a1.com is an online bookstore which sells remaindered books at really cheap prices. Remaindered books are hardcovers that are 6 months to a year old that have been pulled off the bookstores by the publishers to make room for new books. They are sold by the publisher to remaindered outlets who resell them to the public usually for $5-10 each.

a1.books has their warehouse nearby, and this weekend for the first time they are opening the warehouse for 2 days so the public can buy the books in person rather than online. That should make the prices even cheaper, since it will save shipping fees. So guess where I am going later this morning to browse for an hour or so? Not that i need to buy any books, haha.

Currently listening. I mentioned Chris de Burgh earlier this week as one of my very favorite recording artists, and ironically I was browsing his website recently and noticed that he released a new cd in Great Britain (he is rarely released in this country, alas). So I bought The StoryMan and it is typically-high de Burgh quality.

Currently reading. Periodically I peruse some of my collection of science fiction magazines, and I am currently reading several 1964 issues of Worlds of IF magazine. Right now I am reading the original version of Robert A. Heinlein’s post-apocalyptic novel Farnham’s Freehold which is typical late-Heinlein in being as much polemic as storytelling. The best story I’ve read so far in these issues is Cordwainer Smith’s “The Store of Heart’s Desires,” one of two novellas which eventually became his classic novel Norstrilia.