I hadn’t been to a book sale since the weekend before I was married. Not that it had stopped Merritt and me from adding to our book collection. The bookshelves we bought the week before his accident have been filled to overflowing in the seven months since. From garage sales, to all-too-frequent visits to GoodWill and Habitat for Humanity thrift stores, our collection has grown by volumes.

Then I went to another book sale. We were visiting my family last weekend, when Mom got an email that mentioned a YMCA book sale. Looking for more details led me to http://www.booksalefinder.com/, a website which could prove to be a strain on our bookshelves, not to mention our budget. But with Erasmus we say, “When I get a little money, I buy books; and if any is left, I buy food and clothes.”

So I set off to the book sale, with my mom, mother-in-law, and sister-in-law, delighting in the prospects of 13,000 books, seventy percent of them hardbacks. The list in my pocket had the names of new authors I was looking for (the first four of Lanier’s recommendation): Elizabeth Goudge, Augusta J. Evans, D.E. Stevensen, Myrtle Reed, and Susan B. Warner

And I was rewarded. I spotted The Bird in the Tree by Elizabeth Goudge, and my mother-in-law found the sequel, Pilgrim’s Inn, which Lanier told me is her favorite of Goudge’s books. I have already begun reading The Bird in the Tree and am finding it reminds me a little of another favorite, Gene Stratton Porter.

My sister-in-law and I, not to mention every other member of my new family, are always on the lookout for Gene Stratton Porter books. And the last several times Marlys and I have been book shopping together, I have spotted a Gene Stratton Porter book first. This time, I found Michael O’Halloran (which I had to give up because we already owned a copy), The Harvester (which means I have to give back the copy I convinced my mom to let me have), and Freckles (which we amazingly had not yet added to our shelves, despite being her most popular title). This would explain why I frequently lose status as her favorite sister-in-law while we are book shopping.

I was delighted to find many other titles as well. Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations, Goodbye Mr. Chips, The Winning of Barbara Worth by Harold Bell Wright, two more Rex Beach titles—The Spoilers and The Silver Horde, four more books to add to my collection of Landmarks, two books by Kate Douglas Wiggin—Polly Oliver’s Problem and Rose o’ the River, the hymnal I grew up with (The New Church Hymnal by Lexicon Music), the hymnal my mom grew up with (Great Hymns of the Faith by Singspiration/Zondervan), and another Terhune book for our collection—Wolf. Merritt’s favorite of my finds was Where the Wild Things Are. And the book I was most excited about (other than Gene Stratton Porter), was Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel.

In fact, we had so much fun the first day of the sale, that the promise of another hundred boxes of books coming out the next day was too much. My mom dropped us off at the sale again on the way to the airport to pick up my brother Will. He was the only one who got away without purchasing a single book. Because even when my mom wasn’t there, I found her a quiz book for my little sister who loves to memorize facts, and an old Horatio Alger book for my little brother. I even got to spend my cousin Jennifer’s money. She wanted to be at that book sale in the worst way, and since I’d been book shopping with her so much, I bought her a box full that I knew she’d want.

But I suppose it is time to stop talking about my new books, and start cataloging them. The Excel list of books I owned when I got married numbers 967. I haven’t updated it since Merritt and I merged our libraries, so I think I will have to start all over again. Any guesses on the current number of books in our library? I’ll let you know when I have that list typed…unless I get distracted reading.