17 Comments

I love getting your newsletter! It’s so fun and informative, and I’m so excited for this experiment of yours. Wishing you a very happy birthday!

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Thank you, Amanda!

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Sep 12, 2023Liked by Sarah Miller

Happy birthday!! This is so random, but what's your process for cleaning used books? I usually just wipe the covers (if that 😅) so I'm very curious!

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Thank you!

I wipe the covers with a 50/50 mixture of water and white vinegar in a spray bottle -- which can be a process when I have a knee-high stack of books, but I really don't like that dirty, gritty feeling I get on my fingers if I don't do this, so it's worth it to me.

I wrote a post awhile ago about buying books (how, where, etc) that includes my book cleaning process, if that's of interest: https://canweread.substack.com/p/how-can-we-read-buying-books

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Sep 13, 2023Liked by Sarah Miller

So helpful, thanks so much!!

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Happy happy birthday, Sarah! 🥳 I couldn’t participate in the poll, but I really liked the video and think it’s fun getting to see your personality and hear your voice. I think a combination of video and text would be interesting!

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I appreciate the feedback, Erika!

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Happy Birthday Virgo ♍️ girl! ❤️ love the video, fun!

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Thank you!

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Sep 12, 2023Liked by Sarah Miller

Here's my wishing you a happy birthday on as many platforms as possible! I *LOVE* the video - it's *you*! In all of the glorious ways you lovingly and carefully talk about books.

I also clean my library books with a similar mixture. Must be the Capricorn rising in my stars.

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💕❤️💕❤️

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Happy Birthday fellow Virgo!! Love the video, particularly the ability to see inside the book, and love to see you branching out with all new formats!

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Thank you on all fronts!

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Sep 13, 2023Liked by Sarah Miller

Happy Birthday! The video is fun and a nice way to mix it up. I do love your writing AND it is fun to hear your voice and laugh.

I've requested this book and to read about the dik-dik (had to research how to spell that animal).

To be honest, I was mostly struck by (1) how clean your library book bags are (Are they new? How do you keep your totes so clean or are those exclusively for books?) and (2) you have a process for cleaning used books. What is this process? I sometimes wipe mine down, but please share your expert process.

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Long live the dik-dik 😂

My library bags are new-ish, yes! They DON'T look that way after years upon years -- I got the big one last Christmas, and the smaller one just a couple of weeks ago. I tend to use things until they fall apart and cannot be repaired, but I am a sucker for LL Bean Boat and Totes...

I clean all used books with a 50/50 water and white vinegar solution -- spray on a little towel and wipe, wipe, wipe.

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Feb 1Liked by Sarah Miller

Sarah, gosh!!! I love, love, your video micro reviews. I’m playing constant catch up with all the newsletters so I’m just getting to this one now. Please don’t judge! I read every one. You are a natural. Your personality and passion shines through. You’re an absolute joy and I appreciate your knowledge and recommendations so much. Oh, I particularly enjoyed your pic of all the library books you bought. You will appreciate this. Twice a year my daughter and I fly over to the UK to visit my parents. In their town is a quaint little charity shop. They always have two baskets full of picture books. No one ever purchases them. They sit in the baskets and dust! I don’t understand, it alarms and bothers me so much. It is a very affluent town I could speculate that the mums can afford “new” so why not or don’t appreciate a good picture book to read with their children. Who knows. Either way I can hardly contain my excitement each trip and end up popping in to the shop every few days to purchase more books and I end up paying British Airways extra in baggage so I can bring all the books home. People laugh in disbelief. I have added some wonderful books to our collection and I paid equivalent of around a dollar a book. They are marked at 50p. I can barely hold back my enthusiasm each time. Haha!!! Anyways, thank you for all you do. Really enjoyed your video. You are amazing!!!!

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First of all, Genevieve, thank you so much for this ebullient comment and sweet words -- you made my day! I'm glad you like the videos -- I don't do them often because I can't really gauge if people enjoy them, but I definitely appreciate your enthusiasm.

Also, I love that you buy these overlooked and unloved books and then pay extra to bring them home -- you are my kind of person 👏

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