Sad but true, the venerable Pazzo Books is closing next Saturday. The good news? Between now and the store’s last day of business, every book in the store is on sale. $1 for paperbacks, $2 for hardcovers.
I first became aware of Pazzo Books a few years back, when Pazzo’s proprietor Tom Nealon co-judged and provided prizes for HiLoBrow’s Spooky-Kooky fiction contest. I’d actually be a huge fan of Tom’s work prior to that. His article “Golden Apples, Crimson Stew” is a delightfully disturbing look at tomatoes, cannibalism, and the Mesoamerican origins of chili con carne.
I took a trip down to West Roxbury today to visit with Tom and buy literally a car trunk’s worth of books. And a vintage toaster. Pazzo has a wide array of titles, with really unique offerings in the cookery, history, and literature categories. Here are some of the cool books I picked up there earlier today!
This massive edition of The Rivals has some gorgeous illustrations within.
Obviously I had to pick up some comics.
Some old archeology journals.
A variety of cookbooks and culinary tomes.
Arguably my three favorite, overly-specific monographs: a book about cultural naming conventions for ships, a socio-cultural examination of 19th century Parisian carriage drivers, and a book on the history of footnotes. Yes, really. So cool.
A random assortment of interesting books.
A pile of books about Lincoln and the Civil War. Research materials for an upcoming project. Plus, Lincoln is just an incredible historical figure.
Some French-language plays, because my French is embarrassingly rusty. And because I love Beckett and Ionesco.
Books about old-timey medicine!
It’s sad that Pazzo is closing next week. You should find the time to visit Tom before he closes up shop, because the book selection is still pretty incredible.
Tucker Cummings 
Aw, shucks. But you didn’t mention that your great (ly disturbing) story deservedly WON that contest!