Some may think the title is a little lofty considering the subject of this post. Dan’s eyebrows raised as he exclaimed, “The stuff of dreams?!” before concluding, “Oh, books.”
Not everyone shares my love and passion for books. Not everyone shares my love and passion for used books. But I love the stories they carry – within their pages as well as across their worn covers. I can forgive the sun bleached covers, peculiar stains and dog-eared corners for the dedications, margin markings, post-its and occasional family photos that come with a well-loved copy. It feels like such a book has a soul of its own.
Every year I await what is quite possibly my most anticipated weekend of the year – the weekend that hosts my favourite charity book sale. It’s held in an arena with table after table of books sorted by adult fiction, children’s books and many different categories of adult non-fiction – and they’re cheap. It really is the stuff of (my) dreams.
Because I’m so happy with my great finds (and because you’re reading this whether you’re interested in mug shots of my new books or not), I’ve taken pictures of those books that haven’t already been whisked away by happy readers.
So let me introduce you to the newest additions to our bursting growing library…
A series I’m hoping we’ll fall in love with (I’m in love already).
Some favourite books from my childhood.
Some new classics to lose ourselves in.
Some new to me books and series. I heard about Enid Blyton often but have never read any of her stories.
A few picture books made it into my pile. This book is Grimm Fairytales on one side (I haven’t read any yet to see how truly grim the are)…
…and Babar on the other. Oh, how I love Babar.
And a pristine copy of a current favourite of ours for a special friend.
And just to show you I branched out from children’s books – a book for the hubby, a book for a friend and a book for, uh, me.
But we already know that all of these books were really for me, right? Just checking.
Thanks for indulging my obsession. Now I just have to tear the older littles away from the Magic Treehouse books they can’t get enough of to convince them they do in fact love the “boring classics” I bought for them…And perhaps convince Dan to build some more shelves because at this point I have no idea where I’ll be storing these…
Do you have a favourite book or series from your childhood?
Wow, that must be the best book sale ever! What a great selection. Enid Blyton books are great. The language she used was gorgeous. Scarlett loves the Famous Five books and my hubby reads them to her every night. She loves them so much in fact, that I can’t sway her to listen to other books being read to her at the moment.
I loved Anne of Green Gables when I was a kid and still have quite a few of the books. A friend actually bought me Rilla of Ingleside for my birthday last week, as it is one I don’t have. Can’t wait to read it. Of course I loved Little Women and Black Beauty. Snuggle Pot and Cuddle Pie was another book as well as Blinky Bill, but those two books are very ‘Australian’, so probably aren’t well known outside of Australia.
I want to go to a book sale now. Not that I have time to read my current book. I think it is going to finish me before I finish it!
Happy reading. Jacinta
Oh my oh my! Roald Dahl is one of my all time faves! When I was younger, I had the complete Little Women and Little Men, hardback even!…..We have so many of the books you posted and I found quite a few of them on paperback swap which means that is cool! Sadest of all things is that once we moved to our farm a few years ago…our small, many-windowed house did not allow for book shelves and they are mostly all still in the barn. Oh the sadness! One day it will be fun to find a place for all of them and pretend like we are getting new books!
So many great books! Wish there was book sales like that here…
I really liked The Little Vampire series by Angela Sommer-Bodenburg 🙂
Oh books! The perfect addiction! Those are some favourite adventures from my childhood too. There was a series by Eric Wilson I especially enjoyed. All the books were mysteries in various parts of Canada that this brother-sister team had to solve. Perhaps not the best written books, but they brought my imagination alive as a kid. Thanks for sharing, Rachel!
WOW! I love the books you have added to your library! We have two sales a year, one at the local library and one at the near by university. I look forward to them every time!
I love books and dream one day of owning my own bookstore! We have over two thousand books in the house and even with the Kindle I still order “the real thing”. I have most of the books you showed and beware….the Grimm’s tales are pretty grim! My favorite when I was younger was the Nancy Drew Collection; I read and reread them. Now I read just about anything and have a “to be read” stack that is almost as tall as I am!
It’s all about The Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler here! I discovered it in fourth grade, and it sent me on a hunt for everything I could read by Konigsburg. I even have a signed copy of Jennifer, Hecate, and me Elizabeth from that era of my life! The pile is delightful… I think my fave in your stack was Wheel on the School. My copy of that one is signed too!
Oooh, Rachel we share the same passion! And all the books you got today- we have the same taste too. How lucky of you to find these!!!
Oh we love the Little House Books- though the boys have not heard them quite yet. Also we love Thornton Burgess. 🙂
I just finished “The Friday Night KNitting Club!”
<3
awesome! I share your love for used books in great part because I was raised with them. My dad has been a long time bookseller of modern first editions.
Make sure you always look at those copyright dates! Who knows when you’ll fall upon a first edition.
: )
Wow – you found some real treasures there! Where to begin…?? Oooh, the delightful choices!!
[…] all the excitement of our book sale finds there has been more time spent reading than knitting over the last few days. Even so, I’ve […]
What a great pile of books! My favourites remain the ‘Little House’ books and all the LM Montgomery books. Ella’s just about old enough and I can’t wait to read them with her.
I was very excited reading this post.Book hunting is my idea of heaven!But you know that.
I’m in agreement with everyone here about loving used books. And you know I will encourage you to buy more used books!
WOW! Fantastic collection!
Oh where do I start??? BFG, we love it! And of course the Laura Ingals Wilder series, I sometimes consider a road trip across this country visiting all the places she wrote about. Oh and the House at Pooh Corner…I still find Corey reading it sometimes. We are in book 4 of the Chronicles of Narnia series right now and loving it. What a score you got!
Just saw your book post. Enid Blyton! Loved her as a child. My favourite series was Dolly (not sure if this is also the English title). Which I’mnot sure really fits into my parents philosophy but I loved it anyway. It is about a girl that goes to a bording school which is situated in a castle by the seaside.
I also loved Billy and Zottel series (not sure about the English title again) which is about a girl and her pony.
Everyone else loves the series “Five …” bit more mystery and spookyness in that.
You definitely have to get ALLL the Astrid Lindgren books! She was the best. My favs were Kalle Blomquist, Bullerbü, Saltkrokan, Madita, Michel and Pippi (these titles can be quite different – in Swedish Michel is called Emil and I think Pippi has a different name in French). We actually had a detective club just like Kalle! 🙂 When I went to Sweden we went to Astrd Lingrens World where all the buildings from the story are in miniature. But I just loved the whole landscape of Smaland. It is just like in the books.