The King! I Found the King!

I’m going to start with I think summer birthdays suck!

I know that is not the popular opinion but my birthday is in the latter half of July which meant that my friends were all off visiting family or adventuring somewhere. It is also the dead of summer and I despise the heat. As a child I spent my birthdays with family, meaning my cousins, and not that we didn’t get along but we were not close. We didn’t have a whole lot in common, still don’t in fact.

Now as I hit my teens to early twenties birthdays didn’t suck too bad. I was able to make plans with a least a friend or two for something that I wanted to do. One year it was renting horror movies and ordering in Chinese food with my best friend. Another year me and three friends went to play miniature golf and have In-and-Out. But decent birthdays didn’t last long.

As I got older and life began throwing things my way birthdays became one of the worst days of the year. Now, give me a minute to explain. Do I think as adults we need huge parties with tons of gifts and a themed cake? No, of course not. But, it is nice to be with people that you love and love you back; usually in a setting of your choice. I think that each person is a soul and that each soul should be celebrated on the day it arrived here. So when a few birthdays are spent alone or crying it gets to a point of why bother with celebrating?

It was truly easier to not acknowledge my birthday, so that’s what I did for several years. Then Anthony happened.

When I met my husband my world changed. It had been a lifetime since someone had taken care of me and I wasn’t busy taking care of everyone around me. Now, when he and I first got together he asked what I loved; of course I answered with books. It doesn’t matter if it is materials for me to write my own books in or books off my wish list. So when he wanted to take me out for my birthday I was hesitant but I went with it.

We went to my favorite place for coffee and then to Goodwill. I know that it sounds strange to be going to a thrift store for my birthday but it is a really great place to find books and for cheap. We got a close parking space so I didn’t have to walk in the heat for too long. I entered with coffee in one hand and my book wish list in the other.

We began looking at the book selection. I was finding a few things from my list, and we had just started. I had about six books in the basket from the first isle. However, when I turned into the next isle my mind was utterly broken and I was speechless. I could not believe what was in front of me and I had no words to call for Anthony. Luckily for me he came around the corner a second later. I pointed and smiled. Sold!

There on the shelf in front of me was Stephen King books. I have a love for Stephen King books that is heavy. He is one of my top two favorite authors. All of his books are on my with list, including the audio book, writing guide, and those written in his pen name. I’m not even kidding there was at least a dozen and a half of his novels. Anthony started putting them into the basket.

As he was doing this a paper fell out. I picked it up thinking that it was notes or a make-shift bookmark. Nope! Wrong! Guess again! I was a poster. That’s when I saw it, the autograph! It was an autographed poster of Stephen King’s “From a Buick 8.” I could not believe that we just found it. I put it back in its book then into the basket.

It was then that I had the bright idea to check the copyright dates in these Stephen Kings. The shocks just kept coming. They were all first editions. Who gets rid of first edition books? Who gets rid of Stephen King? I could not believe this. So many first editions for so cheap in one spot. Anthony bought me every single one of them. But he wasn’t done.

After Goodwill we went and bought a frame for my poster. He wanted to make sure that nothing happened to my autographed prize. He also bought me a brand new bookshelf, and I am glad he did because all of the Stephen King he bought me filled almost four of the five shelves.

This find was the best that I have had at a thrift store and it was on my birthday. I still go to the thrift stores looking for books from my list. I can only hope for a find like this again someday.