Big Book Sale

The SFPL Library Big Book sale is one of my favorite events of the year....

And, it is set in an incredibly beautiful location right on the water...

So, when you are waiting in line to get in you have a great view.  I skipped the member's preview this year and went to Dollar Day on the last day instead.
It worked out perfectly.
This was the line at 10AM on the last day but everyone got in fast and I scored lots of great art supplies....er.....vintage books.

Vintage Rubber Stamp Catalog? $1? I think I will....

I loved this cover and considered it for a Paris altered book for my upcoming trip but it was so beat up I passed it up...
what was I thinking?

I scan the tables for the most tattered, old looking books....my favorites.

How could I resist this?

It was filled with cool old illustrations....I feel a collage coming upon me.

I cannot resist old, foreign language dictionaries. Especially ones in Farsi or Russia or an Asian language with a different alphabet.
I did get about six or seven vintage French dictionaries and language-learning books...

Can somebody tell me what language this is? Copyright1884!!! It amazes me I can get paper from 1884 for only $1.

Big book with gold edges and filled with old illustrations of London...

So, I have an endless supply of old paper to make things with. I have made a bunch of collage cards with the bits and pieces already....

And, I wrapped some tiny presents in book pages for a mail art pal in NYC.

I definitely find treasures just flipping through old books  -- like this! That Postage Due stamp is the icing on the cake.

After dragging 25 books to my car, I had 30 minutes left for parking so I did a last look through and found these!
It was meant to be.

I said I wouldn't get too many but old books are like catnip to me. Can you blame me?
I'll see you next September Big Book Sale!!
I think I have enough books to keep me busy until the next day.
But then they do have a $1 Steps Sale every week....hummmmm

I was considering to making up some paper packs to sell...
anybody interested in those?

Ok, back to tearing and pasting....

GET GOOD MAIL --  GET GOOD MAIL

Give Me Your Tired and Tattered....

I really don't know what those people with those scanners are looking for when they are running around the library book sales....but I know what I'm looking for...
the oldest and most tattered books who need homes and love.
I bet you can tell which ones I picked out.

Yup, I got six books today for only $1 each and they are all over 100 years old. I just can't believe it...so cool.

I can just picture the little kids who learned spelling from this old beauty...

And this, a reader for a new reader, who is now long gone.

Who doesn't like birds?

And, don't tell Trump, but today was Russia Day at the library sale. There were dozens and dozens of books in Cyrillic .... so cool. They too were over 100 years old and tattered and mended and falling apart and wonderful.

A rubber stamp from a Russian bookstore in SF?

Will I tear this up? haven't decided yet. For a while, they will sit in my studio and I will just admire the fixed and aged pages....

Look at the hand sewing on the spine of that book (and not too neat)but lovingly mended) and passed along...

And then we had the delightfully lurid noir paperbacks...

How this those books get from Russia to SF? And how did this one get from NYC to SF? The stories they could tell.

Interesting to mail artists...but I left it for someone else to find and love. I like my books very old and worn....
So, that was today. Since the shots I posted on Instagram were such a hit I figured you guys who read the blog might really enjoy seeing a little more detail.

And, did I mentioned the big farmers market is right next door to the library?
TOMATOES
That's all I'm going to say....