Monday, June 11, 2007
Cause and effect
Evidence mounts that writing a blog has an impact in the so-called real world and is not just a completely interior preoccupation: I had a visitor over the weekend who is a regular reader here - she and her mom were on vacation in New England and came by - to visit the shop, talk books for a while, and buy something to read. Well, we talked a mile a minute for an hour or so, all about books and reading and buying and selling, and it was just terrific. They bought books, asked where they could get some good lobster for supper, left, and then I couldn't quite believe it had really happened. It seems like a dream.
More evidence: over the past few months I've been continuing to quietly obsess about booksellers' tickets, and through my blog and other venues several collectors have found me, and I them. Here are a few of the many new acquisitions, including one of the fifty (fifty!) I received from The Hague (upper left, the fat book-shaped one):
I do love the book-shaped tickets, naturally, but that little bear is pretty great, too. Many many thanks to my new friends, who share this love of the small, bookish, and obscure. As if wallowing in all these book tickets wasn't enough, the weekend brought even more largesse, this time in the form of actual books themselves. A good friend is selling her house and decided to drop off several big boxes of books for me, gratis. Just because she needs to empty her house quickly for the soon-to-be new owners and she likes my shop (and she's tired of owning so much stuff - though she is keeping her best books, as she should). And, here's the great thing, the books are actually all good solid books - literary nonfiction, nearly all in fine condition, all quite saleable, all things I would have happily hoovered up at a library sale somewhere. I priced and shelved everything, except the few I took home to read first. All that, plus good sales at the shop both over the weekend and today, and finally, the last bit of good news, the bank called this afternoon and pre-approved our mortgage, so we can finally find a real home both for us and for all of our books. Apartment living is nearly at an end. I'm feeling both lucky and hopeful. Good things to feel, going into summer.
More evidence: over the past few months I've been continuing to quietly obsess about booksellers' tickets, and through my blog and other venues several collectors have found me, and I them. Here are a few of the many new acquisitions, including one of the fifty (fifty!) I received from The Hague (upper left, the fat book-shaped one):
I do love the book-shaped tickets, naturally, but that little bear is pretty great, too. Many many thanks to my new friends, who share this love of the small, bookish, and obscure. As if wallowing in all these book tickets wasn't enough, the weekend brought even more largesse, this time in the form of actual books themselves. A good friend is selling her house and decided to drop off several big boxes of books for me, gratis. Just because she needs to empty her house quickly for the soon-to-be new owners and she likes my shop (and she's tired of owning so much stuff - though she is keeping her best books, as she should). And, here's the great thing, the books are actually all good solid books - literary nonfiction, nearly all in fine condition, all quite saleable, all things I would have happily hoovered up at a library sale somewhere. I priced and shelved everything, except the few I took home to read first. All that, plus good sales at the shop both over the weekend and today, and finally, the last bit of good news, the bank called this afternoon and pre-approved our mortgage, so we can finally find a real home both for us and for all of our books. Apartment living is nearly at an end. I'm feeling both lucky and hopeful. Good things to feel, going into summer.
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Great news on the upcoming home ownership. I was 40 by the time my wife and I were able to escape renting and it was a joyous day when we bought our own house.
Here's hoping you have lots of wall space for bookshelves!
Dan
Here's hoping you have lots of wall space for bookshelves!
Dan
Thanks, Dan - it's been a long time coming, we've both been renting since college. We're hoping for a place with high ceilings for the giant bookcases we built years ago, which will travel with us. Moving the books will be hell, but unpacking and organizing them will be a delight. I know I've said it before, but I really love my books.
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