An unabridged The Count of Monte Cristo....finally!

Today was our family day, which consisted of a small road trip to a nearby town. There is apparently a Tiger Direct store that is having a liquidation sale, and my hubby had been needing some computer parts, so we figured, why not? We also discovered that just beside the Tiger Direct was a giant used book store called 2nd & Charles. Of course I had to stop in there. Our girls and I shopped in the book store while my hubby computer shopped, and it was totally awesomeness! That is definitely a store I would love to go to by myself someday, browsing through the endless isles of books. But, as I am a momma, with two girls that would get completely bored, that means I spent most of the time browsing through kids books to help them find some books they'd like.

I did, however, plan before hand to try and seek out a couple of books I've been wanting. And....I am super excited to say that I found ONE copy of an unabridged The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas! It is truly one beast of a book, weighing in at a whopping 1,462 pages.

I have to say, I am a little intimidated to start this book, but very happy to finally have it. Now I can restart the book and continue on to discover what happens to Dantes. It might take me quite a while to completely get through though, especially with my constant book hopping lately. This was a new book, priced $14.00, though it was a tad used looking, but I think that was probably due to it sitting on their shelf for a long time. I was happy to pay the $14 anyways. I cannot believe the difference in the unabridged version and the abridged version. That is so hard to believe how much of the story has been cut away!

I also finally picked up a copy of The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley. I have been pining over this book on Amazon for probably a good six months or more. It is a retelling of King Arthur and Camelot, through the women in the story. I am really interested to read this book, though I am not yet sure if I want to read through the original tale first. I am having an inner debate about this. But, it will be a while before I start this. I really would like to get into quite a few other books before I tackle this one, as it is another gigantic book, almost 900 pages. This was a used book and was priced $5.75.

My last book I purchased is Gulliver's Travels and Other Writings by Jonathan Swift. I'm not entirely sure why, but I have been really wondering about this book since my last book store visit. I was curious as to how fun of a read it would be, but our local book store only had one, pretty terrible looking copy. I found a ton of different editions of this book today. I chose this specific one because I liked the cover, and because it included a bunch of other stories and poems by Jonathan Swift. I am trying to be more adventurous in my reading and pick up things that I normally don't read, hoping to find some new favorites. I have high hopes! I believe this was also a new book, but was still only $4.95. So, I didn't think it was too bad, especially considering I left that wondrous store with only 3 books, when my heart wanted to grab them all! I was so tempted to get a nice hardcover edition the Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, they had quite a few used ones available, but I refrained. I am hoping I don't regret that! But I definitely have enough books for some time now, especially now that I have my hands on the unabridged The Count of Monte Cristo. I will be busy for a long while!