Vintage Books

As a child I wanted shiny and new things—hand-me-downs weren’t cool to me, but now I like finding the potential in used items. Sometimes age adds character or the design from another era is particularly appealing or an item just seems more unique since it’s no longer in mass production. I have a greater appreciation for items with some years on them, and I admit that my resistance to buy unnecessary items weakens when I see something cute and vintage.

A couple of friends and I made plans to go to several Goodwills in the area (for what I called our “Goodwill Extravaganza”). One of the Goodwills we went to was the type where you pay for goods by the pound; I’d never been to this type of Goodwill before and it definitely required more effort to sift through the bins of stuff that was only roughly organized. And it was easy to get sucked in there and stay for hours since new bins of goods would come out every so often, so there’s that “just one more” mentality (like when you’re eating potato chips and you just can’t seem to stop yourself fifteen chips after your first “just one more” chip). [Sigh.]

My main point of concentration during my rummaging was on the book bins. I’m often drawn to old books when I’m in a vintage shop—but I never really want to pay that much for a book that I only want because of its pretty cover and not because of its content. So the flat book rate price at this Goodwill was nice because it wasn’t that expensive (at $2 per hardcover book), and I happened to find a few books with cool covers.

I love the Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking cover—the awesome turquoise and red pattern called to me under a pile of books. But my overall favorite book from the bunch is Sally Goes Shopping Alone, which is the oldest and in the worst condition of my book purchases. But I love the simple cover with the blue on blue type and image—and Sally is just so adorable; the drawings on the inside are quite cute as well.