Today was a great get-out-of-the-house day. I kidnapped my mother and my youngest son and we headed off to Bethlehem, PA for a day of bookish delights. We began the afternoon by browsing books at the Bethlehem Library Book Sale. This sale is quite large, and runs on the first Thursday and Saturday of very other month. I used to make a killing at this thing - bringing home 20+ books each trip, causing my bookshelves to groan under the weight of the new additions. Though, as the months wear on and my TBR piles grow larger, I find less and less books to grab. Today, sadly, I only rescued three:
Even more sadly, when I arrived home and updated the books on my Goodreads shelves, I discovered that I already own The Decameron. Huh. I guess this is a sign of having too many unread books in the house! Apparently I have so many, I don't even remember which ones I've already purchased! (My Goodreads "owned but not yet read" shelf shows 389 books. Yikes.)
My youngest, however, made a killing - he took home a total of 20 books!
From the library, we walked down Church Street, gawking at the old but extremely well kept homes, and turned the corner onto Main Street - home of Moravian Book Shop - The world's oldest continuously running bookstore. Deceivingly small from the sidewalk, Moravian Book Shop has endless nooks and crannies that contain something for everyone. Equal parts bookshop, boutique, cafe and bakery, candle and kitchen shop, Moravian has a quaint olde world feel that you will not find duplicated anywhere else. I had the pleasure of meeting Christine, book buyer/seller for Moravian, after months of following the shop on Twitter. I love when I have an opportunity to meet the person behind the tweets!
After taking in the beauty of the shop, we headed to the back and gorged ourselves on soup, salad, and sandwiches at their Retro Deli, then hit the streets once again as the Saint Patrick's Day Parade began slowly making it's way down the hill. The 1st Annual parade contained numerous marching bands, gymnastic teams, irish dance students, irish themed floats, and men playing the bagpipes in kilts! The streets were packed with people (and their pets) dressed head to toe in green.
After the parade, we snapped a few photos of the older, abandoned buildings below the bridge. The recent floods left the paths and surrounding fields a muddy mess, which only added to the eerie atmosphere. The weather held up nicely, and the sun joined us for most of our excursion. It was nice to finally have a break from all the wind, rain, and snow we had been experiencing lately. And it was a lovely way to spend the day with family. I'm especially thrilled to bits that I had the chance to visit two new-to-me independent bookstores, and meet the women between their tweets, in less than a week!
Get up off your couches, world! Spring is here. It's time to take a trip out to your local book sales and independent book stores. There are lovely, lonely books waiting for you there. Go and claim them as your own. go on....
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