Monthly Archives: May 2007

Used books

Life, Reading

On Mother’s day between brunch and the movie we stopped at a used bookstore. Whenever I enter a used bookstore I wonder why I rarely go to them. I love used bookstores. I love used books, especially well-read, jacket-less hardbacks. I love books that have writing in them — inscriptions, notes in margins, autographs. It’s not the bargain I love, I love holding a book that was owned, read and loved by someone else.

As I wandered through the fiction section at the back of the labyrinth-like bookstore, I picked up a few paperbacks I’d been meaning to read. After a while I realized I really didn’t want those books — I could pick them up at a library and if I loved them, buy them somewhere. I wasn’t really looking for anything special — maybe an H. E. Bates if they had one.

At the end of the fiction section is an unmarked room. It held the store’s only armchair and seemed to hold a mish-mash of genres. There were craft books and books about sex. There was also a long, tall self of children’s books. It was obvious the proprietors didn’t expect children to be looking at these books because they ascended far above my head — that and the sex books a few rows away. Directly in front of me as I scanned the titles on one of the children’s shelves was a small, worn-looking book that had slightly familiar type-set on the cover. I picked it up, opened it and was delighted to discover it was a book by James Whitcomb Riley. We own two other antique books by him – An Old Sweetheart of Mine and Farm-Rhymes. The book at the shop had an inscription:

To Grace E. Montgomery
Aug. 5 1899.

From C. F. Benedict

It also had a scrap of paper between the last page and back cover containing someone’s homework, done in pencil on notebook paper. It was in another language and looked very old.

Of course I picked this book up.

Two other books I found were a Larry Woiwode book I didn’t have and a book called The Bear Comes Home by Rafi Zabor. I’d been meaning to pick this book up after I had a brief discussion with the author on Flork.

Clare found a very good copy of the Harry Potter book she lost and a copy of Froud’s Faeries.

Those books and one Dean picked up cost us less than $20 thanks to the 60% off everything in the store sale they are having. Great books for a good deal in Bethesda. Can you think of a better way to spend Mother’s day? I can’t.

80. How could I help if tears were starting

Song Blog

I’ve mentioned my parents’ Mitch Miller Album in another post. It had sheets of paper with the songs written on it attached to the middle of the cover — like the pages of a book. I’m thinking there were several copies of the songs — so you could have your friends over, put the song on the Hi-Fi and have your own Sing-Along with Mitch.

The only other song I can remember from the album always made me think of my Uncle Dick and his wife, Jean. They divorced when I was young, but old enough to know they didn’t like each other much. I remember once sitting in their living room — they were babysitting my brother and me — and out of the blue Aunt Jean yelled “what are you looking at?” to Uncle Dick. Even so, when they got divorced I was sad for them, and imagined they were just drifting apart — but really still in love.

The song Harbor Lights seems to be about a sailor whose ship is getting ready to sail off somewhere and his love is on shore. The tune is melancholy and the words end on a bitter note. I used to imagine my Uncle Dick singing this song to his ex-wife as she departed from his life.

Funny – my dad was in the Navy when he met and became engaged to my (very young) mother. I never of thought them when I heard Mitch Miller and his “gang” sing this song.

I saw the harbor lights
They only told me we were parting
The same old harbor lights that once brought you to me
I watched the harbor lights
How could I help if tears were starting
Goodbye to tender nights beside the silv’ry sea

Jimmy Kennedy 1937