Nothing in Moderation

A couple of weeks ago, during my bi-monthly scouring of the thrift store two blocks from my house, I picked up a few Reader's Digest condensed books with awesome, retro fabric covers ($.75 each). I had never seen them before, and they are beautiful books! Apparently, Reader's Digest printed them quarterly from 1950-1997, with different stories and cover fabrics, and sent them to all their patrons. And now, mounds of them are turning up in thrift stores (and yes, I have to admit, I also once saw an Anthropologie display made from them). Last week, my amazing engineer husband and I made a lamp out of the books I had, and the product was so fabulous that I've been itching to get my hands on more of them.

Well...be careful what you itch for. While in Chattanooga for a gig this past weekend, Steph and I spent some of our free Saturday thrifting, and I was hoping-hoping-hoping that America's Thrift would have some of the books. So, I looked up, and there was a small shelf with about 12 of them. And then I looked to the left and realized that the ENTIRE top shelf, which runs along the super long wall of the store, was full of them. For 25 cents each. So, we grabbed a shopping cart and started piling them on. The result: mounds and mounds of colorful vintage books -101 to be exact-, a whole lot of weird looks, and a very disgruntled checkout clerk. (I also scored a stack of various vintage books from the free bin at McKay and a stack of personal-reading-list-or-old-favorite books, also from McKay, that I couldn't help but purchase. But that's for a different post.)

What could possibly be more satisfying than bringing home 117 new books? (Quick break for husband praise: Jordan did not kill me, or send me off to the Atlanta asylum, or roll his eyes. He laughed a lot and then commented on how much cash we'll get to split between us once we've made the books into awesome products and sold them. I definitely married the right guy.)















Soon to become...



















I also have big plans for a coffee/reading table made of them...or maybe I'll just keep them in stacks around my house :).

Photos courtesy of Elise Ziegenbein Excessive Accumulation and Bibliophagism, Inc.