Last month I talked about my lucky streak finding used bibles at Goodwill. Well, as far as book selection in general goes, Goodwill is usually more miss than hit. I did find a hardback Chicago Manual of Style last week, but overall I do about as well at Goodwills as I do at yard sales.

The best thrift store for books in my experience is definitely St. Vincent de Paul. With rare exception, their book sections are large and well-organized and their prices are well below what a used bookstore can afford to charge.

Today provides a great example. I finally got around to using some of my Barnes and Noble gift card today. I purchased Expecting Adam by Martha Beck and Writing About Your Life by William Zissner for $15 each, less member discount. I also thought about purchasing The Middle Place by Kelly Corrigan, which also lists for $15, but I decided to wait. Maybe I could find a better price online.

After dinner, I stopped by a St. Vincent's close to our apartment and browsed through the memoir section. Within minutes, I found a like-new copy of The Middle Place in paperback for $1.50. My reluctance at Barnes and Noble ended up saving me $13.50

From now on, I'll be checking St. Vincent's first.

Apparently, Goodwill's are a great place to find used bibles. Last week, I found a Revised English Bible with Apocrypha in hardback for $5 and yesterday I found a New English Bible with Apocrypha, also hardback and in very good condition, for $4. So I can check one more bible off my list.

As for the others I'm wanting to get, only the Douay Rheims is old enough to find it's way to a Goodwill, yet despite the numerous KJVs I find at every store I stop in, I have yet to stumble across the traditional language Catholic equivalent.

The English Standard Version is very recent. Oxford just published an edition with the Apocrypha last year, so the chances of one finding it's way to a used book store of any kind are small. The Orthodox Study Bible is only two years old, so it's also unlikely I'll find one used.

You tell me: Do you read in the genre you write? A question posed by literary agent Nathan Bransford. The answer seems obvious: "Of course I do. Every writer does." Some better questions would be:

• Do you read in genres you don't write?
• Do you read in multiple genres?
• Do you you stretch yourself to find great writing and great storytelling?

As an example, here's a cross section of books I've read over the last year. This isn't a complete list. I've left out rereads - I love rereading a good book after setting it on the shelf for a couple of years - and only included those I've read for the first time:

• Revelations of Divine Love by Blessed Julian of Norwich
• Greywalker by Kat Richardson
• Your Life as Story by Tristine Ranier
• The Reformation by Diarmaid MacCulloch
• Push by Sapphire
• Crazy for God by Frank Schaffer

A memoir and a book about memoir writing - so yes I'm reading in my genre, but also two very different novels, a historical narrative, and a medieval theological work.

Here are a few I'm planning to read this summer:

• A New Kind of Christianity by Brian McLaren
• Gringa: A Contradictory Girlhood by Melissa Hart
• The Fence My Father Built by Linda Claire

Plus more books on craft, and lots of articles and essays to inspire my freelance work.

I picked up a Revised English Bible with Apocrypha today at Goodwill. It was a real find, hard cover in very good condition for $5, and is now part of my Bible collection. One by one, over the last few years, I've been buying every Catholic edition I can find along with any other Bible edition with the Deuterocanon (or Apocrypha) included. So far, I have the following on my bookshelf:

• The King James Version with Apocrypha
• The Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition—aka The Ignatius Bible
• The New Revised Standard Version with Apocrypha
• The New American Bible
• The Jerusalem Bible
• The New Jerusalem Bible

At some point, I also plan to buy the following:

• The Douay Rheims Bible
• The New English Bible with Apocrypha
• The English Standard Version with Apocrypha
• The Orthodox Study Bible

I believe this list covers all the major English translations with the Deuterocanon, excluding paraphrase bibles. Oh and I've also started collecting breviaries and missals.

What can I say? I'm a dork.