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Yes, I Did Have a Sale – 50% Sale

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So, yes, I did have a sale. The week of July 15-19. And guess what I forgot to post online Yes. I forgot to post that I was having a 50% Sale. Good way to get the word out there, Barbara, written sarcastically.

So how did the sale go? It went actually very well, thank you. It was just a pop-up kinda thing. It was nice and from my perspective a lot of books moved out. And I believe customers were just as excited for the deals they got to enjoy. So, everyone was happy.

If you are reading this and didn’t know about the sale you can still join in on the fun. All you have to do to is say, “Hey, Barbara! How about that sale you recently had. I want in!” I will reward you with half-off your stack of books.

Hope everyone is enjoying the summer. And making the most of it. Perfect weather for front porch reading!

Knox, who possessed a booming voice that could be heard throughout the camp, had never fired a cannon in his life when he became head of artillery in 1775. He was a local bookseller in Boston who was fascinated by weapons. He had read just about every book published on ordnance and convinced Washington to put him in charge of his artillery. – Bruce Chadwick, George Washington’s War: The Forging of a Revolutionary Leader and the American Presidency.

Summer Reading

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What a blessing it is to love books. Everybody must love something, and I know of no objects of love that give such substantial and unfailing returns as books and a garden – Elizabeth von Arnim, The Solitary Summer

I am having such a time sticking with a book to read from start to finish. To pick up another book and start in. Or another. Or another. I have no idea of why I keep picking up books and not finishing them. It’s been going on for a long while now. Actually, I think I do but… I should welcome the distraction of a good read. To get lost in a good book.

So, what am I reading? In no particular order because it wouldn’t make sense since I’m in the middle of them all. Like in the almost in the middle of the book.

  • Pachinko, Min Jin Lee
  • Dangling Man, Saul Bellow
  • Look Homeward Angel, Thomas Wolf
  • The Return of the Native, Thomas Hardy
  • Summer, Edith Wharton
  • The Myth of the Lost Cause: Why the South Fought the Civil War and Why the North Won, Edward Bonekemper
  • In the Shadow of Kinzua: The Seneca Nation of Indians since World War II, by Laurence Marc Hauptman

There’s more but I think that’s enough. An eclectic list, don’t you think?

In the summer my favorite spot for reading is sitting in a rocking chair on my front porch.

I’m going to try to discipline myself. I think I’ll pick up Wharton’s Summer. A perfect read as it’s right in the middle of the season. Wish me luck.

“It was as if all the latent beauty of things had been unveiled to her. She could not imagine that the world held anything more wonderful.” -Edith Wharton, Summer

“Oh for heaven’s sake! Books aren’t bagels. They don’t go stale,” – Taylor Jenkins Reid, Forever, Interrupted. Ha! Love that quote!

Getting Ready! Upcoming VABA Book Fair.

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The 31st Vermont Book, Postcard & Ephemera Fair is right around the corner. Sunday, June 1, 2025. This spring event will once again be held in St. Albans, Vermont in the St. Albans City Hall, located on Main Street. This fun fair will be held 10am-4pm. And yes, FREE admission. Nothing to stop you from attending.

Most dealers save their best pieces for the fairs, and quite often you can obtain a long-sought item that has been kept in reserve for the occasion. – Robert A. Wilson, Modern Book Collecting.

Boxes filling up to bring to the upcoming VABA 2025 Spring Book Fair.

And that is exactly what I have done. So far, I have set aside four boxes. Three are seen here which I’ve stacked before the counter.
Look for books on the Revolutionary War, spirituality, Buddhism, James Joyce, and others, as well as related booklets and postcards.

VABA book fairs are always fun. Fun to meet and talk to other book sellers. Many are happy to share their expertise or even just talk books. The books brought to the shows are varied as our shops are. Generally, the stock represents what is offered on their shelves. You are allowed to pick up a book – gingerly, of course – open it and give it your inspection. The books should be marked as to their cost. Maybe I shouldn’t type this, but it really isn’t polite to try to haggle with the shopkeeper. Remember, they carted the books to St. Albans, set up the display, and will sit/stand throughout the fair. And of course, any not sold have to be reboxed and reshelved back into their store.
I go mainly for the comradery with the booksellers and meeting new people interested in books and reading. And seeing familiar faces from my store. Always a pleasant surprise. And seeing what was brought to the sale by my fellow booksellers.

