Summer Sale

As our flyer indicates, we are also going to be open every other Friday throughout the summer.  So come pick up a few books to take to the beach, a vacation cottage, your backyard or wherever you like to kick back and read.  Real books from a real bookstore – because it feels good!!

Some Rare Books

HAPPY SPRING!!  We have a large, wild grassy area behind our building that the birds just love.  They have been tweeting away back there – lots of cardinals, robins, goldfinches, chickadees and some others I haven’t yet been able to identify.  I’m waiting to see and hear a Baltimore Oriole.  I’ll have to bring in my binoculars and maybe consult one of our birding books.  Speaking of which, we have lots of fine books about birds, also about gardening and nature and flowers.

I’ve been going through two different boxes of very interesting books over the past week.  One comes from a lot that Bruce acquired from a member of the Longfellow/Emerson/Hitchcock family – so many very unusual and wonderful books.  Many are inscribed to Mary B. Emerson Hitchcock or Margaret Longfellow Emerson, some contain the bookplate of Samuel Franklin Emerson.  The other box comes from a lot that Bruce acquired from the daughter of a local painter who passed away not long ago.

I thought I’d show some photos of a few of the scarce/rare books that I’ve discovered:

Memories by John Galsworthy, First Illustrated Edition, 1914, $80

 

Richard Schmid Paints the Figure: Advanced Techniques in Oil, First Edition, First Printing, $250

   

Young Maids & Old China by F. W. Bourdillon, illustrated by J. G. Sowerby, dated 1890, Marcus Ward & Co.,  $120

     

Winsome Womanhood by Margaret Sanger, illustrated with photos by William Buckingham Dyer, 1901, $50

 

 

Discourses, Delivered on Public Occasions, Illustrating the Principles, Displaying the Tendency, and Vindicating the Design, of Free Masonry by Thaddeus Mason Harris, $225

   

Harley Brown’s Eternal Truths for Every Artist, First Edition, $150

   

A Perfect Combination

Coffee (or tea) and books, and we have both now!  Yes, we have a new coffee machine and we’re very excited about it.  Who doesn’t love a nice cup of something to sip along with a little (or a lot) of caffeine to put a shine on your brain – to help you seek out a copy of that mystery novel you’ve been looking for or peruse our many biographies or whatever suits your fancy.  And with the day upon day of dreary weather we’ve been having, just longing for Spring, a cup of coffee or tea is especially needed, I think. So come on in and you’ll have your choice of flavors for $1.00.

Something else to look forward to – we move the clocks ahead this weekend – yea!!

Old Man Winter Vs. Punxsutawney Phil & Cupid

The good news is that the sun is shining today and we’re due for a couple of days in the upper 40s next week.  Could the shadowless Punxsutawney Phil be right?

I guess he likes milanos - yum

This winter has been a drag  for just about everyone here in New England, most likely.  Here’s a recent pic of our store with the snowbanks covering our sign:

Sign or no sign, we’ll still be open this weekend.  If you need a little extra motivation to venture out into the cold – we’ve got Valentine chocolates!  And you don’t have to walk far from our parking lot (there’s plenty of room) to the warmth of our shop.  Valentine’s Day is a great time to start thinking of Spring-like things such as flowers – we have lots of gardening and nature books, and birds – many books to delight the amateur ornithologist, and of course, Romance.

We have many shelves of romance novels to get you in the mood.  Or you might like a book of Love Sonnets, or for the more practical-minded, 1001 Ways to be Romantic by G. Godek.  There’s nothing wrong with just expressing your love for books by treating yourself to something special.  Come visit us and see what treasures you might find!

Holiday Specials

Its been quite awhile since the last post because we’ve been busy, busy, busy, trying to move a multitude of more books onto our shelves for all your gift-giving needs.  Or, if you’re looking to stock up on good reads for the days & nights of cozying up inside, we’re here for that too.  Our wonderful teen staffers have been going through our boxes of vintage paperbacks – primarily mysteries – so we have a bountiful collection of those out.  For any science fiction fan, we just stocked three shelves full of hard covers priced at $3-8 and to top that off we have a Buy 2 Get 3rd Half-price Holiday Special on them!  Most are in excellent condition, with authors such as LeGuin, Brunner, Heinlein, Burroughs, Anderson, Simenon, and many more.

Many of the books on our main, upstairs level are discounted 50%  – it goes by the book number we put inside (our organizational system).  So any book you find with a number of 23000 or less is half price.  It may be odd but it works best for us.  Just ask if you’re not sure.

Another Holiday Special we have going is on our Heritage Press classics.  So many great classics of literature – From Darwin’s On the Origin of Species to James’ The Turn of the Screw to Penguin Island in beautifully bound editions.  We are offering a Buy 2 Get 3rd Half Price Special on those too – and they’re already very reasonably priced.  A great way to expand and beautify your library or someone else’s.    I hope to have some pics soon to follow.

For your one-stop shopping, we also have a selection of holiday cards and wrapping paper.

Season’s Greetings!

Changing with the Leaves

We’ve been moving things around and changing things up a bit at the bookstore.  The fall air seems to give me energy for such things.  To start, we have lots and lots of old sheet music – many are great for collecting or framing to decorate a space or to play and sing with as they were intended.  We’ve had two large bins full of sheet music (and there’s more where they came from), all protected with bags and boards, sadly going barely noticed on a table amongst our mass market paperbacks on our lower level.  I decided to bring them upstairs and give them a proper place to shine.

