Guns, Germs, and Steel

Taking part in Reddit.com’s attempt to break the world record for the largest Secret Santa gift exchange, I received this cool tome last night as my gift. My gift went out last week and as I haven’t seen confirmation of it’s receipt, I’ll keep that a secret, just in case.

Treasure

This past weekend, the wife and I found ourselves in Ellijay for the weekend. As we wandered around, we stopped in an antique shop, figuring to find something that might go in a room we plan to spruce up after the kids and grandkids get moved out in a couple of months. We didn’t find anything for the room, but I ran across this, buried in a corner:

…an intact 28 volume set of Time Life books on the Civil War in excellent condition. Originally sold back in the 80′s for a pretty penny, I was able to snag them for $100. I’ve been on a Civil War reading binge for a while now, and there are a number of illustrations and pictures contained in these volumes I haven’t seen. Youtube even has a commercial about the set from 1991.