B.B. King & More Books

I love road trips. In the age of rapid transport jetting from location to location tuned out behind an ipod, I love the slower pace of car and interstate. Every new place is full of potential and possibility. My husband always finds a yellow pages, where ever we are, and looks up all the used cd places in the area. His passion for music is such that even when in Mississippi for a BB King concert, he pauses to look up all the used music places. So it is from him that I learned to find all the used bookstores in a new area.

The B.B. King concert was hosted at the New Moon Casino in Choctaw Mississippi. They converted the entire casino floor into a concert venue and I have to say the seats were much more comfortable than most concerts. For 85 years old, B.B. is in great shape and still has a great voice. Bobby Bland was there watching the concert from the stage and B.B. called him over to sing with him. And they sat there talked about old times and tried to figure out something to sing. That took so long that by the time B.B. gave up finding something, most of the crowd was upset and the concert was over. Lots of people stormed out saying what crap that it was and bemoaning the songs they didn't hear. Everyone was disappointed. I think though, that I got to see something so rare. I got to see two blues legends just talking to each other. They weren't performing, not really. They were talking about things that I can't even imagine because I'm too young. They talked about Memphis in the 50s and the first black police officer. They talked about getting in trouble and getting out of trouble. They talked about a time past but still greatly a part of the cultural fabric. And because I got to see it, I got to experience it for just a little while. So, while it wasn't what I walked in the door expected, I wasn't disappointed walking out.

The next day, Ryan and I raided the used bookstores and cd stores of Meridian and Tuscaloosa. Tuscaloosa got hit hard by tornadoes and we drove ride through the disaster zone. It's amazing the damage a tornado can do. We saw buildings toppled and trees snapped like matchsticks on our way. There is only one used bookstore and one used cd store in Tuscaloosa as far we could tell. They are in the same shopping center. The bookstore was tiny but had a bizarrely good selection. Below is the inventory of my haul both from there and from the local Books-a-Million.

1. Trader by Charles de Lint
2. House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus III
3. The Secrets of a Fire King: Stories by Kim Edwards
4. From Russia, With Love by Ian Fleming
5. The Spy Who Loved Me by Ian Fleming
6. Diamonds Are Forever by Ian Fleming
7. Casino Royale by Ian Fleming
8. Moonraker by Ian Fleming
9. Thunderball by Ian Fleming
10. You Only Live Twice by Ian Fleming
11. Rum Punch by Elmore Leonard
12. Freaky Deaky by Elmore Leonard
13. Bad Traffic by Simon Lewis
14. Songs for the Butcher's Daughter by Peter Manseau
15. Rumpole and the Reign of Terror by John Mortimer
16. Of Bees and Mist by Erick Setiawan
17. The Twentieth Wife by Indu Sundaresan
18. Slumdog Millionaire by Vikas Swarup
19. The Corpse Walker by Liao Yiwu
20. Queens Own Fool by Jane Yolen & Robert J. Harris