This is why I love second hand stores

I mentioned earlier today that I'd planned to go out. I needed to do some errands and then I wanted to check out the new stores in town. After I did my mundane things, I went to the new produce shop, then around the corner to the not so new antique shop. It's been there a while but I've never gone in, and they recently expanded, too.

The ladies had a wonderful inventory at present. I fell in love with a mid-century modern chair and a lamp, and enjoyed looking not only at the hung art, but the frames. Gorgeous.

Then I headed to the more my speed price-wise second-hand store. It is an auction house that buys lots when things get damaged or been in a crash or just is used You never know what you'll find, and inventory changes often.

Since I'm frugal, I didn't really have any particular item in mind to buy, except a kitchen cooling/drying rack. When I make candied citrus or bake something I'd like to have a rack to dry or cool the items. But it isn't a big deal as I can make do with what I have. I'm on vacation and I wasn't in a hurry. I was mostly just taking the car for a ride since it doesn't like to sit for long periods, or else it hesitates and tends to want to stall if I let it sit.

I didn't see a drying rack nor did I see anything else to buy or even anything I was especially interested in anything I saw...until...I saw a marbled book lying as a non sequitur amongst some clocks and sheets.

Picking it up, I saw that the marbling was genuine and the leather binding was too. Knowing something about bookbinding, the cover style meant it was probably published in the 1800s. The title page held no publishing information, but the language was foreign. I surmised it was Swedish.

Pretty end papers

Title page, Svenska is the word Sweden in Swedish, so...

It was selling for $2 so I put it in my basket with little hesitation. Now the problem was to find enough other things to raise my minimum limit to $5, the lowest amount they will let you use a credit or debit card. I had no cash on me.

I poked around some more and went to my trusty section where I know I'll find functional things- I usually need a fridge magnet-pad, where I write my grocery list. I also used up my little post it tags to mark pages or verses in my bible when I'm reading. I don't write in my bible or underline, so the sticky tags are my go-to item for marking stuff I want to remember. Hmmm, still not up to $5.

I wandered toward the back of the store. It's in an old gym without large windows, so the place tends to be dark. They have lights stationed around, but it's still a dark place and the back is really dark. I peered around and spotted a bookcase with some books in it. Hmmm, anything good? Yes! I should say so! I found a hardcover John Grisham I never knew existed! "The Innocent Man". I thought I'd read all his books! It had no dust jacket on it but in scanning the first few pages, it looks like one of his non-fiction tomes. It was selling for $1. Score!

Then I found this! I was excited because artist instructional books like the Mixed Media one and the Collage one pictured below usually run around $20-30, and these were all $1. Although I'm not a huge fan of graffiti, I saw when I reorganized my photos on the laptop that I have taken lots of pictures of it. I recently made a folder containing all my graffiti pics. When I saw the book chronicling the rise of graffiti in NYC for $1 I thought it'd be an interesting read.

So definitely the haul was a good one. I came home and looked up August Strindberg, author of the Swedish book. It turns out he was a prolific and famous novelist, playwright and poet in Sweden at the turn of the last century. His book Swedish Destinies and Adventures, the translated title of the one I bought, was published in 1883. Here is a link to his amazing life, career, and hobbies (he was an excellent painter and photographer too).

August Strindberg

A hundred years after his death, August Strindberg (1849-1912) continues to fascinate. He was a trailblazer and innovator in his time and still manages to provoke audiences in theaters around the world.

LOL so I go out the get gas and check for eggplants at the produce store and return home with an antique book by a famous and controversial Swedish playwright and novelist. You never know...that is why I love second hand stores.