A Couple of Bookshops in Ohio

Most of us have not had much of an opportunity to visit bookshops over the last year. It is one of the lesser catastrophes that we have all been dealing with. I know of few stress relievers that work as well as a wander through a secondhand bookshop. My blood pressure lowers as soon as I walk through the door. My husband is well aware of this fact so when we were in Ohio last month and I was very stressed by our (at that time) unsuccessful house searches he suggested I look for nearby bookstores. I knew what I was doing when I married that man. I quickly found a Half Price Books five minutes down the road and we headed that way. It was absolutely lovely. The store only had a few people in it and I found some books to buy. You can see them in the photo below.

While I was wandering through the aisles I started chatting with a friendly older woman who had a many-page printout of all the books she and her husband own. She said she brings it with her so she doesn’t buy books multiple times. I really need to update my own library list because all too often I stand in a bookshop debating whether or not I actually own a particular book. While talking she told me that I needed to visit another bookstore half an hour up the road. She said it was an old warehouse filled with books that all cost a dollar each. There is no way you could keep me away after that description. We couldn’t get there before it closed for the day but we headed straight over the next morning. You can see the entrance in the photo at the top of this post. It is around the back of an old warehouse and it feels a bit deserted as you walk in and past pallets of books but you walk through the plastic curtains and you are surrounded by books.

Once again, there were only a few people in the whole place and they were all very friendly though they seemed a little baffled by my search for old books. While it seemed overwhelming at first, I quickly realized that most of the books were newer and not really what I was looking for. However, they did have an area of classics, a small shelf of vintage mysteries, and two sections of old hardbacks. I did pretty well. Here are the books I bought. I was happy to get all of these for a dollar each. I am reading the Mary Roberts Rinehart right now. It is a collection of short stories. It is possible I already own the Edna Ferber (see previous comment about keeping better records of what I own) but for one dollar I figured it didn’t matter.

The section of old hardbacks was lovely and very tempting. I could have happily bought dozens of them, even if I didn’t know what they were, for their sheer charm and the possibility that each was a wonderful book I had never heard of before. However, I was fully aware that I would have to take the books home with me and then move them back to the midwest in a couple of months so I exercised a modicum of self-restraint.

It was so nice to be back in a bookstore and it did restore me to a semblance of calmness and optimism much to my husband’s relief. I think he is going to have to prescribe the same solution to get me through the next month and the finalizing of the sale of our house.

One Dollar Book Swap

1723 Webster St.

Dayton, Ohio 45404

I can’t remember which Half Price Books we visited but they seem to be all over the midwest.