Wednesday, April 15, 2009

i love a good hunt...and old books!

Get a load of these! A friend from my ward called me on Saturday to tell me that her husband was in charge of a used library book sale and would I like to go? .....Would I?!

An hour later I was sweating, stinky and definitely grimy but grinning like a polecat as I carried a crate full of books out to my car. The book sale was held in a musty old warehouse (cool!) over on the air force base...every nook and cranny of the space was stuffed with books of every genre. Said space was not air conditioned and people were crammed into this place like sardines, happy sardines though, lugging crates upon crates of loot around as they pilfered. It was so humid and muggy that I was sweating astronomical proportions out of every pore and follicle I had (I'm a lily-white you see, not meant for this wilting, tropical heat)...even still I was excitedly wedging my stroller into impossible crannies and shamelessly on my hands and knees rummaging for dear life because...well, because it was fun. All of the proceeds went to the base library, of course and none of the books were over $1.00. Not even the hardbacks!! While plundering the shelves I stumbled across a little crate/shelf full of books that had an ink pen on duct tape label that read "old books" (Yes!) I gathered up all of the ones that looked the most interesting to me and here is a picture of my four favorites.




I just love how old books smell (and new ones too)...you can't see in these pictures because I'm a horrible photographer, but the edges of the pages are browned and crumbling and oh, my but I love that too! The spines are worn from multiple reads and as I was flipping through them I noticed that a couple of the books have been written in. It's just magical, I tell ya. Something about old books just makes my imagination start to spinning...I think, if I could have anything in the world, it would be a time machine. Yes, most definitely a time machine.

I plan on reading these books eventually...but in the meantime I am enjoying decorating with them. Tucking them in corners and enjoying the site of them in my home.

3 comments:

G. B. Miller said...

Oh!!! You lucky, lucky, lily white, drenching with sweat dog!! I'm SOOOO envious!!

I found some wonderful old books while I was visiting your Mom. I'll tell you more about them in an email and maybe send you a pic or two.

You need to keep in mind that your"great"(not in the geneological sense) Aunt GG collects old Zane Gray westerns. Hint, hint!! As if you want to fill up your precious cargo weight/space with books for your favorite ol' redheaded Auntie. =)

Lovie said...

oh yeah, love the old books. the stores areusually so much better writeen that you really feel like you have read a book when you hit the last page.
MOM

Jeanne Oliver said...

I would have been in HEAVEN!!! You are so lucky and the prices...amazing.