I ♥ recycle stores

I've visited McKay's Used Books three times since it's opened in July, and here is some of my loot.



One of my favorite things to cook is soup. I like the versatility of it, and the "meal in a bowl" aspect. It's just good comfort food.

One of the recipes in this book I want to try is Chicken Corn Chowder - I've made it before, but I confess, I usually use store bought broth. This time I'm going to try homemade. The Swiss Potato Soup also sounds delicious.





I am a fair weather tennis fan. My interest waxes and wanes according to its coverage on TV or my available free time. The personalities on tour are always interesting to read about, though. Venus Envy is by L. Jon Wertheim, who writes Sports Illustrated's Tennis Mailbag column. It's about a year on the WTA (women's) tour around 2000 or so. When I do watch tennis, I usually watch the ATP (men's tour) instead, but it was still an interesting read.

The second book I have not read yet, but it's about an interesting man, the German Baron Gottfried Von Cramm and his match against the American Don Budge. The year was 1937 and it was more than a clash of athletics; it was a politically-charged match that could define the state of Von Cramm's life under Hitler's regime. If the book is well written, it sounds like it could be a fantastic story.



Many of you know that I lived in Japan for two years as an Assistant English Teacher. While I was there one of my biggest hobbies was learning Japanese, both due to personal interest and circumstantial necessity. (This is also where the name of the post title came from: Japanese secondhand stores were called "recycle stores".) I learned a fair command of "survival Japanese" - I could travel around the country, read a map, and go to the store on my own, for example - though I never reached a personally satisfactory level. I'm currently concentrating on reviewing my Spanish, but one day I will return to Japanese as well. When I do, I can use these CDs. They were quite a serendipitous find as they match the textbook I used to study in Japan.

Finally, I bought Howie Day's Stop All the World Now because I wanted the song "Collide", but it costs $1.29 on iTunes, which I refuse to pay on principle. This meant I paid $2.50 instead, at least I got the full CD!