Jessica outdid herself again! You just have to come to see her creativity on display in the store’s window. The theme this time is around children’s books: Alice in Wonderland, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and more. Very ingenious. It makes me smile! Jessica has her college degree in Fashion Design from Pratt and while she is living in the Middlebury area she has offered to decorate the window. Last month the window was designed around different types of crafts with books and projects on display from woodworking, quilting, sewing, painting, etc. Of course, her Halloween display was awesome. Who can forget that dripping eye! (Actually it was kind of gross…) All trying to have some fun in this little used bookstore, to show the diversity of what we have here as well as create some interest in downtown Middlebury - to step away from the norm. Hope we achieve some interest! Speaking of which, looking forward to working some more on the outside so hoping for some warmer weather soon. Painting, carpentry, and some fun. Books=Fun!
Archive for March, 2008
Hmmm, it’s snowing out…
but what else is new here in Vermont these days. At least it isn’t raining like last weekend. I hear there is great snow at the Bowl!
My mother, Muriel, is in today and we are shelving books. Four boxes down and well, too many to count. We do have alot to put up. Can get overwhelming at times but it is important to not let it get to me. How do other used bookstores manage, I wonder? Just deal with it, Barbara. 
What are we shelving, you wonder? Just about a little of everything…fiction, non-fiction, hard cover, paperbacks. Titles? How about “Tracing Your Civil War Ancestor”, Willa Cather novels, “Ralston Health Club One Hundredth Edition”, “Porcelain”, “The Flowering of New England,” “The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers”, “Selected Drawings of Aubrey Beardsley” just to name a few, and it is just a few. Some day I will count the number of books we shelf - just to satisfy my curiosity.
Boxes and Bags of New Used Books - OH MY!
Just returned from a shopping spree! Went on a trip south and of course, we stopped at a fair number of places and well, yeah, we bought books. I’m looking at boxes and bags, all full ready to price. We are pretty excited about our purchases. What makes this fun is that we get to chose the titles…what we like and are always searching for, and trying to fulfill requests that our regulars are looking for. Course it is always fun when people bring in books and being surprised at what they bring. Books are so much fun!
So what did we get on this trip? Hmm, quite a number of Robert Frost books - books on the man, poetry. Finally! Frost books are easier to find outside of the state but that makes sense. Here we are in Middlebury and last I saw, we only had one book on the shelf. That just isn’t right. I feel good about what we found. I have to admit, I just started one of the books, “Robert Frost Himself” by Stanley Burnshaw. Very interesting but I’m finding it so far more on Mr. Burnshaw’s life and his relationship to Frost but it gives a good insight to the times. I’m early into the book though - page 57. Ready to read are: “Honour Earth Mother” by Basil Johnston, “American Indians of the Northeast” by Kathleen J. Bragdon and “Nature’s Way: Native Wisdom for Living in Balance with the Earth” by Ed McGaa, Eagle Man all waiting patiently. Plus I’ve also started a couple of projects…American flag afghan using Green Mountain Spinnery yarn (of course!), embroidering a wall clock from a 1970 kit (so retro!), and also going through my ‘new’ magazines “American Home Craft” that is out of print but slowly I’m adding to my collection. They are FULL of amazing ideas.
Also picked up a couple of local authors - Bill McKibben, for one. I grabbed “Wandering Home” out of one of the boxes and well, sat up one night reading it. I just couldn’t put it down. How honest he writes. I wish I could remember all my thoughts when I closed the book. I knew I should have written them down but I was at my brother’s house and it is an old house with creaky floors and was afraid I might wake everyone up so I didn’t go look for paper and pencil. It will be a book difficult to sell as I would like to keep it but…special to sell, too. Hope that makes sense.
Boxes include a number of Star Trek, Vol 1-3 of Lahaye/Jenkins series “Novel of the Earth’s Last Days”, dinosaurs, sailing, children’s giant books, Zane Grey, and various others. They should be up on the shelves this week.
Please let me know if you are looking for a special book or share your thoughts!
Happy reading! Or knitting, embroidering…
