Birchbark Purchases

We spent a few hours at one of my favorite places yesterday: Birchbark Books. It's a barn with style: a labyrinth of wood, paper, fuzzy old chairs, smooth stones, handmade furniture, and the sound of hammered dulcimer. The creaky floors are worn where book-lovers have long stood in deep thought. Some corners are warmer than others on a rainy Saturday; specifically where a pot-bellied stove is digesting its pithy dinner. The clientele is as wildly varied as entries in a card catalogue. The comraderie is clear yet unspoken. Our credo is this: We who love books prowl these prose-laden alleys. We are serious about books. Don't bug us as we peruse unless our pants are on fire.

Here is the list of yesterday's purchases:

The Collected Poems of Dylan Thomas $3.50 (orig. 10.95)
The Piano Shop on the Left Bank (Thad Carhart) $3.50 (orig. 13.95)
Word Mysteries & Histories from Quiche to Humble Pie $2.50 ( ? )
Piano Playing (Josef Hofmann) $6.50 ( ? )

The last book was a bit of a splurge, considering the prices of the others. A hardcover gem from 1912 written by a famous concert pianist, it's chock full of old-fashioned advice. Within the yellowed pages are first-hand accounts of lessons with the incomparable Rubenstein. I love it. What a find. The final selling point: the flyleaf of Piano Playing is lovingly inscribed in spidery ink thusly:

To Gladys
From Pa

I rest my case. $6.50 well spent.