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Have had a somewhat similar experience with book stores. The pandemic has oddly helped, as has the Kindle, prevent me from buying more paperback and hard cover books that I don't need. The basement of my apartment building is rapidly becoming crowded with books discarded by everyone who lives here or moves away. It's a virtual library. I can just check books out from there - if I want to. Also there's lots of little book houses in the neighborhood - little depositories where people leave books and pick up new ones. This however doesn't keep me from buying books on my Kindle - I bought another one recently for $2, it was by a Latin American author, who writes gothic horror novels. This one was the Daughter of Doctor Moreau, a retelling of HG Wells the Island of Doctor Moreau - which I've read.

I have a vague memory of Mythmaker, I think I may have read or scanned it once. And my memory fits with what you've said about it above, it's sketchy. The Historical Jesus I may try at some point, my father was impressed by it and quoted from it often. Zealot - I found interesting because it was a Jewish/Muslim/Christian's take on the Jesus story - also, it provided a lot of back story on the time period.

In high school, I had to read about 100 plays for a drama course. There was a book of adapted plays from literary works in the library. Among them were - Wuthering Heights, Turn of the Screw, Anne of Green Gables, and a few others. It was huge. Because of this course, which I took for three years, I read all of Woody Allen's plays, all of Neil Simon's, pretty much every play that was available. I even got plays in the mail through a book order service - so I read all the musicals too. As a result, I've read over 1000 plays in my lifetime. Everything from Harold Pinter to Marlow to Shakespeare to Lerner and Lowe. Also a lot of female playwrites, whose names I can't remember at the moment for some reason or other.

Anyhow, I agree - the best Wuthering Heights that I've seen was the Fiennes/Binoche version that focused on the later years. Most don't. And the part of the play that I found the most interesting was the later years. The story is kind of told in flashback, and is almost a ghost story. The book is interesting in that respect. And versions that focus on that - are better, I think.

A Prayer for Owen Meany - is hilarious in places. And I'd agree - few books make me really laugh, amuse yes, laugh no. And Owen Meany managed to make me laugh out loud, and cry. I also agree - that the flashbacks to the past were more engaging than the present day bits. A friend foisted it on me in college - insisting I read it and it was the best thing ever - and she was right. I fell in love with it.