From: yarnot@csusac.csus.edu (Jan Yarnot)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Report to the r.a.b.ble, or How I Spent My Summer Vacation
Date: 23 Aug 92 02:45:40 GMT
Organization: Moi?

My poor-but-patient 17-yr-old and I just returned from a 10-day, 3000-mile
jaunt to places north.  The ostensible reason was to make college visits,
but in reality it was to see Archie McPhee and to visit my sister and be a
shoulder for the recent death of her mother (mine, too, but I grew up else-
where.)

Any trip I plan is apt to be fairly choc-a-block with geology and books, not
necessarily in that order, and this one was too.  Before reaching Seattle, I'd
gotten:

The Story Behind the Scenery (picture books and I already have some of the set)
	Oregon Trail (the Resident Expert saw many of these sites in Wyoming 
		last year, and I thought she would find the book interesting.)
	Mt. St. Helens (the Continuing Story, but turns out I don't have the
		first one, so there's a purchase for the future.)
	Redwoods
	Crater Lake

Gregory Franzwa, _The Oregon Trail Revisited_, which looks fascinating.
Neta Lohnes Frazier, _Stout Hearted Seven_ about the Saget children who
	made it to the Whitman mission after being orphaned on the trail.
	The woman at the desk made a face at the original, more expensive,
	book I had chosen on this topic, as apparently the author had to
	publish that one privately.  The money freed up by this allowed me
	to buy the
_Journal of Narcissa Whitman_.  The spelling has obviously been reworked,
	as I also got the
_Letters of Narcissa Whitman_ and spelling was NOT her forte.
Randolph B. Marcy, _The Prairie Traveler_.
_The Geologic Setting of the John Day Country_
Dean E. McMullen, _Oregon Under Foot_, which is a picture book of gemstones
	ans thundereggs and suchlike.
 
In Seattle, I took back Barbara's well-travelled cat book by John MacDonald,
and discovered that she is, indeed, "jumpy and enjoyable."  (*I* should talk,
I couldn't seem to keep my hands still.  Nervous, I bet.  Fear of being Found
Out, no doubt, as on the way there I read three mysteries.  Nice to have 
another driver along for a change.)  Not a shoulder-pad in sight, though.
Beautiful deck, magnificent backyard, my fingertips itched at the sight of
her computer (as they also had at Gonzaga U.), and a basement full of books!
Books actually in bookcases, one deep, so she can find them!  Green envy, here.
Barbara gave me _The Summer Book_ by Tove Janssen, and all I gave her was a
couple of travel-shocked houseplants.

William (sorry, I forget your last name) had told me how to get to Powell's,
and also suggested that it's a minimum a 3-hour stay.  However, as mentioned
before, the 17-yr-old can drive, and even getting him a Martian Popping Thing 
at Archie McPhee's couldn't have kept him there for 3 hours. (He is, however,
doing his summer reading of _The Iliad_, so I don't complain too loudly.)
Therefore, I only put 90 minutes onto the meter (good thing I didn't discover 
the parking garage, I guess.)  In that hour and a half, and with my list in 
hand, I got:

Books to fill out sets, books I'd been looking for, though there still are
some gaps in my sets:
Sayers (sorry, I've never read her! *wince*) _Nine Tailors_, _Gaudy Night_,
	Lord Peter (short stories), _The Documents in the Case_.
Caudwell, _Thus Was Adonis Murdered_, _The Shortest Way to Hades_.
Panshin, _Star Well_.
Langton, _Emily Dickinson is Dead_, _Natural Enemy_, _Good and Dead_, _The
	Memorial Hall Murder_, _The Dante Game_.
Shannon, _Unexpected Death_. I nearly have the whole Luis Mendoza set now.

I got two books on the Wright Brothers for a friend, who is researching the
whole Wright-vs-Curtis thing.  This is a pamphlet by Gibbs-Smith, and a book
by Hallion, _The Wright Brothers, Heirs of Prometheus._

I found one Lucy Maud Montgomery used, _Akin to Anne_.  I can fill out this
set here, with new books, so I didn't choose any others.

AND:
Alice Miller, _A Young Girl's Diary_
Emma Bull, _War for the Oaks_
an Ace double with a Poul Anderson, _Let the Spaceman Beware_.
Mickey Friedman, _The Fault Tree_.
Lora Word Hughes, _No Time For Tears_.  This is a pioneer woman book.
Preston, _Dinosaurs in the Attic_. (The Smithsonian)
Rogers, _A Dinosaur Dynasty_.
Desmond, _The Hot-Blooded Dinosaurs_.
Seward, _Outrageous Japanese_, or all the things a nicely brought-up woman
	can never say in that language.

I'm driving a small car, this is ridiculous.  And after a big binge like
this, I promise myself I will not even LOOK at a bookstore for months.  And
like an alcoholic sniffing a cork right after a big binge, I slipped off
the wagon right away, the next morning.  We were at the Winston Safari and
I got a guidebook, which almost doesn't count (oh, yes, had one at the 
Vancouver Aquarium, too), but then the docents have a booksale.  I had to
look, of course.  Dropped a quarter on 
Love, _War is a Private Affair_, about enlisted folks getting the better of
	their officers.  
 
And that's it.  Oh, and thanks to Mike Morris for uploading the lists.  And
to the other people who offered.  I appreciate it.
-- 
---Jan Yarnot, net.grandma.-- | A lifetime of smirking behind your hand
                              | is a lot better than a few seconds of
                              | triumph.
CSUS depends on my every word.              Kinsella, _Box Socials_