Vintage Book Shopping: Themes, Genres, and Gifts

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The first antique I ever bought was a book. As a young teenager my family stopped into an old bookshop that used to be in historic Stone Mountain Village in Georgia. The shelves were absolutely crammed with books, and although I was an avid book lover from a very young age, I was a little overwhelmed with where to start browsing. I noticed there was a shelf marked “antique,” and for some reason, that’s where I started. I decided to look for the oldest book that I could afford. I walked out of the bookshop that day with my very first antique, a book called, “Reveries of a Bachelor.”

People often overlook buying vintage and antique books on their thrifting and antiquing adventures. Today I am sharing six things to consider when shopping for antique books: theme, genre, use, author, personalized gifts, and color/pattern.

Theme

Books can be a wonderful conversation starter, and grouped together they can become decorative accessories of interest. For example, one of our guest bedrooms has evolved into a red, white, and blue theme. On a nightstand in that room I stacked a group of books that evoke the feeling of “American government.” I currently have books in this stack with subjects like government, democracy, and America. If I want to grow this themed collection, while I am antiquing, I will look for both fiction and non-fiction books that fit with this theme. An example would be a book about American presidents, or maybe a murder mystery book with Washington, D.C. in the title.

Other themes that would be easy to search for are things like art, wild west (cowboys, western expansion), the region you live in (Southern U.S., the beach), cooking/food, gardening, or travel. Just remember not to limit yourself to either fiction or non-fiction; they can be mixed! (Check out these old gardening books HERE!)

Genre

I have wonderful memories of consuming books as a child. The characters from these books are often remembered fondly. I’ve put together a group of sentimental titles that would fit into a genre that an adolescent girl would enjoy. Books like The Secret Garden, Anne of Green Gables, and Pollyanna all make sense when grouped together in a display, because they’re all from the same genre. I’ve grouped my set on a shelf in our bedroom.

Other genres that would be fun to collect are early textbooks, British classics, poetry, music books, and hymnals. (Check out these antique poetry books HERE!)

Use

One of the best reasons to collect old books is because you’re actually going to use them. Years ago churches started throwing away all of the hymnals that used to be in stored the back of the pews. They moved to showing lyrics on screens instead of reading them from hymnals. However, many people prefer to use a hymnal to sing or play hymns on a piano. When I see a stack of old books for sale, I go through them to see if there are any old gardening books. I like to use them as references for plant problems or inspiration for things that I’d like to add to my garden.

Other books to look for if you want to actually use them are books on woodworking, cookbooks, or other types of how-to books. (Check out these old song hymnals HERE!)

Author

When people collect old books, they often choose them because of the author. One of the authors whose books I collect are those written by Edward Bulwer-Lytton. My family name is Lytton, and some relatives speculate that we are distantly related to the Lord Lytton. Another, more modern, author whose books I specifically search for is Martha Stewart. I find Martha Stewart’s books to be helpful resources for many topics that I’m interested in. Martha published her first book 43 years ago in 1982, so many of her books definitely fall into the vintage category.

Other authors that interest people are Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Dickens, and Laura Ingalls Wilder, just to name a few. (Check out these vintage Martha Stewart books HERE!)

Personalized Gift

Another reason to consider buying vintage and antique books is for personalized gifts. Around the holidays I like to give a little something extra to people like our hair dressers and our dentist. If I was giving them a gift card or a tin of cookies, it would be fun to package their main gift with an antique dentistry book or a book on old hair styles. If you have someone in your life that is interested in wild life or travel, finding an antique book to give them on their topic of interest shows that you took a little extra effort in the thought that went into it. Be sure to look for these types of gifts all year long and set them aside for when you need them. (Check out these vintage hairstyles books HERE!)

Color and Pattern

Finally, another thing to consider when shopping for vintage and antique books is the cover. People have started using old books as decorative objects in their home. They can make an impact as decor when grouped by color. One side of my husband’s ancestry is largely found in Scotland. I have recently started collecting Scottish themed books for our bookshelf that have beautiful tartan patterned covers. These tartan decorated books are also beautiful in Christmas displays.

