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That $18 window display book blew my whole afternoon
Saw this tiny used bookstore in Asheville last Saturday, and they had a front window stacked entirely with old field guides, all open to pages of birds and mushrooms. One had a handwritten note taped inside about a guy who IDed a rare warbler using it back in 1979. I bought it for $18, just the one guide, and spent like two hours sitting on their curb reading every margin note. The previous owner had scribbled little arrows and jokes all over the species pages, like "this one sounds like a squeaky gate" next to a nuthatch. It beat any new book I've gotten this year, and now I'm wondering if I should go back for the rest of the set. Anyone else ever buy a display book just for the notes inside, or am I the weird one here?
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ray6482mo ago
Man, that's the best kind of impulse buy! I did something similar at a flea market years back, grabbed a beat-up plant guide just because someone had stuck a pressed four-leaf clover between the pages. Turns out the whole book was full of pressed flowers and little notes about where each one was found, like "parking lot crack, brave little guy" next to a dandelion sketch. I never even used it for actual plant ID, but I still flip through it sometimes just to read the person's thoughts. You're not weird, you're just onto something good. Go back and grab the rest of that set before someone else does.
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