Vintage Books

When I was growing up, I knew a girl in elementary school that refused to read a book unless it smelled good.

"That's how you can tell it's good." She'd say smugly, plucking a book from the shelf, cracking it open and breathing deeply from its yellowed pages.

I don't think her theory on the smell of a book guaranteeing the readability of its insides really holds up, neither does the niceness of its cover. But there's something to be said for the musty, ancient smell of an old book, its pages yellowed with age, grown soft from multiple generations flipping its pages. Yes, I'll admit it. I love old books.

I was thinking about this a few weeks ago, watching the leaves begin to change, a flurry of yard sales popping up every where I went. That's when I had an idea. I'd start an Etsy shop. (For those of you who don't know, Etsy is a website for people to sell homemade goods (gorgeous homemade goods), art and craft supplies and vintage items. It's a great place to find unique items, and support small businesses). I already loved vintage books, this was a way I could turn it into a hobby, and maybe make a few extra bucks as well.

And so it began. I started raiding garage sales and basements, digging through moldy boxes and chatting with crazy old ladies at their yard sales. I came up empty a lot, but I found a great many treasures as well. I figured, I'd start the shop, see if anything sold and if it didn't, I wouldn't be out too much money and I'd have had the fun of finding them.

Last week, I started my shop. It's called Rare Finds Books, and I'm still in the process of adding all my merchandise. I haven't sold anything yet, but one of my favourite parts so far has been taking the pictures. Old books are so beautiful, and although I'm really not much of a photographer, it's been fun to try and show them in their best light.

Time will tell if I'm able to make any money from this endeavor, but I think it's a fun hobby to play at while I'm working on my writing. My office job is great and my boss is wonderful, but my goal is still to work from home and live off my writing. Maybe this can help.

If you'd like to check out my shop, it's called Rare Finds Books. I hope you'll also spare a minute and read my About page, I had fun writing it. If not, I hope you'll check out Etsy anyway. There's a lot of amazing, beautiful, completely unique stuff on there you don't want to miss. What about you? Do you have a love of vintage? What beautiful things call your name?