My In-Box of Books

These aren't all "new" books. Well, they're all new to me. Some were received as Christmas gifts (the top four, all from my Amazon wish list) and the remaining ones I bought myself at a used bookstore in Placerville, California. Every time we go to Placerville to visit our daughter and family, I try to pop in to this great little shop called The Bookery on the old Goldrush-era main street. I always pause to pet the gray-haired dog who curls up on the dog bed near the front door, sometimes talk to the resident cat who lives on a shelf behind the cash register, then I make a beeline for the cookbook section. I've always been amazed at the quality of the books in this store - the cookbooks that is. For a small used bookstore, it's always busy, and they have a convenient low stool in the cookbook area, which I use as I peruse the books.

Actually, my stack of books was higher than shown in the photo. Out in front of the store they had a table and a trolley heaped with Christmas books, all half off the marked price, which usually is 50% of the list price. It was the day before Christmas and they wanted to get rid of them! So I got those for 25% of the list price, the flyleaf price. There were some very cute books in that section, including some children's books I'll give to our newest grandson next year. They've been relegated to my Christmas stash way upstairs.

But, back to the bookstore. Sorry, I digress. This time I was there I was told, as I was checking out, that one of the owners (who wasn't there) has a huge, I mean HUGE, cookbook collection. Numbering in the thousands, they told me. No WONDER the bookstore has a large cookbook collection. I suppose she passes on her discards to the store shelves. I wish I knew her. Maybe more of her discards would grace my shelves.

Although I already have a serious cookbook problem, as I've divulged here before. I already have bulging cookbook shelves. Now with these new books, I have no room. This stack, pictured above, is sitting on a piece of furniture at the moment in the kitchen/family room area. The Alice Waters biography has been removed and is sitting by my kitchen placemat. Always available for a little look-see if I have a spare moment while I'm eating a meal.

Two of the stack are novels (with one of those a food mystery). Actually both have disappeared to the upstairs library, where I keep all of my fiction. I have much more library storage in the upstairs office, where I spend several hours every day, mostly on my desktop computer. But for now, I'm enjoying just looking at this stack, getting ready for more pleasurable minutes of cookbook reading.