Vintage Alphabet

Posted by Jaelithe

I often buy my son used children's books at our local library. They sell hardback books for 25-50 cents, and many of the books for sale are in nearly-new condition; the library tends to buy extra copies of a book when it is first released, and as demand for a new release wanes, they sell off the extra volumes. Here are two books I bought at the library recently that were in perfect condition, jackets and all:

Buying used books at the library has allowed me to fill my son's sizeable bookshelf to overflowing at a fraction of what it would have cost me to buy all of his books new. Buying used books at the library is also eco-friendly; instead of ordering a newly printed book, when I buy at the library, I'm recycling a existing one.  And the money I spend goes to support one of society's most important institutions. It's a win-win-win. That's triple wins!

Sometimes, at the library sale table, I find children's books that I'd rather keep for myself.

At four, my son is a little too old for an alphabet book. And he already has three of them, anyway.

But I couldn't resist this near-mint fifth edition of Mary Azaran's A Farmer's Alphabet,  printed in February 1985, when I was about the same age my son is now. 

A beautiful series of woodcuts illustrations depicting farm life, A Farmer's Alphabet was intended, the Artist's Note says, to "celebrate some of the rural traditions that are still observed in New England [ . . . ] I wanted to make an alphabet to replace the many urban-oriented ones already available, and thus help in the fight to maintain regional diversity."

Sorry, kid. This one's staying on Mom's bookshelf.

Comments

[nonlineargirl]

Lovely. And for 25 cents, if you decided to cut out pages and frame them, no one would scream.

[katie]

That book is such a find. We do the same up here (we live across from the library store) and I have found some absolute treasures. And yes, those treasures stay on momma's shelf too.

[Don]

Our library sells used books at an annual sale, so we look for alternatives during the rest of the year. If we have a specific title, we look on Amazon for used, or AbeBooks, or Alibris.

Thanks for sharing. Nice books!