I’m late posting today for amazingly wonderful reasons. I have been to not one, but TWO, book sales since we last talked and not only had a fairly good time, but brought home astonishing treasures. Eric was due back last night, but surprised me in the late afternoon when he opened the porch door and hollered up the stairs, “I’m hooooome! Wanna go to a book sale?”
The sale in question is one I used to love a lot, but didn’t really mind missing due to its decline. I almost said no because it was already three- thirty and the sale was due to start at five, and it takes an hour to get there, and I looked like what my Irish grandfather always called “the devil kicked with a club.” But I didn’t. Say no, that is. I hopped to it, changed clothes, slapped on a little make-up and flew out the door. I even managed to put on my skinny jeans and lipstick while talking on the phone to a vintage magazine dealer from Canada.
The sale of course was crazy – a totally insane number of people and there we were back in the nosebleed section where we knew no one, numbers 40 and 41, with a half hour to go. By the time the doors opened the line behind us had snaked around the corner and down another hall.
“This is a bonus,” I kept telling myself. “Anything you find is serendipity.” But I felt pretty much like calling it a loss and looking for the nearest Starbucks.
Once inside the sale, I immediately headed to the collectible corner where the antiquarian and higher priced books reside. The scanner people took off for the stacks like a stampede, so to my great surprise, only my friend and fellow book dealer, Paul, stood in front of the shelves. Others joined in, but by then I had already snapped up a four volume set, The History of Nursing (Nutting/Dock, G.P. Putnam's Sons 1913).If it stopped right there the sale would have been fine for me. Actually, it looked like it MIGHT stop there, but on my second pass I spotted a box of books that had migrated almost to the check-out table. I pulled it back to where it belonged, glanced down, and had to restrain myself from whirling, twirling and throwing confetti. There it was – the book I’d lost at Lillian’s auction in 2006 to a dealer from Michigan who’d run it up to retail for some odd reason. The Mary Frances Sewing Book in mint condition with all its pattern pieces of tissue and its sewing club card – this adorable children’s book from 1913 was MINE at last! Handel resurrected from the dead momentarily to conduct the Hallelujah Chorus.
I have a theory that if the book gods smile on you once, it will be awhile before they do it again. It’s sort of true, but today they at least winked at me. At five a.m. this morning we were up, at six a.m. we were out the door, and at seven a.m. we were fourth and fifth in line for a nine o-clock sale. The crowd again was enormous and wound like an old-fashioned telephone cord not only TO but THROUGH the parking lot. Time passed quickly though, as we talked to our favorite longtime dealers and one very cute young couple we like who are sort of new sellers. They do wield the odious scanner, but we don’t hold it against them.
This sale yielded a medium-sized box of “good enough” books, but also a few treasures, including a leather bound book on surveying from 1860. Yes -- really! This is not standard book sale fare, but there it was, bound in calf so buttery soft you could curl up and take a nap with it. Next I found a scarce book of Ohio legends (I forgot to take a picture of it), and then a plastic bag filled with WWII pacifist ephemera! Again, not book sale fare, but clearly waiting for me to home in on it like a pigeon.
The coming weeks will bring additional sales, as fall is prime book sale season. At this moment I almost look forward to them, but of course there IS my theory to consider. The book gods do not smile every time and two times in a row – well, a smile and a wink – is pushing it. But, on the other hand, we HAVE suffered an unprecedented summer of acquisition discontent, so maybe we’ll get a pass. And, just maybe, I’ll enjoy book sales again.
2 comments:
Thanks for leaving your comment on my blog, Tess. I look forward to browsing your site more, but I already have discovered that you're not so far from me -- I'm in the greater Toledo area. Next time my professor husband and I are in your neck of the woods, we will definitely look up your shop -- we're big fans of the indie bookstore!
Loved your review of the Emily book. I had written one earlier here and mine was on the Eimly page too, so I started visiting Emily at her website frequently! My youngest daughter graduated from UT and lives in Sylvania. Our shop is 10 miles south of Medina -- I do the online portion of the business. We'd love to have you stop - let me know if you get up this way!
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