May 30, 2008. Harper, Texas. Used Books.

Every time we order books I think of him. The sign outside the large old house said "Classic Used Books", so in we go, the four of us. Ken and I, Mary and Walt are in a little town in Wales, just wandering around checking it out. This house has three floors full of books with every room full of bookcases full of books stacked from floor to ceiling. There must have been millions of books in this old house. On the left of the center hall is a room where the walls are made of glass, so we can see a man sitting at a large book laden desk, typing. I went in, but he was not a bit interested in talking to me, so I left and proceeded to poke around all the other books.I bought a book by Simeon Potter, "Our Language" which is a lovely useful little book published in 1950. I told Ken about the sign in the office that said Classic, so he went in and was able to get the man to talk. Now in the room was a computer, but there he was using a typewriter. He finally get interested in us and it turns out that his business of selling used book has been revolutionized by the Internet. This was about eight years ago but he told us many interesting stories about sales of specific books and the Internet. We asked him if he had all his books on the Internet, but he looked aghast. " I have twenty thousand books on the Internet, but I can not possibly do them all. It was an interesting and enlightening history of the used book business, but it took us quite awhile to break through his reserve.

Now we order used books on the Internet all the time and we love the system. Yes I know, nothing beats browsing through used book stores to find a treasure, but when you have specific books in mind, and the books are out of print you can find those books at your finger tips, rather than traipsing through book store after bookstore trying to find the specific titles. Yesterday I was reading again a little book given to me by my good friend Beverley "Short Trips in the Hill Country". We have visited every place in this book, but I was interested to re-read the book to see what I missed, and what I missed before was the information the author gleaned from several reference books. So with Ken at the computer and me reading out the authors and titles we have ordered these reference books. They will come soon. I am so excited to have my own copy of "Texas Houses in the Nineteenth Century". We did the same thing in Nova Scotia, when I was interested in antique Canadian furniture. I asked my friend Bob if I could see his reference books, and it turns out he had none. Now we have a wonderful collection of books on Canadian and East Coast antique furniture, all stacked up in the office just over the desk. I love them.

Now from those reference books, Davis the cabinet maker, is making three pieces of furniture, all from those books. It all started from that conversation in Wales.