The Big Score at the Book Sale

The Graduate History Student Association at the University of Ottawa is having a book sale this week (that is, from October 5-9 at145 Séraphin-Marion, 3rd floor) and all their books are 2-3$. Which is why, contrary to habit, I woke up at 8:15am to get there early. Most student association book sales rely on donations, meaning that their stock requires patience and a keen eye. And, as I have learned, you need to get their early to find the good deals. So, without further ado, a few of the highlights, all priced 3$ or less:

• Zone 6: Incorporations, edited by Jonathan Crary and Sanford Kwinter (Zone Books, 1992), which, while this copy's binding is cracked, is out of print and a good find. While you aren't supposed to judge books by their covers, Zone books are often well-designed by Bruce Mau, and this one, with 200 illustrations, is no different. To tell the truth, I didn't even look at the subject matter of this book, buying purely on the strength of Zone's titles.

• Faire de l'histoire, edited by Jacques Le Goff and Pierre Nora (Gallimard, 1974). This three volume set has reappeared in the Tel series, but I found two of its volumes of the fancy Bibliothèque des histoires editions, with very little marking in it. Includes contributions from Michel de Certeau, Paul Veyne, Jean Starobinski, Michel Serres, Jacques Le Goff, and Pierre Vidal-Naquet. Many of the contributions appear to have been translated in Histories: French Constructions of the Past, edited by Jacques Revel and Lynn Hunt (Revel also contributes to Faire de l'histoire). You can find the TOC on Amazon.com.

• Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Phénoménologie de la perception (Gallimard). Truth be told, I am no expert in Merleau-Ponty's work (I've read a bit of the English translation of this work and some of his work on art) but the Bibliothèque des idées edition is hard to pass up for 3$.

• Some interesting titles focusing on American politics: Richard Hofstadter's The Paranoid Style in American Politics (Vintage, 1967), David Milton's The Politics of U.S. Labor: From the Great Depression to the New Deal (Monthly Review, 1982), and Marshall Frady's Wallace (Meridian, 1975).

• For Caroline, I picked up a few titles on Québec politics, and women and right wing politics. I'm sure the latter subject is going to be fun.
  

In total we bought 13 books for 27$. Not a bad haul.