I love books. Even more.. I love old books. Even more so... I love old children's illustration books. The way they look, the way they feel, the way the smell... the fonts, the words, the drawings, the colors. It's fair to say they are one of my favorite things in this world. (children and pup do supersede that love :) I have a fair size collection of them, and whenever I visit a new place I always love to find their old used books stores and spend some time perusing their aisles and stacks.
My collection started from wanting to find the books that I was read to when I was little by grandparents. My earliest memories are sitting on the brown velour, floral couch in the front room that had the green shag carpet. With a pile of books next to me that could have only been a bit overwhelming volume wise to my dear grandmother... Bless her heart, she went through every single book, every single time. I now understand the patience and sacrifice of her time that must have been sometimes, as I have been a mother to three little ones, with my own stack of books that were requesting to be read... But if there was ever "too many" books in my pile that afternoon, I was never made aware. As far as my little self knew... my grandmother was as thrilled as I was to read each and every book.. even if it was the third time that day.
This is one of my favorite book stores that I have found, and lucky me, it is 23 minutes from my house :) It is such a beautiful, chaotic mess all the time. My heart flutters upon entering..lol. Well I do get pretty excited when I have some free time anyways... It is definitely a great place to spend an hour or two.. or admittedly three.
