September 17, 2013

A Vintage Book Find

Lookey what I found! So, there's an antique shop near where I live. I hate this antique shop, because it is seriously filled with junk, junk, and more junk. Sorry all you antique shop lovers, but I am not in love with this antique shop. They do have cute tea cups now and again, but really, it's just filled with so much STUFF, and not Cool Stuff.

Mostly I am angry with this antique shop because it takes up valuable retail space that could either be a tea shop or a BOOKSTORE. Or a teashop AND a bookstore. Or bookstore that sells tea. Or it could be a Sanrio Hello Kitty retail outlet. Anything but this junkheap trash receptacle of a store.

But..............the antique store had this book. Sitting right there in the window front. And I was walking past the store the other day with Mr. Andrew, and I walked by and saw the book, and was like, whoa interesting looking cover on a book! Who and what are you?

I told Andrew I was going to come back later (the shop wasn't opened yet when we walked by), and I did.

Guess what! Are you guessing? The book is called 'Maxa's Children' and it was written by Johanna Spyri! Do you know who that is? She wrote 'Heidi'! You know, Swiss Alps Heidi!

I had no idea that the author of 'Heidi' wrote anything other than 'Heidi', so firmly entrenched in my ignorance was I. Well, apparently Spyri wrote about 27 books, and this is one of them.

I flipped through the book, and saw references to kids roaming around some castle, a mention of ghosts, and some crochety old man. That's all I know about it. It's for older kids, around 9-11, I'd say, but the book was in very good condition, and $15, so I went for it.

It's totally out of print, and I have no idea where to find another copy like the one I have, but Amazon has several reasonably priced used copies.

(Wait!!! Yes I do, after I typed that last sentence, I found a copy like mine on Ebay!)

So that's just something neat I found in this junk heap of an antique store. I still wish it was a tea shop though.

17 comments:

  1. This is a great find! What are the chances you would find such a gem in an otherwise old and uninteresting antique shop? I have never read the story but I wished I could have found more books from Spyri! I love the illustrations from old vintage books.

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    1. They had a few other vintage books, but this one was the clear winner :)

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  2. What a lovely find! I love the feel and smell of old books. Does it have that lovely old book smell? Am I the only one who loves old book smell? xoxo

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    1. OH YES. I think I went on some tangent re old book smell a few weeks ago.....love love it!

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  3. Oh, beautiful! I might have bought it, too. I love the cover.

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  4. Replies
    1. I'm going to read it myself this fall and see what the what is about it :)

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  5. Fun! I know you hate this shop but digging is half the fun of some stores. Never know what treasure is lurking in some dark corner!!!! (Where is it ~ sounds right up my alley!!!)

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    1. Just sent you an email about it! You know, I don't, like, HATE hate it....just wish it was a tea shop. I often look around at stores and think, why is this here? It could be a bookstore or a tea shop!

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  6. I love the idea of antique shops but it's true that not all of them are wonderful... it all depends on the proprietor I suppose. Cool find tho!

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    1. 10 yrs ago I would have loved any antique shop. Any single one. Now they just all look dusty to me :) I've moved so far away from my once dearly loved shabby chic aesthetic.

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  7. Awesome!! I haven't bought any books in a while... I need to go shopping!!

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    1. Any day is a good day for book shopping :)

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  8. I love Swiss Alps Heidi! I still have my copy when I was a kid a thousand years ago! What a great find. I do feel for you though and teahouse bookstore sounds fabulous--a Teookstore (?).

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    1. That's so Tolkien sounding!!! I love it!

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  9. I love old books--so much more nicely put together than new books. I'm currently reading Dorothy Vernon of Haddon Hall--May Pickford Edition. It's so adorable and has photos from the movie throughout and the hardcover is actually embossed.

    I wish Wichita had a tea/book store. I've actually thought about opening one, but I'm pretty sure I don't have the constitution to be a shop owner.

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