Now that it’s been a while since I got my second vaccine dose, we’re back to traveling domestically. We’ve just returned from a trip to New Orleans, a city we visit about three times a year. Sadly, the city’s famed restaurants and music venues have been hard hit by the pandemic, and French Quarter crowds were terribly thin. Fortunately for me, though, I found some real treasures at the library sale at the Milton H. Latter Memorial Library, located in the city’s beautiful Garden District.
Being an author of historical romances, I buy a lot of research books, most of them through internet searches and from sellers all over the world. It’s a lucky day when I physically happen on a book pertinent to my English Regency era.
Imagine my delight when I looked up on a top shelf and found this ten-pound behemoth titled
Coaching Day of England. Originally published in 1964, it’s full of wonderful illustrations pertaining to the old coaching inns and roads and conveyances as well as informative text. Price? A mere $10.
When deciding where to put it when I got home, my husband took a scene from Seinfeld and said I might want to consider Kramer’s suggestion to have a coffee table made from a book!
This isn’t the first fortuitous find I’ve gotten from great library sales. I belong to several Friends of the Library groups in my state and neighboring Louisiana, and one year at the New Braunfels (Texas) Friends of the Library annual sale I found one of the last editions ever printed by England’s
Debrett’s Peerage. It, too, is a behemoth. It’s four inches thick. These used to sell for hundreds of pounds but have now gone digital. My price? Fifteen dollars.
In addition to writing more than three dozen novels set in Regency England, I have also been writing non-fiction articles on Regency England for more than 20 years; so, I do a lot of research about real people who lived in the Regency.
One of my greatest purchases at a library sale was a complete set of
The Dictionary of National Biography—published by the Oxford University Press about notable Brits. Dictionary hardly describes these entries which are really biographies. It’s now available only through digital subscription. My set sits proudly in my home library—all 22 volumes! My cost? Two bucks a book for a total of $44.
Going to these library sales in two states gives us a good excuse for little get-aways we so enjoy. Then I come home and get back to work on the next book. What’s my next book?
Countess by Christmas, a House of Haverstock novella, is a May 17 release that’s now on preorder everywhere.
You can find me on the internet at these places:
I was just talking to my dh about New Orleans. I went years ago to RWA National. had such a great time. I told him we should go together this year. Sad to hear how badly they've been hit. Here's to hoping later this year will be better. And what a great finds!! Those are exciting. Beautiful Christmas cover.
ReplyDeleteNora, I hope you can return to New Orleans. It's one of the most unique cities in the world. And they can use your business!
DeleteWhat a cool find for that book. All of the books, really! Glad you're getting out again!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Kari. We hardly left our house for a whole year. Saw no one. We didn't even see our kids -- who live in the same town -- until five months into the pandemic, and then mostly just outside. Hallaluja, vaccines!
DeleteI used to haunt library book sales. I much prefer doing research the old fashioned way, from books.
ReplyDeleteI'm with you, Kathleen. Even though digital references are more searchable, I love the physical books. I know you can highlight some digital versions and make notes digitally, but it's just not the same.
DeleteI can’t wait to travel again. And one of my favourite places is the Museum of Transportation in Lisbon Pt. In it, they have 3 or 4 floors of carriages and conveyances from the 15th century to the last. They are spectacular and a lot are royal carriages given as gifts for weddings of royalty. Some are truly mind boggling. Full of statuary and all kind of artwork in gilt and gold, /stunning. Add it to your list of places to go when travel to Europe opens up.
ReplyDeleteI know you're as anxious to get back to Portugal as I am to get back to England, Bonnie. Amazingly, though I've been to 19 European countries, I have never been to Portugal. (Been to Spain twice.) My son honeymooned in Paris and Lisbon, and they much preferred Lisbon and are dying to go back. I have got to see that transportation museum there!
DeleteThose are amazing and excellent finds. I love hunting for treasures, especially books.
ReplyDeleteIsn't the hunt fun, Kara?
DeleteSo looking forward to traveling again. Thanks for sharing your book finds.
ReplyDeleteI hope you will soon, Liz.
DeleteThose are treasures. Congratulations on finding them.
ReplyDeleteFinding them is the most fun, Joan, but in non-Covid times we go to New Braunfels once a year for their Friends of the Library sale and three times a year to the New Orleans area for some fabulous book sales. Gives us a nice little car trip, which I love.
DeleteThose sound like nice trips with the hubby! Your Christmas cover is stunning! Can't wait to hear more about COUNTESS BY CHRISTMAS!
ReplyDeleteThanks so much, MJ.
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