The next time you are thrifting and antiquing, don’t forget to look for books. Decide on a theme, a color, or even someone to buy a gift for. Recycling old objects in these ways puts them to use and keeps them out of a landfill. Happy Hunting! (Check out these vintage books with tartan covers HERE!)

Abby Smolarsky2 Comments

2024’s Best Books: A Personal Review

One of my goals for 2024 was to read two books each week. I didn’t quite accomplish that goal, but I did manage to read over 75 books this year. There were quite a few that I started and abandoned because I didn’t enjoy them for one reason or another. Those books are not included in my number of read books. (Who has time for bad books? Not me!) Today I am sharing my top 10 books that I read in 2024.

This post contains commissionable links. You can find the exact books I read by clicking on the titles or pictures.

In random order, here are my top 10 books that I read in 2024:

The Unmaking of June Farrow, by Adrienne Young

I read this book earlier in the year, and when I did I was already at the point where I desperately wanted to read something unpredictable, creative, and original. This book was it! From the synopsis, “In the small mountain town of Jasper, North Carolina, June Farrow is waiting for fate to find her. The Farrow women are known for their thriving flower farm—and the mysterious curse that has plagued their family line. The whole town remembers the madness that led to Susanna Farrow’s disappearance, leaving June to be raised by her grandmother and haunted by rumors.”

I think there are more layers and depth than this brief description provides, so you will have to read this one for yourself.

The Vaster Wilds, by Lauren Groff

This is truly a unique read. The main character’s voice is profoundly memorable, and I will think of this book for years to come. Several times while reading it, I thought that this would make a fantastic novel study for a high school literature class. It’s not a light read, but one that I thoroughly enjoyed. In brief, “A servant girl escapes from a colonial settlement in the wilderness. She carries nothing with her but her wits, a few possessions, and the spark of god that burns hot within her. What she finds in this terra incognita is beyond the limits of her imagination and will bend her belief in everything that her own civilization has taught her.”

This made it onto to my “Book to re-Read in the Future” list.

The Dutch House, by Ann Patchett

This is not a new release, but I just got around to reading it this year. There are several themes in this book that resonated with me. I know what it means to be in love with a house and to have strained and unconventional familial relationships. This book was a wonderful journey through someone else’s story. To summarize, “At the end of the Second World War, Cyril Conroy combines luck and a single canny investment to begin an enormous real estate empire, propelling his family from poverty to enormous wealth. His first order of business is to buy the Dutch House, a lavish estate in the suburbs outside of Philadelphia. Meant as a surprise for his wife, the house sets in motion the undoing of everyone he loves.”

How to Read a Book, by Monica Wood

An inspirational novel that touches on the power of redemption and forgiveness, and the impact literature can make on every life. This book shows how books can change lives, even those incarcerated with little exposure to reading. “When [three people] encounter each other one morning in a bookstore in Portland—Violet to buy the novel she was reading in the prison book club before her release, Harriet to choose the next title for the women who remain, and Frank to dispatch his duties as the store handyman—their lives begin to intersect in transformative ways.”

The Secret Book of Flora Lee: A Novel, by Patti Callahan Henry

I loved this book for the mystery and unique story line. It touches on the strength of sibling bonds and reminds of us of events affecting children during World War II. To sum up this wonderful story, “In the war-torn London of 1939, fourteen-year-old Hazel and five-year-old Flora are evacuated to a rural village to escape the horrors of the Second World War. Living with the kind Bridie Aberdeen and her teenage son, Harry, in a charming stone cottage along the River Thames, Hazel fills their days with walks and games to distract her young sister, including one that she creates for her sister and her sister alone—a fairy tale about a magical land, a secret place they can escape to that is all their own.”

