If you love art deco, the Roaring Twenties, German Expressionism, or pen and ink drawings -- you'll know why I had to have John Vassos's PHOBIA the second I saw it.

I'd never heard of either Vassos nor his masterpiece before I stumbled across them at an estate sale.

The book was just casually tossed on a dining room table, half hidden under some lace doilies, but the black cover with silver design was so eye-catching, I had to pick it up and leaf through the book. Wow.

And then I realized it was a signed and numbered First Edition from 1931. Double wow.

I looked around the room, half expecting someone to come screaming in to tell me to Put! That! Book! Down! No one paid any attention to me and my book. I wandered upstairs, still clutching the book. Out to the garage, clutching the book. Back to the livingroom, clutching the book. It looked like the book would be mine.

Cindy eventually appeared with her arms full of books. "Just one book?" she said. "Go check out the back room -- there's a ton of books."

"No, I'm good," I said, putting my book on top of her pile.

I politely asked if this was a $2.00 book as we checked out and was told that, yes, all hard covers were $2.00. I think they thought I wanted to pay less. I just didn't want to feel guilty about not paying more.

What's it worth? Well, on Alibris, this edition starts around $300.00 and goes up from there. Someone cut out the flyleaf on my book (possibly to remove an inscription), so we're only asking $200.00.

I don't care about the imperfection -- to me the book is priceless.

I've discovered an artist whose world and work encompasses everything from a mind boggling General Tire ad to the "Radio Living Room of Tomorrow," in a style and a period that I love.