Monday, January 25, 2010

Bargain Betty and the Great Book Rescue

Dear Reader,
I recently had the chance to catch up with Bargain Betty over a cup of tea. As you may or may not know, Bargain Betty is a secondhand mentor and hero of mine, practically raising me in the art. And goodness, did she have story to tell! A friend who works at a local library had tipped her off that the library was about to throw thousands of books into the dumpster. BB has a great love in her heart for old books, and was able to organize a rescue. She called up a few friends who would be interested, including the owners of a fantastic used bookstore by the name of Pete and Freddy's Pages Aplenty. The books were stored in the library's dark basement, and the rescue party had to sort through the books with the help of flashlights after the sun went down. Together, they were able to save over forty boxes of books! I have a soft spot in my heart for library bound editions, and took a few snapshots of some of my favorites, as well as BB in the process of cleaning and treating the books.







For library editions, she first carefully removes any stickers or markings. Then, she uses Goo Gone to remove the adhesive residue. She then wipes down the book covers with a lint free cloth.
Thank you, Bargain Betty, for saving these lovelies from the dumpster.
With love, Laura

5 comments:

  1. This is great. I've saved many an article of clothing, etc. from careless wastoids over the years with my mom.

    It makes me ill that of ALL PEOPLE IN THIS WORLD, those running a library would even consider throwing away books for even a minute!!! Look at what a few phone calls, concerned citizens and even local business can do. Why wasn't the library making these calls!?!? This upsets me greatly.

    Congrats on the great book rescue!!! Keep fighting the good fight.

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  2. Please ignore the bad sentence composition in the comment above. I was so upset that I hit 'submit' without previewing it.

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  3. It broke my heart when we walked into that library basement. I ended up coming out of it with 3 boxes and 1 bag for our personal library (collecting for JuJu's education already). We also collected a full set of encyclopedias in perfect condition for the Blue Lion, along with about 4 other boxes. Why are there so many wasteful people these days?

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  4. She found an Anatole book? I love those books. I have a few in my library. I'm so glad your mum tipped us off.

    Thanks Laura!

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  5. Hey there; never visited this site before, but so glad I did! CAN NOT BELIEVE those books were trashed! Wish I could be part of the restoration. I hate to see ANY TYPE OF BOOK in the garbage; you never know who else may enjoy it. Has this place ever heard of "book sales" if nothing else for goodness sakes???

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