October 21, 2007

*** UPDATED*** Another Book Thing Bonanza!

I love book stores, but especially the Book Thing. It's such a crap-shoot as to what you will find and when I went yesterday, it was looking bleak. Not really anything in the design/decorating section... oh, but what's that old book back there? Another copy of Decorating is Fun by Dorothy Draper. I've got a copy and have a home for this one.
On to the humour section... Oh my gosh! It's a copy of Blandings' Way, the sequal to Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House. If you haven't seen the wonderful blog Mrs. Blandings, hop on over there and check it out. She's got great taste and an even better sense of humour. I didn't know that the house that Mr. Blandings builds is a real house. Read this article to see the back story. Funnily enough, the Washington Post reviewed Mr. Blandings Builds... this summer in an occasional series they do on overlooked books. Amazingly, I was back at the Book Thing on Sunday, October 28, and they had the original book, Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House. Unfortunately, it didn't have its cover, but it is a first edition. This will also end up in the library of Mr. & Mrs. Blandings of KC, Mo.
Cruise around to the maps/geography section to find an old Baedekers book on London with its distinctive red cover. I have some of my father's collection of old Baedekers guides to the UK.
Nothing in biographies that I was inspired to get, but I did find some early copies of the magazine Budget Living, a great little magazine that had a three year run. Click here for an interesting article about it and its demise. It was sort of a precursor to Blueprint mag.

5 comments:

  1. Look at you doing all my work for me! This is charming - I so wish I could see the house. Friends who have read my blog tell me there is a house in KC modeled on the Blandings - I will post it this week! Thanks so much for the link and the info - this was great fun.

    p.s. in my high school years I was a HUGE Gone With The Wind fan - both book and movie - and have read the Ann Edwards bio on Vivian Leigh.

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  2. I love the Book Thing! I've found many books for many different uses there, including a missing volume of my 12-volume Woman's Day Encyclopedia of Cookery.

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  3. I've been to a book thing about twice now ( upon your referal ) and haven't lucked out like you have! Maybe I don't have the eye.....got a few books but nothing spectacular. I live in dc so it's a bit of a treck -but i'll have to keep trying!!

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  4. Change... it is so completely totally random what you find there. I try to go every other week, but that said, it's a crap-shoot. Russell, who runs the place, told me that someone would ask about a book on the sex life of mongolian goat herders, and low and behold, one would come in a week later. I must try that trick for "I Married Adventure".

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  5. I have a feeling you could go multiple times in a weekend and find completely new stuff every time. Everytime I go there on the weekend no matter what the time, books are being shelved.

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