Two packages arrived in the mail yesterday.
The first had Michael Moorcock’s Gloriana, a fantasy novel about Elizabeth I’s reign. I’d seen the book, recently issued in a new edition, in Barnes & Noble a time or three but hadn’t, for whatever reason, picked up a copy. So when the Science Fiction Book Club offered a hardcover edition I sent off my reply card. It arrived yesterday.
The other package was an order I’d placed through Edward R. Hamilton. I ordered five books. My package had six, and two of them I hadn’t even ordered.
Star Trek: The Captain’s Blood, by William Shatner? Check.
Watson’s Last Case, by Ian Charnock? Check.
Whispers of the Dead, by Peter Tremayne? Check.
Lardner on War, by Ring Lardner? Check.
So, what’s this? The Stori of Beaded Embellishment? It’s a book about affixing beads to hand-made quilts. I’m not a quilter. I certainly didn’t order this. However, my mother does make quilts, and when I sort this order out I’ll probably keep this and give it to her.
But that wasn’t the fifth book I wanted. No, I wanted the companion volume to Lardner on War, entitled Lardner on Baseball. The former book is a collection on Ring Lardner’s writings on World War I, including two Jack Keefe novels which have been out-of-print since 1918. The latter is a collection of Ring Lardner’s writings on baseball, some Jack Keefe-related, some part of Lardner’s journalism on the sport. Suffice to say, no Lardner on Baseball in my package.
Instead, I received The Complete Encyclopedia of Golf Techniques. I’ve no interest in golf. I’m going to find this book really useful.