I’m still sorting through the treasures I picked up over the weekend at the Pequot book sale, among which was a book I’d been searching for for probably a good decade. Ah, the sweet satisfaction of acquisition!

But the sale did spark a discussion with my oldest daughter about what she called the family tendency toward compulsion. Mentioned were my habit of going up and down each aisle in the supermarket, even if I’m only there for a single item … her own habit of placing the bills in her wallet facing the same direction … and the family habit of literature.

I seem to have passed on my habit of reading books in a series in order, and of collecting an entire series if it’s something I like. If I pick up a third book in a series at a tag sale, I won’t start the book until I’ve purchased the first two. If I find an author or series I like — most recently it was Dorothy Dale (1909 et al) — then I’ll search for the rest of the series wheresoever it lies hidden.

My oldest, who is creating her own library now that she’s living in her own apartment, was picking up classics: Dumas’ Count of Monte Cristo, Dante’s Divine Comedy, Dickens’ Christmas Carol, Alexander’s Black Cauldron and as many Xanth books as she could find. She said she debated picking up the fourth one as it was the sixth in the series and she had books 1-3, but decided to take the chance on spending 50 cents, since she’d have to pick it up anyway. But she actually debated buying it because it was out of sequence. Hence the discussion on compulsions.

So there I was in the Pequot, cruising through the “old and interesting” tables, and noticed an old Jackson Gregory western titled “I Must Ride Alone.”

I mean, really. How can you resist something like that? This one had a dust cover (thereby making it $3, instead of the $1 for the plain version sitting beside it), and the description said that Tim was doing just fine until the girl arrived, although she didn’t look much like a girl in her 10-gallon hat, her boots and, one assumes, her six-shooters. But Tim had made a vow that he would always ride alone ….

Next to that title was “Man to Man,” and then another, “The Cavaliere.” “The Caviliere” has this lovely picture in the frontispiece of a man dressed in slashed doublet and feathered hat wielding a sword and protecting a woman from a band of miscreants.

All my buttons were  pushed. I figured, well, I can pick up all three of the books for $3, why not? I grabbed an empty box from under the table and began collecting Jackson Gregory titles.

Gregory, according to violetbooks.com, “was born in Salinas, California on March 12, 1882. Gregory taught in California high schools, eventually becoming a principal, before his journalistic, then novelist, career took flight. He had two sons by Lotus McGlashan, whom he married in 1910. He began writing for the pulp magazine Adventure in 1915 & was later a regular in Western Story. His first western in book format was The Outlaw (1916); he produced one to three westerns a year up to the time of his death on June 12, 1943, with additional books appearing posthumously. His last was a paperback original, Hardcase Range (1958). He dabbled at fantasy, mysteries, & south seas adventure but the greater percentage of his works are action-westerns.”

Of course, I didn’t know all this at the time, especially the part about him writing three books a year for the better part of half a century. I did a (relatively) quick search through used book sites for Gregory titles and came up with 61.

However, there I was, looking at Westerns and checking authors. I ended up with 19 books by Jackson Gregory that were in the sale.

I’ll let y’all know how they read once I finish “The Shuttle,” the odd Frances Hodgson Burnett book I picked up two weeks ago at another sale. It appears to have been written between  “Little Princess” (1888) and “Secret Garden” (1911), but it’s not what you’d call a children’s book. More a romance and dissection of an abusive marriage. It was published in 1907.

Good thing I’m on vacation next week. I have all sorts of books to enjoy!