There are no faster or firmer friendships than those formed between people who love the same books.
– Irving Stone, Clarence Darrow for the Defense

Hope to see you in St. Albans or at the least, in my shop in Middlebury.

Books are, let’s face it, better than everything else. – Nick Hornby, The Polysyllabic Spree


Tuesdays in April

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You can’t help respecting anybody who can spell TUESDAY, even if he doesn’t spell it right; but spelling isn’t everything. There are days when spelling Tuesday simply doesn’t count. – A.A. Milne

Tuesdays during the month of April the store will be closed: April 15, 22 and 29. Open only Wednesdays-Saturday for the month.

All’s good.

To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all. – Oscar Wilde

A Little Spring Break

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Life seems but a quick succession of busy nothings. – Jane Austen, Mansfield Park

This hobble of being alive is rather serious, don’t you think so? – Thomas Hardy, Tess of the D’Urbervilles

After all, the best part of a holiday is perhaps not so much to be resting yourself, as to see all the other fellows busy working. – Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows

Possibly from reading those quotes maybe you can tell I will be taking some time off? Yes. Time away. A few days. Not going far. Staying pretty close to home. Resting. Reading. Cleaning. Raking. Hopefully! And whatever else I have the mind to do. If raining… reading, b&w movies, and napping. Good food. Just some down time. I’m hoping that Mother Nature will be agreeable.

The store will be closed March 24-26. I’ll be back in on Thursday (Mar 27) to finish the week in the store. We’ll see how this goes. That means before summer hits I might be taking off a few days here and there.

Thanks!

That’s why people take vacations. Not to relax or find excitement or see new places. To escape the death that exists in routine things. – Don DeLillo, White Noise

Marching Into Spring

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March is such a fickle month. It is the seam between winter and spring—though seam suggests an even hem, and March is more like a rough line of stitches sewn by an unsteady hand, swinging wildly between January gusts and June greens. You don’t know what you’ll find, until you step outside. – V.E. Schwab, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue

Isn’t that quote just the truth? But it is March. I feel the month is the door for Spring. Okay, it may just be a peek but somedays it’s opened wide. I love those days. Yes, even if the door gets slammed shut. Soon it’ll be open wide and stay open for a long time. Front porch reading. Reworking gardens, now that I got them back into shape. Last summer was the summer of heavy-duty gardening. I want to start ticking off my To-Do List.

On soft Spring nights I’ll stand in the yard under the stars – Something good will come out of all things yet – And it will be golden and eternal just like that – There’s no need to say another word. – Jack Kerouac, Big Sur

The store has been humming along. The I Hate February Sale went well. Books moved and well, books came in too. Funny how that is. Buddhism. Classics. Crafts, including metalwork. Herbal. Chinese Medicine. And of course, a variety of fiction -semi-current and vintage, came into the store. All sorted, cleaned, and shelved. Just waiting for you to discover.

At the end of the month – March 25 and 26, the store will be closed. I am going to have some down time. I’m hoping for warm March weather. You know, those Mother Nature gifts when you really need it. Frankly, I need spring. But regardless of the weather, I will make the most of it. That you can be sure of.

Think you’re escaping and run into yourself. Longest way round is the shortest way home. – James Joyce, Ulysses.



I Hate February! So, Let’s Have a Sale!

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All the evil hate in the mad heart of February was wrought into the forlorn and icy wind that cut its way cruelly across Central Park and down along Fifth Avenue. – F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Beautiful and Damned

February is a suitable month for dying. Everything around is dead, the trees black and frozen so that the appearance of green shoots two months hence seems preposterous, the ground hard and cold, the snow dirty, the winter hateful, hanging on too long.” – Anna Quindlen

I think you all know that I hate February. And yes, I truly do. The reason is legit.

One day several years ago I was having a very melancholy day and being in the bookstore, I knew I couldn’t have that. Owning a used bookstore is supposed to be fun. Right? So, I asked myself how could I turn it around to make it a great day? A sale! But what do I offer as a discount? 10%? 20%? What? Then I remembered what Ben told me. That would be Ben from the Country Bookshop in Plainfield. He said if you have a sale make it a 50% sale! That way everyone has fun. Customers will enjoy the savings and well, you’ll start seeing holes on your shelves and that’s always good because heaven knows there will be more books you can unbox to fill those holes. And it’s good for the cash register. So, from that conversation in my head, I came up with the I Hate February Sale.

