vintage bookshelves and a treasure found
oh what a treat I had today!!!! after putting everything back in the kitchen after it was painted, cleaning all the benches and washing the floor ~ I decided to take myself out for a treat. This months 'Simple Abundance' chapter has been all about the arts & creativity and I was going to buy a poetry book to see if it could inspire me. So I drove myself to Katoomba to visit a quaint second hand bookshop. Two floors full of old books- books on shelves, in boxes, piles on the floor - just overflowing with old books and an old man sitting behind the counter in a big leather armchair, wrapped in a check blanket ~ reading glasses perched on his nose ~ wool cap on his head ~ leisurely reading and thoroughly engrossed in his book. He nodded as I walked in and I got the distinct feeling that he couldn't care less if I bought something or not.
I trotted of up the stairs to the cooking section ~ you see, I was on the hunt for some vintage housekeeping books.....but they are few and far between let me tell you. Either they have all worn out with use or maybe they are the trend in real life just like in cyber world ? who knows.
Plenty of books on wine, microwave cookery (yick) or chinese cookery from the 70's! oh yes and lots of books on cooking for the freezer..which I am not into either....so I browsed and browsed, each minute feeling more like I was wasting my time. Found a book for ms*louisa's bridal shower...vintage of course but shhhh, she reads this. So I wandered downstairs to the poetry section..thinking to myself oh come on..surely there is something to treat myself with. I found a nice book called 'Particular Delights - cooking for the senses' by Nathalie Hambro... and that looked about it for the day...I went to walk out and something stopped me...hmm maybe a silly frivolous love story is what I need..so I started looking in the fiction section - you know, the ones with Fabio all over the front..and there among all those books, just peeking out, was a copy of 'GIFT FROM THE SEA' by Anne Morrow Lindbergh - from 1955... so I picked it off the shelf and walked up to the counter to pay. $2, can you believe it? It is just a gorgeous copy, a true vintage treasure....
I trotted of up the stairs to the cooking section ~ you see, I was on the hunt for some vintage housekeeping books.....but they are few and far between let me tell you. Either they have all worn out with use or maybe they are the trend in real life just like in cyber world ? who knows.
Plenty of books on wine, microwave cookery (yick) or chinese cookery from the 70's! oh yes and lots of books on cooking for the freezer..which I am not into either....so I browsed and browsed, each minute feeling more like I was wasting my time. Found a book for ms*louisa's bridal shower...vintage of course but shhhh, she reads this. So I wandered downstairs to the poetry section..thinking to myself oh come on..surely there is something to treat myself with. I found a nice book called 'Particular Delights - cooking for the senses' by Nathalie Hambro... and that looked about it for the day...I went to walk out and something stopped me...hmm maybe a silly frivolous love story is what I need..so I started looking in the fiction section - you know, the ones with Fabio all over the front..and there among all those books, just peeking out, was a copy of 'GIFT FROM THE SEA' by Anne Morrow Lindbergh - from 1955... so I picked it off the shelf and walked up to the counter to pay. $2, can you believe it? It is just a gorgeous copy, a true vintage treasure....
and as I was walking out, I spotted 'The Diary of Anne Frank' in the window for $6.... I have been promising myself to read this again..... hated it in high school but now in my 'more mature' years.... I hope to be able to grasp and enjoy her story. I then went and bought myself a fresh date scone to have for my lunch ~ wicked I was.....very happy with my puttering day in the old bookshop.
posted by Miss Robyn | 2:50 pm
8 Comments:
I absolutely love pottering around in old shops especially ones with books in them, I can find so many bargains and cool stuff.
hi there!
oh I am re-reading Simple Abundance but I am away from home at the mo' (in your neck of the woods, I think, Sydney) and I am not really able to buy books as they will be heavy to lug home. I know exactly what you mean about the chinese cookery books and microwave (eeek) cookery books, the ones from the late '70's (I bet some day in the not too distant future people will be collecting them!), sometimes you come across a treasure tho'! I love the Diary of Anne Franke, I've read it a few times, not recently though, makes you appreciate just what you have...
re: the Amy Butler stuff, I get her patterns mostly on ebay, if you put in 'Amy Butler Pattern' and look for the seller Island Girl Patterns - good shipping rates and very fast service. The patterns are soooo easy, the best I've used and look great when made up and hold up to serious use
have a good day love dolly x
p.s. I would like to be in the postard swap, can you let me know where to send my details? dollyx
sounds wonderful, i was doing the very same thing on wednesday - i found a great book in our little Oxfam shop.
Enjoy your finds!
hi I just sent you an email with my details
...yes I am in Sydney on vacation and am absolutely LOVING it, me may even stay!!
Oh dear, I feel AWFUL guilty...I recently sold or gave away (to opshops) most of my old cookbooks! If I had thought about people such as you collecting them, Robyn, I would have saved them all and sent them up to you!
Well, maybe not - there were two big cartons full and they weighed a ton. The only old ones I kept were little paperbacks such as the Bushells Cook Book (100 recipes from Australia's past), Secrets From Grandma's Pantry (put out by Fairy Margerine in 1986), and the Tilba & District 1978 Recipe Book. Those are only three of about a dozen of those little booklets that I have; I love books put out by schools and community groups! They have the BEST recipes!
Gift from the Sea is one of my very favorite books....always inspiring and so full of quotable lines.
A real treasure you got, I'm thinking!
It sounds like a delightful day. One to remember when you can't get out for a long time to shop and browse. the book cover looks soooo enticing. Happy reading
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