The Book of Doors, by Gareth Brown

Imaginative. Creative. Adventurous. Well-written. I loved this book. The story is perfectly woven and the ending is wonderful. Dear Author, if you read this, PLEASE make a sequel!! From the summary, “Cassie Andrews works in a New York City bookshop, shelving books, making coffee for customers, and living an unassuming, ordinary life. Until the day one of her favorite customers—a lonely yet charming old man—dies right in front of her. Cassie is devastated. She always loved his stories, and now she has nothing to remember him by. Nothing but the last book he was reading. But this is no ordinary book…It is the Book of Doors.”

Anxious People, by Fredrik Backman

I am late to the game in reading this novel, but I’m so glad that I added it to my list in 2024. A wonderful reminder that we are all people living parallel lives with unique stories, but that our lives affect others and intersect, whether we want them to or not. We can also glean a lesson in compassion from this story. A little more about the book: “Looking at real estate isn’t usually a life-or-death situation, but an apartment open house becomes just that when a failed bank robber bursts in and takes a group of strangers hostage. The captives include a recently retired couple who relentlessly hunt down fixer-uppers to avoid the painful truth that they can’t fix their own marriage. There’s a wealthy bank director who has been too busy to care about anyone else and a young couple who are about to have their first child but can’t seem to agree on anything. Add to the mix an eighty-seven-year-old woman who has lived long enough not to be afraid of someone waving a gun in her face, a flustered but still-ready-to-make-a-deal real estate agent, and a mystery man who has locked himself in the apartment’s only bathroom, and you’ve got the worst group of hostages in the world.”

The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, by Stuart Turton

I would describe this book as a classy mystery. It’s a wonderful example of a well written, multi-layered plot. It’s refreshing to see a story written that doesn’t rely on cheap shock and gore to achieve success. I found this title because I read another of Stuart Turton’s books this year, The Last Murder at the End of the World, and I wanted to read more of his work. He writes truly unique stories, and I hope you’ll enjoy this one. A summary, “The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle is a breathlessly addictive mystery that follows one man’s race to find a killer, with an astonishing time-turning twist that means nothing and no one are quite what they seem.”

The Paris Apartment, by Lucy Foley

This book is written from rotating points of view. In doing so, the author effectively makes the reader feel sympathetic to some of the characters with less than desirable personality traits. I enjoyed the injection of Paris culture, architecture, and ambiance while reading this multi-layered mystery. “Jess needs a fresh start. She’s broke and alone, and she’s just left her job under less than ideal circumstances. Her half-brother Ben didn’t sound thrilled when she asked if she could crash with him for a bit, but he didn’t say no, and surely everything will look better from Paris. Only when she shows up – to find a very nice apartment, could Ben really have afforded this? – he’s not there.”

The Many Lives of Mama Love, by Laura Love Hardin

This is the only non-fiction book to make my top 10 list for 2024. This book is an “easy” read, but it wasn’t easy for me to read. The author discusses topics that were uncomfortable and things that I didn’t want to think about in this book. She sheds light on the realities of opioid addiction and the prison/court systems in America. While portions of this book were out of my comfort zone, I’m glad that I read it and gained compassion and understanding for the people traveling the dark journey that the author did.

If you’ve read this far you will notice that I didn’t mention what my favorite book for the year was! Based on my descriptions, I’d love to know what your guess is. Have you read any of the books on this list? Let’s chat in the comments below,

You can shop for any of these books by clicking the titles or images above. If you’d like to find them all in one place, you can find them in my LTK shop HERE. You can also save this article to your Pinterest page to find it again later.

Abby Smolarsky6 Comments

My first, and the rest is history…

I was inspired by an Instagram post to share about the first antique I ever bought, and how I got into interested antiques.

