The 5 Books I Bought at McKay's Used Bookstore in Nashville (all for less than $17!)

I walked down every single aisle at least once

Last week, my husband and I went on a getaway to Tennessee for the week. We stayed west of the city on a beautiful, rural property, but one day we ventured into Nashville. First, we went to a small museum where we got to look at a bunch of expensive guitars (I know nothing about them, but apparently it was an impressive display). Then, we went to a place that was as exciting to me as the guitar museum was to him—the largest used bookstore I have ever been to.

McKay’s is a used bookstore with several locations in Tennessee and North Carolina, but the Nashville location is their largest. They sell other forms of media like video games, DVDs, records, various cultural artifacts, and CDs, but mostly they sell books. The best part about it was that everything was so well organized. The books were more or less in alphabetical order by topic. I wasn’t necessarily looking for anything in particular, but it still provided a sense of calm to see that someone had put the time into organizing the books.

In addition to the five books I ended up buying, I also found 3 Minecraft books for my youngest son—one was a Where’s Waldo type book and the other two were paperbacks of different Minecraft builds people have done. He is reading now, but he loves looking at pictures of Minecraft creations. Those three books together cost me 80 cents total—one was 50 cents, one was 25 cents, and one was 5 cents. I don’t know if that was a typo, but that’s what it cost at checkout!

My total was $17.61, and while I didn’t note the prices of each book, if you subtract the 80 cents on the Minecraft books and some tax, the net cost of these five was less than $17—only a little over $3 per book. The five books I found ranged from fiction to nonfiction to spiritual; Russian literature to meditations on Scripture to parenting. This actually makes perfect sense if you have followed along with my reading for the past year and a half because this is a microcosm of my larger reading preferences. That is, I read just about everything (with middling apologies to the genres of romance, romantasy, most fantasy, and SPACE).

Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh

I honestly have no idea what this book is about, but I keep hearing “everyone should read Evelyn Waugh” and I am very easily influenced by other readers. I’m not sure this book is much of a page-turner, which is why I’m glad to own it in a print version. When I’m ready to start it, I can read it at my own pace.

Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak

Anna Karenina was the first audiobook I listened to as I returned to reading 10 years ago. I love Russian literature. I actually studied Russian language and literature in college and was planning to spend a year studying in Moscow, but then I met my now-husband and decided I didn’t want to be that far away from him. I believe that I watched the film version of this book as a child, because I have a mental picture of what Doctor Zhivago looks like, and I don’t know where else I would have gotten that.

When I Was a Child I Read Books: Essays by Marilynne Robinson

I read Gilead for the first time years ago and have been wanting to re-enter the world of Robinson’s characters. This is not a book set in that universe, but rather a book of essays she’s written about myriad things. Her writing is beautiful, and I’m hoping to take this to the beach with me this summer for some quiet reading.

Are My Kids on Track?: The 12 Emotional, Social, and Spiritual Milestones Your Child Needs to Reach by Sissy Goff, Melissa Trevathan, and David Thomas

While I haven’t listened to it in several years, there was a season when I regularly listened to episodes of the Raising Boys and Girls podcast with two of the authors of this book. I was aware of this book back then, but I never got around to reading it. When I saw it on the shelf for a few bucks I snatched it up. With our kids currently 16, 14, 8, and 6, I’m curious to see what ages this book addresses and if there is anything in this book that I haven’t seen in any of other dozens of parenting books I have read. Even if it’s not particularly relevant to me, I try to read books like this because 1) I always find them interesting and 2) I love having book recommendations in my back pocket for other people.

Life Without Lack: Living in the Fullness of Psalm 23 by Dallas Willard

Dallas Willard is one of those guys who gets quoted all the time. I could probably pick three of his most famous quotes off the top of my head. But I’ve never read anything long form by him, so this book jumped out at me from the shelf. Regardless of whether or not the book is good, I will be glad to be able to say I’ve read a Willard book.

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How would you rate the five books I chose? Are there any you would have left on the shelf. Have you read any of them already? I’d love to hear your thoughts!