A long way from home

Thanks to last month's card show, I haven't had much play money this month, which is fine, because I knew that this is what would result in my going, and I still went anyway!

The good news is though that I've had very little want to go anywhere this month, at least as far as extracurricular activities go, so the lack of money hasn't been much of an issue. I've had enough to send out a few packages to some fellow bloggers, so no complaints from me.

My lack of interest in going anywhere has been heavily influenced by the weather, it's cooled off considerably (booooo!), and some of the vegetation has started dying, which means that I can now venture into the woods with a much less chance of running into any venomous snakes -- don't have to worry about ticks anymore either! So knowing that, if the choice comes down to me spending my free time out at some brick and mortar store, or putzing around in the wood for a couple of hours, putzin's gone win out 99.9 times out of a hundred.

That being said, like everyone else I do have to go get groceries from time to time - and because I'm already out - be tempted to stop in at a nearby establishment or two. This is exactly what happened last week when I had to go out and restock the cupboards, but before doing so, made a slight detour to the Book Cellar (the only used bookstore anywhere near me).

It had been a few months since I had last been, and there had been quite a bit of turnover during that time, so I ended up spending almost an hour there looking around. As per usual, I hit up the videos and DVD's first, before making my way back to the history section -- I do look elsewhere as well, but those are the two biggie's.

I did end up bringing home a few things, but today I wanted to focus on one book in particular, the less interesting stuff will be covered in Friday's post (how's that for a tease?).

As mentioned, when looking for books (at least at this store), I always go to the history section first, I don't usually find much of interest, but I still do it anyway. It only took a moment or so to realize that this time might be different though, as one of the books on the top shelf was noticeably different from the rest (I should a picture in the store). Sandwiched in between the usual WWII and Roman history books, was this beauty, who's aged spine really stood out from the more modern dust jackets. I could also see that it wasn't going to be an ex-library book, which depending on how it's marked inside, can make an already interesting looking book just that much more so.

The real surprise though, came when I cracked open the book...

... woot? For those that don't know, I'm from Oregon, and up until about five years ago had lived there (and in WA for a few years) my entire life. And while this isn't the first time that I've found a thing that originated in Oregon since moving to Tennessee, it never ceases to amaze me every time I do.

Just look at that lovely Library Commission stamp, as well as the "Withdrawn from Oregon State Library" handstamp.

Opposite the title page is the first of about a dozen plates, taking a photograph of a photograph doesn't always work out so well, but I did my best. The book is copyrighted 1898, so one could assume that the photos were taken within a few years of it's copyright.

I don't think that anybody reading this is going to care about the table of contents, but I took the time to photograph them...

... so I'm certainly gonna take a few seconds to show them!

I was tempted to photograph all of the plates, but ended up just doing a few, sort of a Whitman's sampler if you will.

Does this not look like heaven?

I've never been, but I'm guessing that Shanghai doesn't look like this anymore.

The last page and the inside of the back cover had one last surprise in store for me (or for whoever else would've bought it).

I absolutely love seeing the dates that an old library book was checked out, love the mending stamp as well.

Finding that the book still had it's tray card was pretty neat too.

And just in case anyone cares about the fine print, here you go!

I'd love to know how this book came to be here, but I don't think it would be possible to find that out. AND I'd really like to know where this traveling library was located, might have to try and do some internet sleuthing, even though I know that I'll probably just end up with the same results as most of searches yield...bupkis!

As for the book itself, I'm currently reading two other books, and have the next couple already lined up, so I can't tell you anything about it yet -- although if I didn't think that it was going to be good, I wouldn't have bought it (that's a lie, I would've bought any book with this kind of provenance).

It might sound a bit silly, but I truly believe that I was destined to find this book, not only because of where it's from, but because the fates also clearly knew of this month's finances, which is why they made sure to see that it would be affordable by me... it was only two dollars!


Thanks for taking a moment to look at my page.