The first antique I ever bought was a book. The title of the book was The Reveries of a Bachelor. I had never read it, and I never did read it. I did not know at the time that it was one of Emily Dickinson’s favorite books. I was a teenager, and I was browsing in an antiquarian bookstore. I wanted to buy the oldest book I could find. When I realized that I could not afford the oldest book I could find, I settled for a book published in the 1850s that was only 99 cents. The book was meaningful to me because I felt the value in its age, not because I knew anything about the books itself. I had it for about 20 years, and unfortunately it met its end with some puppy teeth.

Growing up I also heard stories of an aunt and uncle who sold antiques and frequented auctions. I romanticized the world of antiques. I wanted to do those things, too. I wanted to buy from Sotheby’s. (One day?!)

How did I get from buying an old book to selling antiques? In college my favorite classes were my furniture history classes. I loved how an age of a piece could be identified by the shape of its legs or the pattern in the veneer. I still have my furniture history textbooks to use as references. During one of my internships a designer I was working under asked what my dream job was. I told her it was to own an antique store. She seemed surprised, but I do think a degree in interior design is certainly helpful for that line of work.

Funny enough, I cannot tell you what the second antique I ever bought was. I have tried to remember, and I just can’t. I have continued to love to buy antique books. Today my favorites are old versions of the classics I’ve read. I also love to buy books written by Lord Lytton, who shares my maiden name. I’ve said it before, buying an antique is usually a sentimental thing, and so I’m truly curious. What was the first antique you ever bought?

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Vintage Book Titles for Boys

I did a lot of reading as a kid. I remember telling the elementary school librarian that I had already read all of the books in the library. I’m positive that I had not really done so, but I read A LOT.

Certain titles that I read over and over again became sentimental to me, so as I started getting more active in the vintage and antique world, I began to look for vintage and antique copies of my favorite books. I’ve shared pictures of some of my favorites over on Instagram and Facebook, but I thought I might share a list of some of the titles that I specifically look for. I separated those titles into a boys’ list and a girls’ list, but boys and girls would enjoy books from either list. In fact, two of my very favorites that I re-read many times are on the boys’ list: My Side of the Mountain and James and the Giant Peach.

If you’re like me and you’d like to have a vintage copy of one of these books on your bookshelf, you might be amazed how easily you can find them once you start looking for a specific title.

If you’re looking for a vintage copy of a favorite book, try garage or estate sales, thrift or antique stores, or online auctions.

Here are a few of the classic titles that I think are great for boys.

  • White Fang by Jack London
  • The Call of the Wild by Jack London
  • My Side of the Mountain (a triology) by Jean Craighead George
  • Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
  • Robinson Crusoe by Robert Louis Stevenson
  • Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls
  • Old Yeller by Fred Gipson
  • The Chronicles of Narnia series by C. S. Lewis
  • To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
  • The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Slinger
  • The Giver (a quartet) by Lois Lowry
  • Hatchet by Gary Paulsen
  • A Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Vern
  • The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle
  • The Legend of King Arthur and His Knights by Howard Pyle
  • Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift
  • The 3 Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas
  • The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
  • The Black Stallion by Alec Ramsay
  • James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
  • The Indian in the Cupboard by Lynne Reid Banks
  • Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
  • The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper
  • Swiss Family Robinson by Johann David Wyss

And just for good measure here are two more that I think are must-reads for boys and are sure to become classics:

  • Wonder by R. J. Palacio
  • The Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling

Do you have any that you would include on this list? Connecting to characters in books can be different for everyone. As an adult we think back on those characters with sentimental feelings. I hope you will look for one of these books and reconnect with a favorite character from your childhood. And better yet, I hope you will give one of these books away to a child so that they can connect with them, too. Happy Reading!

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Favorite Books for Vintage Lovers

Favorite Books for Vintage Lovers

Do you have a favorite book from your childhood?

