A Bookish Weekend

I've really been blessed with friends offering to give me books for my bookshop, especially a few who decided it was time to clean out.

I drove out into the countryside Friday to one friend's house and she gave me stacks of books, old and new. When I saw this one, I told her it wasn't going to be for sale:

Back to Basics has instructions for everything from building an adobe house to tanning hides.







Of course, I like the section on spinning. I don't know if I'll ever have time to learn to spin, but I like the idea of it and I have to stop and watch every spinner I see.

We had a nice visit and she also showed me some of her books that she's keeping — some with family signatures in them, genealogy books and an old family Bible.

Saturday, I went to the High Point Library book sale. Actually, I went twice — in the morning to buy old books and anything that looked special, and again in the afternoon for the bag sale. I was the first in line for the bag sale and I got to chat with an acquaintance as we waited for the happy chaos. The two trips sent me home to the bookshop with nearly a hundred books, total.

I know, collectors would turn up their noses at these ex-library editions, but I'm building a bookstore from scratch and trying to get a good variety. And the prices were good, with large art books priced the same as any other hardback. I recently bought Joyce Godsey's Book Repair for Booksellers. Before the shop opens, I'm going to have to study it and learn how to take off all the extra library stickers to make the books look a little nicer.

I chose mostly nonfiction, because I knew another friend was planning to bring me a lot of fiction Saturday afternoon. But as I was about to check out at the library sale, I quickly scanned the fiction shelves and saw The Peaceable Kingdom by Jan de Hartog. I never expected to see that on the discount shelves! While I'm working on the variety books first, I eventually want to specialize in Quaker books, genealogy and local history. I already have a fine copy of The Peaceable Kingdom in my personal collection, and now I have one to offer at the bookstore, too.

My friend BookishMiss and her mom brought boxes and boxes of books and got a peek at the shop's progress, including the new floor.

Through a weekend of generosity and good deals, I probably added about 300 books to my inventory. Now I just need shelves to put them on...