The Desert’s Secret

As many of you know, I judge all my books by their covers. The only books I purchase are in the clearance $1-$3 section at Half Price Books, chosen firstly by their spines, then their covers, and then the summaries on the inside cover.  I read them in a matter of weeks and donate them back to the store when I’m done. I haven’t bought a retail book from Barnes & Noble in over a decade. Why pay $25 for a book when you could eat enchiladas and have a frosty Coke?

So today, as I perused the clearance section, this little book caught my eye with its bright colors, still vivid since 1933. Isn’t it scandalous? I didn’t buy it because it’s not my fictional cup of tea, but I thought I should share its fun cover. Evidently, the author enjoyed the desert. And whoever does buy it will snag it for only three bucks!

14 thoughts on “The Desert’s Secret”

  1. I couldn’t post my original comment so I will merely say that is one great cover and I have not bought a new book since maybe 1980.I use second hand stores and the library. Good will is a good source to find books sometimes. I love books.

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      1. Why thank you.Whenever I go to Goodwill I always look for kitchen stuff. I did collect Revere ware for a while but when we downsized my partner thought we didn’t have the room to expand my collection. She was right so I stopped; but I still look.

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    1. Nope, not sure who did it. I do still have a few from high school just for nostalgia’s sake, but I imagine they’ll got tossed away when I pass. So what’s the point?

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  3. For me, about half of the books I read in a year’s time are books that I’ve read before. Even our library does not carry most of them, so it us nice to have them handy. My wife however agrees with you. She wants them to disappear.

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  6. Does it feature heaving bosoms? Because that kind of book usually features heaving bosoms.

    Anyway, here is a link to “Joan Conquest”, a pseudonym of UK author Mary Eliza Louise Cooke (1883-1941) and her bibliography. She was a reasonably prolific author of early days science fiction. My personal favorite is The Reckoning (1931), in which it is presumed that artificial insemination will result in females possessing neither souls nor reproductive organs. Gotta love a plot like that.

    http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/conquest_joan

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    1. Yikes. Of course it was a pseudonym but I think we all know her fascination with conquests (and heaving bosoms). And where there are heaving bosoms, there are bodices being torn asunder. I’m pretty sure AI doesn’t result in that, since I know humans who were made that way.

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