And it actually starts Friday, Feb 14. Why not? I have chocolate!

Recap of 2024 and Looking Towards 2025

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 If one is not careful, one allows diversions to take up one’s time—the stuff of life. – Carl Sandburg

Goodbye 2024. Hello 2025. What a year. 2024 is soon done and ready to be put away. I’m looking forward to 2025 and see what mischief it’ll cause.

I was caught. I couldn’t read. Couldn’t embroider. Couldn’t wrap my head around anything but doing nothing but cleaning, sorting, shelving. In the bookstore and at home, too. It’s winter and for me that means piles of books I want to read, and stacks of material and baskets of embroidery floss to work through.

So, I didn’t finish many books, but I started a lot. I read nine books. Three about Ulysses S. Grant, soldier and president. Two by local author, Steven Kiernan. Also, Dodie Smith, Amor Towles, and Fiona Davis. I’m once again participating in an online book club hosted by the Grant Cottage State Historic Site in New York. This year we will be reading two books on Grant.

Thanks to Goodreads I see I have started fourteen books this year. Almost finished Kevin Graffagnino’s , Ira Allen: A Biography. It is jammed packed with Vermont history. I already know I have to reread it so I can absorb it all. Highly recommend it. Plus, his newest, Vermontiana: An Annotated Checklist, 1764-1899. And I’ve started several on the Revolutionary War as well as the French & Indian War. Trying to familiarize myself particularly on our area of Vermont and New York. Also a historical book on Salamanca, NY where I once lived as a little girl. Novels? I have started a few: Seize the Day (Saul Bellow), The Brothers Karamazov (Dostoevsky), The Nightingale (Kristen Hannah), Barkskins (Anne Proulx), The Moon and Sixpence (W. Somerset Maugham), plus, plus, plus. Crazy. But I must get going on Grant at 200: Reconsidering the Life and Legacy of Ulysses S. Grant. Fortunately, it’s just 40 pages before our first meet-up so I must get cracking.

I’m not going to beat myself up for not completing books but marvel on how many I started and work on trying to finish them during 2025. There wasn’t a lot of porch rocking and reading this past summer as the gardens were always yelling at me. I’m going to be looking for my creativity spark to come alive again. Heaven knows I’ve got floss enough and vintage material and spools that I like to work with. And books. I’ve books galore!

Before I forget, I am going to take time at the start of the year to take care of me: reading, b&w movies, embroidering and start 2025 refreshed and renewed. I think I deserve it. So, see you Thursday, January 5, 2025.

Celebrate 18 Years!

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I finally cleared off my stool and moved the stacks that were hiding the laptop. All so I could add a new post. Oh, it really has been a while.

Life has been good to this used bookstore. Busy, busy, busy. From accepting books, purchasing from various book scouts, and viewing collections. To cleaning, sorting and shelving. Shuffling boxes around to go through, or to place out of the way to go through later. Trying to keep up with the errant leaves making their way into the store. All’s been good and as it should. No complaints. And, of course, sales.

Here it is, the last days of November. Friday and Saturday after Thanksgiving are special days. I have owned Otter Creek Used Books for eighteen years. 18! And that means, books are 50% off.

Eighteen years of being a used bookstore owner is blowing my mind. I am not sure why this number means more than say, five, ten or fifteen. But eighteen is blowing my socks off. Maybe because I feel I’ve done it.

Thank you all! In much appreciation. To The Vermont Bookshop. MarbleWorks Pharmacy and Costello’s Market. And especially to all my customers throughout the years. Now, come in and enjoy the 50% Sale Friday and Saturday, November 29 and 30.

Taking a Short Break. Very Short.

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But a break. I need to kick back. Stuff my face with fried clams, lobster, fries, taffy, and anything else the shores of the Atlantic offers up. I need to hear the pounding of the waves. Sand under my feet and between my toes. Most importantly, I need to sit and close my eyes, smell the ocean, and clear my head. Leaving bright and early Sunday morning and won’t stop until I get to a clam hut. Scouting used bookstores will be reserved for the way home. A pleasant way to get back into the mindset of a used bookstore owner.

See you 10 am Wednesday, August 7.