I read a lot as a child. A random, odd fact about me is that our family did not own a TV from the time I was about 7 until I was 13. My parents decided that they didn’t want a TV in the house. While I think that this can be a great thing if done correctly, I do regret that my siblings and I missed out on a lot of Pop Culture. One benefit, however, is that I read. A lot. 
Through my antique finding and selling adventures I discovered that there were some titles I remembered fondly, and I made a point to look for them. A few of my favorites:

Anne of Green Gables, Pollyanna, The Secret Garden, Heidi, Little Women, and Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm. 
If you have some favorites from your childhood that you would look for, what would they be? Some titles are especially valuable. Some titles are especially hard to find. For example, The unabridged Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm was really hard for me to find. Of course, condition and published year can make a big difference, too. For me, I didn’t so much mind the condition of the pages as I did the cover.
Online auctions are a great resource if you are looking for a specific book!
Happy Book Hunting!

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Our Easter Mantel


//assets.pinterest.com/js/pinit.jsI thought I’d share a few photos of our Easter mantel this year. If you’ve read my past posts then you know that I like to decorate by “shopping” my house for items I can use. I always gravitate towards shopping for items of specific color. This time I was on the hunt for blue.

To see the photo larger, just click on it!

I can’t for the life of me remember where I bought the banner, but I am certain that it was one year after Easter and on discount. Then it sat in a Rubbermaid bin for a couple of years before Samantha and I put it together last year. We stamped “Hoppy Easter” on it.

The blue books on the mantel were easy to collect throughout the house. And well, Ball mason jars are pretty common around here. Let’s just say that I’ve hoarded passionately collected them. I regret every one of them that I’ve sold!

You might recognize the little bunnies from this post HERE. They’re from World Market.

I keep meaning to spray paint that candle holder. Warmer temps are here, so now may be the time!

I am pretty sure the bunnies (one piece) came from Hobby Lobby. The wall color is Danville Tan by Benjamin Moore. It’s been our wall color since we moved in ten years ago, and I still love it as much as I did the first day. It looks different at night than in the day. It’s very calming in person. (P.S. This color looks great in person. It looks totally wonky on my cellphone screen, so keep an open mind!)

Do you remember the barn wood that Ken and I got off of a an old barn/army building HERE? And also used to make THIS?

We used some our favorite pieces to make some free wall art for our mantel. The color is all natural and original. All we did was cut it and attach it together.

The “S” is for our last name. 😉 The window was picked up on one of our Craig’s List adventures.

I had fun pulling everything together. Everything other than the fresh tulips and the tiny bunnies on top of the books are things we already had. My favorite kind of decorating…FREE!

If you want to save any of these pictures, just click on the Pin It button and you can save it to Pinterest.

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Crafts to Make with Hymnal Pages

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Yesterday I listed several vintage and antique hymnals in my Etsy shop, and I had a friend ask, “but what would someone do with an old hymnal…?”

Besides simply enjoying looking through it and being reminded of many of the traditional hymns that are no longer sung at church services, there are many wonderful ways you can repurpose them. In a way, repurposing will actually extend their “life.” Something like an old hymnal that may be worn thin and have no value to most people can be turned into things that will be used and treasured for years to come. Below are just a few of the neat crafts I found on Pinterest that use hymnal pages.

One of my favorites, Miss Mustard Seed used old hymnal pages on a lovely dresser:

Music Sheet Dresser....I would like to do this with some of the old hymnals I have
On AJ’s Trash to Treasure Blog, you can see that just about anything can get covered in hymnal pages, including lamp shades: 
10,7,10 CA projects110 SPECIAL HINT FOR LAMP SHADES: Paper the INSIDE as well as the outside. When the light shines through, all you seams and overlaps are OVERLY obvious. By double layering your paper (one layer outside and one layer inside) it will minimize this.
The Picadilly Post turns hymnal pages in works of art:
I love this -- I think I would use the hymn 'The Old Rugged Cross' or 'In The Garden' or 'It Is Well With My Soul'...
Christmas ornaments seem like something doable even for the beginning crafter. These were found on Houzz: 
IDEA: Hang on dining room window latches in love with these diy cloth ornaments and color scheme for sun-room - all year
Use them to make a wreath. Here’s a How-To from HomeTalk:
A Hymnal Page Wreath :: Hometalk
Here’s an old blog post of mine where I used hymnal pages in a painting:
In my opinion the easiest and cheapest way to use hymnal pages is to simply frame them! In my home I have this framed song in our guest bedroom: 
Now let your imagination flow! 
Tips: You can link back to all sources. Hover in each introductory sentence to find the link.  If you are interested in purchasing one of the hymnals in my shop to use for a project or just to keep, go HERE. (Listed under “Books” on the left.) Depending on the day there’s usually 2 to 20 available. I’m happy to check a hymnal if you’re looking for a particular song, year, or church affiliation. 

