Yearend Bookshopping – London, Ontario Bookstores (NT Wright, PJ O’Rourke, Eugene Peterson, etc.)

London, Ontario has a good number of used bookstores for a town its size (350,000). They all have decent sales at the end of the year – one of them has 80% off their entire inventory. Unfortunately, I didn’t find anything at that one (P. T. Campbell) this year.

For those of you who are from the area, or will be visiting, here is a map of the best bookstores in town. (You can either click here or on the map below.)

After frequenting these stores for the last 20 years or so, I’ll offer some thoughts and ratings.

Attic Books
This is my favorite store… the one where I’m most likely to find old hardback editions of books by Merton and Lewis. It has an incredible selection of deep discount books in the basement and pricey collectible books upstairs.

The Book Addict
This is a very close second to Attic. I always have a nice chat with the owners. The religion, philosophy, and science and technology sections have a lot to offer.

City Lights Bookshop
This used to be my number 1 but over the years I’ve found less and less of interest.

The Goodwill Bookstore
This is the new kid on the block but it will certainly be part of my regular route

The remainder of the stores worth checking out are on the Google map above. Please let me know if I’m missing any… because, clearly, I need to find more places to purchase books. ;-)

Yesterday’s finds at Attic Books:
N. T. Wright – The Way of the Lord: Christian Pilgrimage Today

Norman Mailer – The Gospel According to the Son: A Novel
This will be a nice companion to Anne Rice’s “Christ the Lord” which I should finish reading this week.

David Dark – The Gospel according to America: A Meditation on a God-blessed, Christ-haunted Idea

Eugene Peterson and Marva Dawn – The Unnecessary Pastor: Rediscovering the Call
I am on a quest to acquire everything by Peterson… and Marva Dawn is a recent discovery… an excellent writer.

Hans Kung and Julia Ching – Christianity and Chinese Religions

P. J. O’Rourke – Age and Guile Beat Youth, Innocence, and a Bad Haircut: 25 Years of P. J. O’Rourke. I’ve been a fan of O’Rourke since I read “Parliament of Whores: A Lone Humorist Attempts to Explain the Entire U.S. Government” a few years ago. He’s one of the few readers that actually make me laugh out loud.

Yesterday’s finds at The Book Addict:
Elizabeth Elliot – Through Gates of Splendour
This is a first edition hardback form 1957.

Steve Earle – Doghouse Roses: Stories
If you’ve heard of Earle you probably know that he is famous for the song “Copperhead Road”. He has many other albums with better songs on them, has written for the stage, and issued this volume of short stories a few years ago.

Yesterday’s finds at City Lights Bookshop:
Like I said, I don’t usually walk out with much these days. I pick up two small “The Message” New Testaments for a couple of friends of mine plus another small book called “The Gospel of Jesus: Text of the Four Gospels Arranged Into One Continuous Narrative“. It is small but it’s packed with color pictures of actual sites mentioned in the New Testament.

Yesterday’s finds at The Goodwill Bookstore:
Harvey Cox – Fire from Heaven: The Rise of Pentecostal Spirituality and the Reshaping of Religion in the 21st Century

Muhammed Yunus – Banker To The Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty

A couple of other books acquired on the weekend:

Gary V. Nelson – Borderland Churches: A Congregation’s Introduction to Missional Living (TCP Leadership Series)

Chris Cobb – Ego and Ink: The Inside Story of Canada’s National Newspaper War

Calvin Miller - The Book of Jesus: A Treasury of the Greatest Stories and Writings About Christ

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