A Crappy Old Book about a Crappy Old Magazine

Field & Stream Treasury: Memorable Articles and Stories From the Pages of America's Number One Sportsman's Magazine (1955)

I'm cleaning my desktop. It tends to accumulate a lot of crappy old books that either need to be returned to their homes or find homes somewhere besides my desk.

I'd forgotten all about this one which I picked up last Friday at the Book Mart in downtown Starkvegas. You remember the Book Mart-- 

I was puzzled by the arbitrary pricing, but I gathered up my two little crappy old books-- leaving Madame Currie: A Biography by Eve Curie (1939; on sale for $29) and The Ultimate T-Shirt Book: Creating Your Own Unique Designs (1998; $14.95) on the shelf and headed downstairs to the cash register. 
"That will be $7.49, ma'am," the well-mannered young man informed me.
My articulate response was, "Huh?"
"The prices on these old used books don't mean anything. We discount them."
I asked what system-- what percentage-- was taken off because a 2/3 discount seemed rather odd, I was told there was none. He just looks at the book and how old it is and how yellow the pages are and decides on a price. This is a change since I'd last been in the bookstore.
"Hang on a minute," I said as I ran back upstairs. 
I'm all for free-wheeling capitalism, but this pricing system strikes me as a bit arbitrary.

Typically I file books about sports under the Sports section in the Bunkhouse. But this one is such a gem I think I'll try to keep it handy.

I should do a post on politically incorrect advertising. I've got more than enough material.

And now, to find places for Toynbee's Mankind and Mother Earth: A Narrative History of the World (1976; published posthumously) and Bennett's The De-Valuing of America: The Fight for Our Culture and Our Children (1992).