Day of Rare Finds

"To sit alone in the lamplight with a book spread out before you, and hold intimate converse with men of unseen generations - such is a pleasure beyond compare."  ~Kenko Yoshida

Photo: City Beat

We started here on a recent day out, at this Indie bookstore for children. I'd heard of The Blue Manatee before, it's in our city of Cincinnati, but it took daughter and two grandkids to prompt us to take a field trip there. A fun, energetic place--as are most Indie book stores!--where not only children can get lost in books, but adults-disguised-as-children can, too.

Imagine our delight when we discovered a picture book author was scheduled to speak: Loren Long, author and illustrator of the Otis the Tractor books.  Great fun, great inspiration, great mix of people to stand in the crowd with, and a great author to draw encouragement from.

Can't forget the Blue Marble's DeCafe, a snack bar serving smooties and such, where we were introduced to the "Nutella and Banana" bagel, ordered by hubby--and shared with little Angelica. Can anyone say chocolate fingers and chocolate smiles?

Then a dash across the street, and up a looooong flight of stairs (with two little ones in tow, mind you), to Significant Books, a shop dealing in rare, out-of-print, and "antiquarian" books. A hidden gem was waiting for me: Howe's Historical Collections of Ohio, Volume 1 of 2. Through the years I've actually dipped into the pages of this book, copyrighted 1888, on the internet, but never believed I'd hold it in my hands. On the inside flyleaf of this rare find is an inscription, presenting the book to a W.T. Davies, Esq., dated 1903. Wow. A quick run-through of the almost 1000 pages shows a wealth of history, anecdotes, and details of the years 1846-1886 in Ohio. If only I can someday get my hands on Volume 2!

Finally, dear daughter was the one to spy this gem: Writing the Natural Way, by Gabriele Lusser Rico, a book on a subject I have a special interest in, "Using Right-Brain Techniques to Release Your Expressive Powers: Clustering...Image and Metaphor...Creative Tension... Language Rhythm" (copyrighted 1983). It has risen to the top of the must-read pile, bumping a few other writing books off  the stack for the time being.

Ahhh, and since the store was holding a 60% off sale, we got both books for only $8.50. A rare find indeed!

Any rare finds--books or otherwise--you've encountered recently?