This is probably the baby sister of the other two book sales as it happens the weekend of the tree lighting ceremony. Last minute gifts, a bar down the road in case drunk, literate aspiring writers need to wander through. Or people like me that really are addicted to books, their covers, the cut of the pages, the type of paper used, the energy of an old, old book. My favorite is to obtain a book and find something personal of its former owner in it. Airline ticket stubs, grocery lists and just this weekend, a thank you card. I actually do leave things in books myself....usually leaves that I've picked up off the ground. Sometimes I'll write the year on the leaf.
If I get a book from the library, I may leave a little note somewhere in the pages, something complimentary or inspiring for the person who finds it. A happy surprise. Or maybe creepy if they think I'm an old man slipping notes in through their bedroom window when they put the book down to go get something from the kitchen.
So I tried to be frugal (ha! That's the whole point of a library booksale!) and for fourteen dollars, these were my finds:
Rachel Ray: Just in Time - These are 30 minute recipes. I love Rachel Ray. I want her life. Could give or take her husband choice. I snatched it up thinking I would have a lot in here to work with. Upon further consideration, this one, which looks brand new, will be going to my mother. It has an abundance of meat and fish recipes, of which I have no use for. Still, it's a great looking book and I hope mom & stepdad can use it.
Brooklyn: Robbins and Palitz - My mother is from Brooklyn originally. Ok, really Manhattan until age two, and then Brooklyn for the next 10 years. If she could put the borough of Brooklyn into a teddy bear, she'd hug it all night long. She loves all books Brooklyn and I usually get her one or two per year. However I've lost track of what books I've gotten her on it already. Recently I took a photo of the ones she already has. I had to ask where they were because they were not all sitting out on the shelf as normal people who are proud of their acquisitions may display them. My mother has sort of a scarcity complex and they were squirreled away in a bottom drawer, which she brought me to. I guess if the burglars come, they are not finding those books. From what I can see in the photos, she does not have this one. Intuition however, tells me that she does.
This was pre-Blue Zones. It's a page or two for each interviewed centenarian. A hard-cover, beautiful book. I of course need to know how I am going to preserve this body for another bunch of years because I have too many books to read.
Saving Dinner the Vegetarian Way: Leanne Ely - This is better than a consolation prize from my unfortunate lack of use for the Rachel Ray book. I have not taken a good enough look at it yet but it will go on the counter in my ever growing cookbook section.
The China Study: T. Colin Campbell, Ph.D - I have been meaning to read this for years. And it will probably take years until I get to it. But I hear it has intriguing information. If it tells me to drop the coffee and booze though, I'll have to tear those pages out and transfer them to the guinea pig cages.
Rasputin: Harold Shukman - To anyone who read this, you will know who this is going to. Whether we are talking or not.
Howard's End: E.M. Forster - This summer I read a 1950s copy of Room With a View. It was part of my quest to read those quirky little paperbacks that seemed old from other booksales. I loved it, looked up the author and made a note to myself to put Howard's End on my Netflix list. But not before reading the book itself. During checkout, one of the library sale volunteers said that she had no idea that book was there or else she would have bought it herself. What a good marketing trick. Now I can't wait to read it even more.
Bird by Bird - Anne Lamott - Something that Amazon.com keeps telling me that I must have. And so I do. Two of them. Because I hadn't realized that I'd already bought one at a different library book sale. Whoops. The perils of owning so many books. I will see if I can find a writer friend who may be interested in having the other copy. It's a book with those lovely chapters that last for a moment or two instead of being a dissertation. I love those.
The Book of Tea: Okakura Kakuzo - man, this one looks awesome. I had never heard of it, or I don't think so anyway. It came in this wonderfully cared for outer box and was originally published in 1956. This copy was I believe printed in 1994 but has an older feel to it.
There were a few more items.....Italian and Spanish language books for Humanling. She also wanted one of those Chicken (Tofu) soup books for the Teens Christmas Soul under a full moon with mismatching mittens sort of book. She likes those but recently got rid of a few of them. Now one has established it's presence back into the house.
Now that the beans are almost finished cooking, I must clear off an item from the weekend wish list and clean those piggie cages so that I can roll around in my books as my Humanling looks on, embarrassed
