Oh. My. Stars.

My friend, Petra, invited me to go with her, her husband and her sister to Niantic for their annual pilgrimage to the 30% off book sale at the Book Barn.  So first of all: The Book Barn. My first visit to The Book Barn was with my dear friend Eggie a few years back. It’s unlike any other bookstore I’ve been to: outdoor cases, weird buildings and cats. A lot of cats. This place is amazing. It’s technically four locations, sort of jumbled up, but all within walking distance in the summertime.

They opened a “new wing” about 100 yards off the original Barn site, and EVERYTHING in this wing is exactly what I want forever. This is where I found 3 of the 12 Foxfire books (we already had one):

Now we only need eds 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 to be more than adequately prepared for North Carolina history and tradition. I located a dictionary, too, of Appalachian-English to English; nay, a lexicon.

Store4 is also where I found “Living On The Earth…” by Alicia Bay Laurel.

When I brought this particular book, Justin went wild in nostalgic awe. Apparently, this was a book of his childhood. I watched him thumb through pages, remembering little bits of his childhood in tandem. It was really lovely.

I would have considered all of that a pretty good run in-and-of itself, but wait! There’s more!

I was able to find Steinbeck’s Travels With Charlie and Winter Of My Discontent, neither of which I have yet read. Those will make good bus reading for when the weather calls for it.  I also grabbed In Our Time by Hemingway, all of which will (separately) fit in my pocket.

I found this amazing book, too:

Just in case I need to negotiate a land purchase, dig a well, deliver a goat, skin a lamb, all with the least possible expense and with minimum reliance on outside and professional help. YES!

And because I am somehow shifting into a person that lived well before I was born, I found:

 OF MANY LANDS!  I skimmed it already, and found a couple easy ferments, and summer salads that I definitely want to try, primarily from the Middle East, Northern Africa and France.  Then, there was this:

I plan to substitute kefir for all things yogurt and see how it tastes.

There are a few others, but the last really major score was this wonderful camping & trail wild food cookbook.

This gives good descriptions of wild edibles to keep packing light on trips, plus a bunch of tips on how to eat well in the wild.  I’ll admit to feeling a little awkward about buying so many great books knowing we’ll have to pack them up in about 6 weeks and move them to some other location. My whole pre-move aim is to get rid of things, not accumulate, but I just couldn’t help it. These were all too good to pass up, especially at a 30% discount.

I think their sale goes on for a little longer if you’re in the area.