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Abby Smolarsky12 Comments

How to Plan for a Home DIY Project


Spring Break for our kids is in just a few weeks. Because of Ken’s job, this means that he will have some more free time on his hands than he usually does. So what are we doing for Spring Break? The beach? Lake? Stay-cation? Not quite.

We are diving head first into some home renovation projects. Some indoors and some outdoors. These are not projects that we have any kind of experience with. None. Zilch. This could be disastrous amazing! So if we have no experience with these types of projects, how do we expect to have a good outcome? Here are a few tips for you:

  • Research. ReSEARCH. REsearch. Easy to say, but how? We are researching in these ways: YouTube, Pinterest, Blogs, Books, and Friends. Search for the type of project you are doing, and endless results should come up. This is not a “one and done” type of research. We’re piecing together tips and instructions from different sources that will work best for our house and our taste.
  • Measuring. Know exactly how much of each material you will need. Guessing is going to add to your frustration when you either have to go back for more or you buy too much. Frustrations = Stress = Bad Experience.
  • Pricing. This could go along with research, but it’s important enough to stand on it’s own. Know ahead of time how much you’re going to spend on materials. Simply deciding to walk into a store and buy what you find isn’t the best way to do things. You should shop around, price materials, and discover all of the options that are available to you.
  • Gather and prep your materials. I like to think of this as making a recipe for dinner. You’re going to make sure you have all of the ingredients before you start cooking it. Make sure you have all of your “ingredients” before you start your project. If some items can be prepped ahead of time, like priming something, go ahead and do it before the day you plan to do the project.
  • Make sure you have the tools you need. If you need a tool such as a saw or nail gun that you don’t have, make arrangements to buy it, borrow it, or rent it before the day of the project. You don’t want to spend time on the day you start your project to track one down. Tool rental places may have rented all of them out, friends may not be reachable, and impulsively buying a tool that you need will likely lead to overspending.

When you take the time to plan ahead and prepare yourself with knowledge and materials, your project is going to go a lot smoother than if you don’t.

Maybe next year on Spring Break we’ll actually take a break. 😉

XOXO,
Abby

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    The Gospel Truth

    Have you ever unintentionally collected something? One minute you have one extra casserole dish/figurine/pound and the next you have twenty? (Hey, I know I’m not the only person to have unintentionally collected twenty pounds at some point!!)


    I have unintentionally collected antique and vintage hymnals. I mean to say, I didn’t set out to collect them. The collection just sort of happened a long the way. Now here I sit with a stack of hymnals from the Bible Belt (that’s the South, y’all) in varying conditions.

    I love the ones that are falling apart at the seams. There’s only way to get like that — by being used. Unfortunately some have no life left in them as a song book, but I just can’t bare to throw them away. (I might surprise you that I am the total opposite of a “hoarder.”) I haven’t had a plan for using them before, but this past Sunday at church I was completely inspired. The words to “Holy, Holy, Holy” are truly beautiful, and I was inspired by the verse, “Early in the morning, our song shall rise to Thee.”


    I decided to use one of the hymnals that had seen better days to create something new.


    XOXO,
    Abby //assets.pinterest.com/js/pinit.js

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