Here they are with a window seat, waiting to be admired and taken home:

A closer look at a few:

One of my favorites:

Across from the sheet music I put out an extra table for the many, many old Heritage Press books that we have.  They’ve been on shelves in one of our closets for far too long but we just weren’t sure where best to put them.  Finally, we’re pulling them out, putting them on our database and letting them see the light of day.  They are all wonderful classics of literature in excellent condition – most include illustrations (by a variety of illustrators and methods, be it woodcuts, pen and ink or lithograph), are beautifully bound and come with a slipcase.  Here’s a shot of those we’ve put out so far but there are many more on the way:

Here are a few individual samples sans slipcase:

Frankenstein ($12), Tess of the D’Ubervilles ($10), The Innocent Voyage ($10)

Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin ($10), Essays of R. W. Emerson ($20), Uncle Remus ($12)

We also brought over a selection of our rarest books, which are still stored at the Heritage Surveys building just down the road.  Sometime in the near future I hope to move more of our vintage children’s books downstairs and then have enough shelf space behind the desk to bring them all over.  Madeline arranged the rare books beautifully in one of our front display cases along with some sheet music for added interest.  Here’s a look at the display:

Well, I hope this inspires people who haven’t visited our shop yet to come on by …. and see what treasures you might find.

Poetry

We just added a number of books of poetry to our inventory which we acquired from one avid reader of verse – a very interesting and eclectic collection. Many are trade paperbacks in excellent, close-to-new condition which we’re putting out for just $3-4. Here’s a sample of those:

If you’re an Elizabeth Bishop fan, we have a comprehensive study of her works in

Elizabeth Bishop: Her Artistic Development by Thomas J. Travisano from the University of Virginia, 1989, Second Printing, $5.00

A couple of books of special interest from the same collection:

The Coriolis Effect by Chuck Wachtel, Hanging Loose Press, 1985, First Edition, signed and inscribed by author dated March 1988; $35

The Mountain Poems of Stonehouse, translated by Red Pine, Empty Bowl, 1986, Second Printing, printed and handbound in Taiwan using double-folded pages with each poem printed in Chinese characters and English, textured paper covers, in folded cardboard case; $90.

A Belated Happy Independence Day

We were closed this past weekend in order to enjoy the 4th of July holiday.  I was going through some of our sheet music last Thursday – we have lots of vintage sheet music – and picked out some that fit the 4th of July theme, then ran out of time to post them.  No harm in offering a belated recognition of Independence Day, which we might imbue with a special meaning for us independent bookshops (selling ephemera too, hence the sheet music).  Here is a sampling:

Columbia March by Seneca G. Lewis (Miss Hazel Dawn pictured); Remick, 1917

National Emblem March by E.E. Bagley; Walter Jacobs, 1911

Haunted Heart by Howard Dietz & Arthur Schwartz from Inside U.S.A.: A Musical Revue; Chappell & Co., 1948

The New Liberty March Two Step by Harry J. Lincoln; U.S. Music Pub. Co., 1917

Dear Old Stars and Stripes Good-Bye by Harvey Briggs and Harley Wilson; Feist, 1902

And now a quintessential fun lovin’ summertime piece from the 50s:

We hope you’re genuninely enjoying your summer.  We have plenty of beach and lake-worthy books and we have air conditioning!

Digging through boxes

The other day we managed to get to some shelves that had been long obstructed in our basement and pulled out a few boxes.  They’re full of books from a lot that Bruce acquired a number of years ago.  I’ve been steadily going through them.  Most of the books are in great shape and a very interesting mix of subject matter.  I thought I’d share a few that I’ve found so far and that we have up for sale:

Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier, 1936, Stated First Edition, $150

Tales of the Uncanny and Supernatural by Algernon Blackwood, 1974, Castle Books, $8

The Old Fall River Line by Roger Williams McAdam, Stephen Daye Press, 1955, $10

Magical and Philosophical Commentaries on the Book of the Law by Aleister Crowley, 93 Publishing, 1974, $350

Home Life in Colonial Days by Alice Morse Earl, Macmillan, 1898, $40

A beautiful day for a sale in Southampton

This Saturday and Sunday May 22nd and 23rd, we are joining in on the fun in our fine little town of Southampton and having a special outdoor sale. The Edwards Library is having their annual book and bake sale on Saturday 9am-2pm, there is a flea market planned in Conant Park, a craft fair at the church and you can probably count on a few tag sales in the area. There will be a map available at locations. We are having our sale during our usual business hours of 12-4pm and though the others are scheduled for Saturday only, we will continue our sale on Sunday.

a peak inside...

Right now we’re filling a flat bed trailer full of boxes of books that will be priced at a dollar a piece for the hard covers. We also plan on putting a couple of tables and carts full of books-for-a-dollar out on our front porch and possibly some more out on the front lawn. We’d love for you to meander inside too and check out the store. You’ll find that we have a wide range of subjects and types of books, many of which are marked down 50%. If you’re interested in vintage magazines or sheet music or other ephemera we have some of that too.

... our bookshop

Come see our unique Ferris Wheel and circus wagons too -  a little bit of folk art museum inside a bookstore.