October 21, 2010

Books, Books....




Georgette and Lessa in 1972. Randomly chosen photo from the old photo files.

Yesterday and Today

Himself: Drove the truck, and I worried far less. I only worried when he was still working at nine at night. Change of estimating systems at work next month. The one he is using now is the one he worked on for the last five years. The new one will be the one he used for the previous 12.

Herself: …and the quilt blog too: OD seems up again...then down again. Yesterday: Store and books, books, books. Left to get tires on the car and found insanity at the tire store. There were wall to wall customers, and the employees were actually running from car to car. I got out of my student car to go into the office, a man with a clip board leapt in, and he leapt out again right away saying, “Wrong Toyota.” Dinner and a card reading afterwards.

My Babylonian Captivity: Do stop in and read Tugster's experience as a human shield. He writes that, “ i was captured in kuwait (where i was teaching in the kuwaiti air force)….”

Gratitude: Friends.

Books. Why now, when the statistics say book sales are down and Kindle sales are up, are donations of books to the thrift store so high?

With every donation that comes in the door, books are a part of it. Some donations are just books when clothing or smalls don’t come in at all. A few years ago, we had one short wall of bookcases for out books. Now we have that wall plus a corner of two good sized bookcases. One bookcase has hundreds of romances jammed in and on sale for 50 cents each. We are a bit overwhelmed with books.

The first thing that greeted me yesterday was a chewing out. It appears one moldy and spotted “Rubaiyat” was worth fifty bucks. I had priced it at three. Another, rather charming but worn and patched, children’s book was worth a hundred bucks. Three again…the standard price for hardbacks. What can I say. I based my pricing on the condition. The rest of the time went better.

I try, not always successfully, to place all the cookbooks on one shelf and most of the nonfiction in the same area. Someone comes along on the five days I don’t work, and he puts anything everywhere. Jean comes in on Wednesdays and prices everything. Life in a volunteer run thrift store is truly a tag team operation led by a charming young lady filled with great ideas for the store.

Her priorities aren’t just the books. Most days, my priorities are getting the books out onto the shelves in the store. Yesterday, a box-load into the store meant two boxes of books out and shelved. We were still behind when it came time to leave.

7 comments:

  1. I will always love books. Always. And forever. Save some good ones for me.

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  2. I have read that Borders may be closing its doors. The publishing industry is on a very tight margin and people are moving to Kindle type tools. At least it saves the trees.

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  3. I have a lot of books and the ones I've given away I often miss. Those go to a friend who is the librarian in a small remote town. They shelve the good ones and sell the others.

    Have fun at your poet's group, that sounds great.

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  4. On the plus side of those books, it's great news for those of us like myself and you. And who the h buys expensive books in a thrift store?! Your common sense pricing makes sense to me.

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  5. It's wonderful for you to donate your time like that. I can imagine how hard it is price books. I've often wondered about the kindle. Sounds like a great idea, but I thought the books were still expensive to upload and you can't loan them. I love 2nd hand books.

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  6. Whoa! A 'chewing out'? She DID NOT yell at you, did she? SHAME ON HER!!

    You'd not know that here -- it's hard to get parking spaces at any of the area bookstores and libraries!

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  7. So, do you sell lots of books as well? Are the donations of books helpful? I donate books to my charity, and wonder if they are able to sell them. I hope I am not missing a hundred dollar book. Is there some sort of list to work from to know what they are worth?

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