Friday, August 22, 2008

Show and Tell Friday

Show and Tell

It's been a long time since I've played Show and Tell Friday, but I'm so excited about today's new treasure that I've got to share.

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Mom has this book that Great Grandma passed down to her. It's an absolutely massive thing, about a thousand pages divided into sections about medicine, and homemaking, and how to take care of the cows and chickens and the most obscure, fascinating stuff you could imagine, published in 1916. The spine was gone and the poor thing was falling apart until Mom took it and had it rebound.

I was always fascinated by that book but even though I could have looked carefully through it, it always felt too fragile to touch. So I didn't. I've never seen another book like it, not that I've been on a great quest for one. There could be dozens of them sitting on shelves in every antique store around.

I found this one at a garage sale today, sitting on someone's driveway beside a table of Danielle Steel paperbacks. As soon as I saw what it was, I scooped it up and started to figure out how much I could justify spending on it. I got it for a quarter. The sign said that books were twenty-five cents each, and that's what the lady charged me.

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Considering its age and the fact that apparently no-one wanted it, it's in great shape. I can't wait to curl up with it and read how to treat hydrophobia and properly store fresh eggs!

The garage sales were good today. I found a huge bunch of black floral fabric (hopefully enough to finish and back the kitty cat quilt), an old blue Nancy Drew book I don't think I already have, and some decent yarn.

2 comments:

Carla said...

Wonderful! I love old books, especially the artwork in them! And for a quarter? Well you HAD to buy it! Post the quilt when you finish it! Shows like you hit the jackpot!

Alison said...

Wow! Well done!

I once found a 1952 first edition Betty Crocker cookbook at a garage sale for a dollar, and it looked like it had never been opened. That was the book my mom had used a lot, and here was a pristine copy! It was a school fundraiser, and the woman taking my money thought the price outrageously low, so I gave her two bucks instead to make her happy. I have used that book now for 31 years, and Cretty Bocker, as our kids call it, reprinted that edition recently--we bought each kid a copy.

--AlisonH at spindyeknit.com

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