a day! Touched all my favorite authors except [T.C.] Boyle & I had one in my hands briefly, but passed. And Jolee [at 2 months, 9 days old] slept throughout [in a car-seat].....

The following day I had the Neil Simon's signed, in case you were wondering why I bought some Neil Simon books.

Anyway, in hindsight, the Vonnegut deal was a steal. I don't regret not having any of those items traded away, except maybe the Barth. I don't think many of you may find this interesting, but I do, and this is BillyBlog. So there.

What's amazing to me is that I still have those Bukowskis, the Rushdie, and the Garcia Marquez. A great day indeed.