Vampires, Interior Design and the World of Tomorrow

As I've mentioned before, book sales are abundant in the month of October, here in Texas. There's a couple of book sales in particular that I look forward to each year.

If you read last year's post (or this year's, for that matter), then you know that whenever you go to a book sale you can usually count on coming in contact with some real goobers. This is one of them.

Meet The Hummingbird. I dubbed him "The Hummingbird" because he hummed non-stop the entire duration of his shopping spree. I use the term "shopping spree" loosely, since he didn't actually buy anything. Instead, asking his wife if she saw this or this or this...in between humming solos. Put him, The Jingler (you know the ones...they stand there and play a chorus of Jingle Bells with the change in their pocket) and The Whistler (i.e. my father) in an enclosed space and you have a recipe for insanity.

Oh, and get a load of this horseshit. What could only be described as the "brainchild" of some corporate "team player," this year, for the first time, a lot of the tables (esp. those up front, near the entrance) were "sponsored by" some schmuck representing the "Henderson Financial Group." Do you believe this shit? Just when I think I've seen it all, we get card tables at a women's church group-sponsored book sale, now being "sponsored" by some asshole looking for a cheap (really cheap) plug. Whoever came up with this "marketing strategy," needs a swift, hard kick in the nuts, and I'd like to be the one to deliver it.


• The Dracula Scrapbook by Peter Haining © 1976
Comments: Once I saw the contents of this coffee table book I knew I had to get it. Brimming with great vampire images! I especially love the book covers and the comic book images. In the plus category: The original dustjacket is still intact! Most copies of this book are missing their dust jacket.

• Amphigorey Also by Edward Gorey © 1983
Comments: This book was a Barnes & Noble "exclusive" back in 1983. Only available at B&N, this may prove to eventually be somewhat of a collector's item. In brand-new condition with dust jacket intact.

• Popular Mechanics Magazine © February 1951
Comments: You gotta love this cover. I found it laying in the bottom of a box under one of the tables. It's kinda beat up, but the front image looks great (which is the sole reason I bought it), plus there are tons of great retro ads inside.

I adore (does that sound too gay?), I love the old 40's & 50's high concepts of what "the future" will hold; jet packs, food pellets, flying cars. Can you imagine if everyday people were allowed to own and operate their own personal helicopters, like we do cars today? Catastrophe! Will never happen. People would be falling out of the sky like rocks.

• The New World of Plastics by Alfred Lewis © 1963
Comments: Once I saw the images inside this book I knew I had to buy it. Filled with loads of wonderfully-cheesy images of people singing the praises of the wonder of the new plastics!

• Mother's Guide and Index: The Child's World Volume 6 © 1955
Comments: Again, the images sucked me in. The book is all about the do's and dont's of raising children. From how to deal with temper tantrums to how to discipline your child. It's wonderfully out of

• Better Homes and Gardens Creative Decorating on a Budget © 1974
Comments: I own a lot of 70's interior design books. I love looking through them. Most people have some unoriginal, stereotypical ideas about what defines a particular decade. You see it all the time on decorating shows over at HGTV. You know, stuff like: The 50's: Pink/turquoise/black & white. Boomerang/kidney shapes. Jukeboxes, records, malt shops. The 60's: "Psychadelic" colors. Lava lamps, bright plastics, funky lamps. The 70's: Orange/Avocado/Brown. Shag carpeting, wood paneling, anything Bicentennial. Even The 80's: Pastel colors, neon colors. Overstuffed furniture. Chrome, leather, bold patterns.

Not that I'm some kind of maverick, but I like to look beyond the stereotypes and at the design. And that's why I love the interior design books of the 70's. Kitsch aside, they had some great design going on in the 70's. I'd love to have a 70's-style home interior. The homes of the 70's have a lot more personality and warmth than anything you see today. Interiors today are much too quick to relegate a "theme"/"concept" or particular color scheme. I'll take 70's interior design any old day.

• Batman © 1977
Comments: This will go great with my other fully-animated paperbacks of Spider-Man, Teen Titans and Doctor Strange! Whee!

• Kewtee Bear- Santa's Helper by Alan Reed, Bert Stout & Truman Quigley © 1956
• Color by Number coloring book
• The Dynamite Book of Bummers by Jared Lee © 1978
Comments: Now you know I had to by this. I've already blogged about my love of Dynamite and other school-friendly magazines of the 70's and 80's.

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• Naturally I found LOADS of new retro cook booklets too! If you read my other blog, Jam Handy!, then you'll see them all eventually.
• Complete Book of High School Wrestling by Robert L. Brown and Dr. Kenneth Ober © 1963
Comments: I bought this because it is brimming with retrolicious photographs of various wrestling moves, positions, etc. Not homoerotic at all.