Book Heaven

You may remember my blog some time ago about the Uniting College here in Adelaide. You also may remember me talking about my friend, Brett, who is like me in so many ways. Every year the Uniting College holds a big book sale of items donated to the school (usually from retiring ministers and the like). Brett knew I wouldn't want to miss this and we planned an outing for Wednesday morning (3/16).

I am so glad we went. Dr. Stewart and I would go to tons of used books sales back in the States. I love book sales (especially when they are fairly priced). This sale was wonderful, as it was very specific in its holding and very reasonable in its pricing. Almost everything was a dollar. Those few titles which weren't were only a couple of dollars more. The holdings of the sale were limited almost exclusively to religious and theological works. They had commentaries, primary sources, Bibles, language study resources (Hebrew, Greek, German), 1970s spiritual stuff, church histories, etc. It was great. The sale was extremely popular for its size. People were waiting outside the doors. Once they were in, they were just throwing books in their bags. Even Christians get vicious when a bargain is on the line. :-)

Brett and I also took Darren, the worship pastor here at Hope Valley with us. He was great fun to have around.

The books I purchased (for a dollar each!) were as follows:

"The Descent of the Dove" by Charles Williams (one of C.S. Lewis' friends and an expert on romantic and spirit theology)

An English Missal from the 1950s

A Latin Book of the Catholic Liturgy (so beautiful)

A work of German Hymns

A Hebrew Bible

2 Volumes of documents from the early church

John Wesley's "Explanatory Notes Upon the New Testament"

Selections from Origen

"Documents illustrative of the Continental Reformation" (A mammoth collection of primary sources surrounding the Reformation)

A Greek New Testament

A German/English Translation of the Bible

A Primary Source work of Anabaptist Writings

A 3 volume "History of the Church" by Paul Hughes

and...

Paul Tillich's "Ultimate Concern"

Not to bad, if I say so myself. I purchased some great works at a great price. I was quite pleased. The only issue now is how to get them home the cheapest. I had to cut myself off (though there were plenty more works I really wanted) simply due to the reality of my being unable to ship them cheaply. All in all, a wonderful morning spent with good friends and good books.

In Christ,

Chris