Sunday, August 10, 2003
A sadder but wiser vintage reader
I just did something really stupid, so I'm going to tell you about it. I went to eBay, looking for Janet Lambert books. Instead I found Marty on Campus, Elisa Bialk's sequel to Marty, one of my favorite books ever in the malt-shop genre (malt-shop: the description of books from the 1940s through the early 1960s that featured teenagers experiencing normal teenage things like going to school, dating, going to dances, etc. They often had a hangout, usually something resembling a malt shop). It's about a young girl who, upon discovering that her father's business is failing and he won't be able to send her to college with her friends (who are spending their summer contemplating what furs to buy for college rather than, say, what to major in), uses pure moxie to get a job at a newspaper. She manages to land a few good stories, learns about the importance of finishing the job when she has to continue covering a golf tournament after having her illusions shattered by a wolf in golfer's togs, gets into trouble on the police beat when she dashes off in pursuit of a hot lead without checking in with the cops first, and starts up a romance with hometown-loser-turned-prizefighter Jim "Flash" Jordan.
So I bid a ridiculous amount of money on a Scholastic edition and THEN checked alibris, Powell's, and abebooks. Well, of course alibris had five or six copies listed for $2.95, and I could have paid and had the book on its way this week. Note to self and to other vintage readers: do not impulse-bid on old books on eBay. Check around first to make sure you can't get it cheaper without having to go through the whole auction process. Now I'm just hoping that someone will be more desperate than I am to find out if Marty and Jim made it as a couple, and how Marty finally got to college, and will outbid me.
I just did something really stupid, so I'm going to tell you about it. I went to eBay, looking for Janet Lambert books. Instead I found Marty on Campus, Elisa Bialk's sequel to Marty, one of my favorite books ever in the malt-shop genre (malt-shop: the description of books from the 1940s through the early 1960s that featured teenagers experiencing normal teenage things like going to school, dating, going to dances, etc. They often had a hangout, usually something resembling a malt shop). It's about a young girl who, upon discovering that her father's business is failing and he won't be able to send her to college with her friends (who are spending their summer contemplating what furs to buy for college rather than, say, what to major in), uses pure moxie to get a job at a newspaper. She manages to land a few good stories, learns about the importance of finishing the job when she has to continue covering a golf tournament after having her illusions shattered by a wolf in golfer's togs, gets into trouble on the police beat when she dashes off in pursuit of a hot lead without checking in with the cops first, and starts up a romance with hometown-loser-turned-prizefighter Jim "Flash" Jordan.
So I bid a ridiculous amount of money on a Scholastic edition and THEN checked alibris, Powell's, and abebooks. Well, of course alibris had five or six copies listed for $2.95, and I could have paid and had the book on its way this week. Note to self and to other vintage readers: do not impulse-bid on old books on eBay. Check around first to make sure you can't get it cheaper without having to go through the whole auction process. Now I'm just hoping that someone will be more desperate than I am to find out if Marty and Jim made it as a couple, and how Marty finally got to college, and will outbid me.
permalink posted by The Vintage Reader @ 11:48 AM 
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