Feeding My Addiction (Old books)

ByD'Ann Mateer
20 Comments

A couple of weeks ago, a friend of mine sent me these pictures and text message: 

My response:

And she wasn’t even sorry!

I had some things to finish first, so it took me about an hour to get out of my house. By the time I got to the sale, someone had purchased two entire bookcases of the books, but there were still many, many titles to go through. 

You see, my obsession with books isn’t just books in general. It’s old books. I love finding gems—especially novels that didn’t last over time for whatever reason. I also love buying books I’ve read but in older printings. I love discovering books on historical subjects published closer to the time they happened. And I love old children’s books—ones I remember from my childhood and ones lost to time. And so I returned home with 10 hardback books and a stack of children’s books. (Note: I could absolutely have bought more, but I used considerable self-control if you can believe it!)

Before I could even get these on my shelves, we were off to Savannah, Georgia. We’ve visited the city many times but a visit is never complete without a trip to The Book Lady, a used bookstore in a basement space. Oh, the books I’ve found here! 

Last year it was a biography of a Scottish man, Patrick Ferguson, known for inventing a type of rifle used by the British regulars during the American Revolution. (I know, not the book most people would pick up!) This year, I found way too many things I couldn’t leave behind: 

Two writing books I’d never heard of. A book of interviews with British children’s authors compiled in the 1970s, the memoirs of a Tuskegee airman, a diary of a young woman in Virginia during the Civil War, a collection of Dorothy Parker’s poems and short stories, and an old novel (1927) set in Savannah around a story I had just heard on a tour and thought would make a good novel! My husband also picked up Flannery O’Connor’s two novels. (We’ve read her short stories, but not her novels.) 

The thing is, of course, that our bookshelves are basically full! I think maybe I need to cull out my research books to make room for some of these new (old) books. But that’s so hard, because who knows when I might need that information again for another story? 

Thus, we continue to collect books. Which we love. But I also got to see quite clearly at the estate sale what the end of that collecting will be. You see, the woman who had recently died left over 2000 books in her collection. She’d been collecting books since her marriage in 1949. How do I know this? Her children were conducting the estate sale and her daughter told me! 

Someday it will be my children selling 10 hardbacks and a stack of children’s books for $3. But at least I know that whoever buys them will be thrilled to have found them, even if our children don’t appreciate the books we’ve accumulated. 

Do you buy and keep books? Do you search look for old books? 

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Inspired by novelist Eugenia Price, D’Ann’s dream of writing historical fiction with an element of faith began in middle school, though her serious drive toward publication took a bit longer. D’Ann is the author of four historical novels and one novella, as well as a contemporary short stories in a compilation volume. D’Ann and her husband of 30 years can be found in Austin, TX when they aren’t touring historic sites or visiting their grown children.

20 Comments

  1. When my husband and I recently moved, having sold our house, to a retirement apartment, I had to divest myself of hundreds of books. We donated most of them, and I brought with me about a hundred, which I’m reading as fast as I can. I had less than 100 in large print, which I donated to the library of the apartment complex where we moved. I would have loved to keep them all.

  2. I love old books, too! Usually the books I seek have some kind of significance to me, like the Happy Hollisters series my grandmother started for me, Nancy Drew mysteries from the thirties with their dark blue covers, or vintage textbooks that reflect what kids were learning long ago.

    1. I love the old Nancy Drew books with the dark blue covers, too! I have a few of them. And yes, if I pay more than a dollar or two for them, they have to have some significance to me. But that estate sale was so cheap I got several I haven’t read and some I had never heard of! 😂

  3. Oh the smell of old books! I love books, and have a handsome collection of them. They are mostly new, but I do like to find older books to add to my collection. Like you said, my kids will be selling them ( or donating) at a yard sale, but for probably 50c 🙂

  4. I bought my first truly old books just in the last few months. In setting up my new office space, I found a teapot wth a quote on it from Jane Eyre, my favorite classic novel. Buying it inspired me to look for a historic copy of the novel itself. I found a copy on Ebay from 1848 that had been given as a Christmas gift to someone named Annie, judging by the inscription. It’s in wonderful condition and holding it in my hands gives me goosebumps. I also found a 1960’s version of Pride and Prejudice that is bound in very classic style. It doesn’t have quite the history as the Bronte, but I love having it. I’m not ready to hit the estate sales yet, but I do really love having these books in my (very small) collection.

    1. Isn’t it amazing when those old books have inscriptions, too? I love knowing that it was given and loved by others before I got to it. What a treasure you have in that copy of Jane Eyre!

  5. When I downsized, most of my books in my library (floor to ceiling books on three walls) went. I gave away over 1,000. I still have overflowing shelves in my house, including many old books, but I need to purge again. I don’t want my daughters to have to get rid of tons of stuff when I die. Purging books is the hardest for me, although I have other things that are meaningful to me that will mean nothing to my daughters or grandchildren. Sigh. Such is life.

    1. Yes, purging books is the hardest thing. I guess I need to start giving them away to people who will appreciate them, even if it’s one at a time!

  6. I love books PERIOD.
    We just had a garage sale at church and others wanted to sell all the Christian Fiction I had donated. I took about 15 of them back. I dropped them off at two little free libraries on the way home from church. I have duplicates because I read and review CF. Need to go through them again. I love when the library has a sale. CF is usually snapped right up. Last time they were 50cents each. I only got 4. I have way too many to read before I die. I will turn 75 next month.

  8. Can you tell me more about the book titled, “The Holy Lover?” I have been a Wesleyan for many years, and anything with John Wesley on it catches my attention. I was trying to figure out what else it said on the book about what he renounced, etc. Is it fiction or non-fiction?

    1. It is fiction based on his “romance” while in Savannah. I had just heard the story on a tour and thought it would make a great novel—then I found this one from 1926!

  9. I definitely buy and keep books. I have over 5000 real books in my home library. I do like old copies but I don’t especially look for them.

    1. Wow! And I thought I had a big library! I shouldn’t look for old books, but I do. Sigh.

  11. I love old books too!! I have a vintage copy of “Alice in Wonderland” written by Lewis Carroll and published in the late 19th century–so special! George MacDonald books are absolutely delightful and compelling. I enjoyed reading the re-prints done in the 1990’s!

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