thrifted books (yes, more)

Most of you know by now that I love to buy children’s books while thrifting. Especially vintage books! My favorites are the Little Golden Books, and those Disney readers. Something about the shiny, sometimes tattered, spine gets my heart pounding! I was in Long Beach a while back and we found this amazing $1 book store that had TONS of golden books. I was in heaven! I managed to keep the stack reasonable…lol.

I also found some old school Disney readers I didn’t have get. I love the fonts they used!

Some of the LGB that I found…the Just For Fun is my favorite! It’s made up a a lot of short stories! As much as I love buying children’s books and hoarding collecting them….I am not a fan of reading out loud so I don’t like the long ones. (not just with my kids, in general. I get sick of it really quickly…please tell me some of you don’t like to either!)

Here’s my our Disney collection in it’s entirety! (I lied…we had a few stragglers around the house so it’s filled to the top of the shelf) I’ve been collecting them for a few years now, all of them thrifted and/or bought second hand.

(and sometimes but not always bought in the middle of the night on Ebay when your second born won’t sleep…just sayin’…I did get a good deal though)

I try to only buy them in decent shape (ie no scribbling but a name on the front cover is ok), but sometimes they older ones that have had a lot of love are my favorites! I love the patina, so to speak.

Our LGB collection is housed in Sadie’s nightstand, and I think it will soon take it over entirely…there are usually a few floaters circling around the house too. Sadie always chooses these to “read” by herself at night after we put her to bed! I counted the other day and it was around 80, plus I’m sure there are more around here somewhere. I desperately need to compile a list so that I know what I do and don’t have. Though I’m pretty good at recognizing covers of books we have…being obsessive has some benefits!

What do you love to collect?

Comments

  1. love that you collect these books. i’m also always on the lookout for a good LGB. I agree that some are long and boring to read to the kiddies.

    Great post!

  2. Jess, I love the Richard Scarry books too – Just For Fun was a real favourite when I was a kid but its spine split and the pages fell out…so I framed some and hung them in my daughter’s room! So many people comment on them! I always pick up Golden Books when I see them in a thrift shop.

  3. wow – look at all those books! i love getting some well loved thrifted books at bargain prices…you have quite a collection!

  4. I’m collecting the same, Little golden books and the Disney books, plus Sesame Street books that are similar in look to the Disney books. My son’s collection is already huge.

  5. That is so awesome, collecting books like this is great, books are useful and always have a place in any house. I love the old golden books but don’t have the patience to keep an eye out for them!

  6. My favorite LGB is The Saggy Baggy Elephant, so good! Kids books are definitely one of the things I compulsively thrift. I’m happy to see that someone else does too!

  7. I feel your pain. I don’t like to read aloud. My mouth gets dry and I just get tired of it. I also don’t like being read to, it makes me fall asleep every time. 🙂

  8. You have such an awesome collection! I have been searching out the Serendipity books by Stephen Cosgrove and the larger numbered Disney sets (3 so far). As soon as I have the golden books collected from all the Grandparents we’ll probably start looking for those too, but like you, we’re going to have to compile some sort of master list. (Which will probably be the size of a book itself!);D

  9. Oh, yes, I understand this weakness. Although there is not really room for ANY more books in this house, I can not resist a good children’s book. Yesterday was the annual rummage sale at a local church and I look forward Otti all year. I used tremendous self restraint and only got 2, but they are really awesome finds. Well, I think so. My little guy has been begging me to read from them all the time. One is a sort of fairy tales book with cheesy vintage artwork, but the great part is that the stories, although a bit long, are mellowed out a bit ( not so scary or violent) without losing the flavor of the original. The vocab is great and rich and I really like the style in which they are written. Love books! Enjoy your newest finds!

  10. You’re not far from Menlo Park CA, the little library there has an AWESOME book sale every September with tables and tables of books at very low prices (rarely more than a dollar each). I’m sure all the other libraries around have them too but when we lived there we always made sure we kept our calendar open to make their book sale. As a result most of our kids books (and mine too!) come from there – we would load up a box or two each year! I kinda like seeing other people’s names in the books, makes me feel like its more loved and happy to be giving it a second life after the first owner outgrew it!

  11. What a sweet score! I snagged a big, thick Dr. Suess dictionary in excellent condition at our thrift store on sale for 50 cents!

    Alissa
    ripleyadoption.blogspot.com

  12. We found a set of about 15 of those Disney readers at a garage sale once for $4. I was so excited, and the kids love them. I love the Golden Books, too. My favorite is and always will be “Scuffy the Tugboat.” The illustrations bring back happy childhood memories.

  13. Childrens books are always on my radar when thrifting and yard saling. One of my fav childrens books finds of all time is The Little House. Its from the thrities/fourties and the illustrations are beautiful. It’s also a pretty easy read out loud. If you ever come across it I highly recommend it! I also do not enjoy reading out loud, it just gets old. Lol.

  14. I’m also an obsessive book buyer/collector/hoarder in love with all things a bit creepy/weird/funny so a lot of Gaiman, Brom and so on…

    We do have a set of LGB and a couple of Disney and those are my daughter’s go to books for “reading by herself” in bed too!

  15. oh, I LOVE all old books…love them, I don’t let myself look at them all the time though, I need some book shelves first…my children’s book collection (not vintage) is compiled of 9 office paper boxes, not counting ANy that we have out for read alouds right now! LOL, so I am not aloud to look at books… 😉 Your collecctions are pretty, if O had the disney ones I would have put them all in rainbow order..I told you how obsessed I am with rainbow order, right?! LOL! Love you!

  16. That is very nice and awesome idea of collecting old and new books.The post is so nice and informative regarding books .It is a very good and useful idea of having children or any other books at home .We can get a lot of knowledge from them.Great post and nice job…

  17. I collect books too and fabric and wool and paper and rubbber stamps …. :O) I’m a bit of a magpie! Lovley blog – just stumbled across it.

  18. I love that you collect these Disney books too!! When my oldest was born I started buying a few off trademe (the New Zealand version of ebay) and then became completely obsessed and bought then off ebay from all over the world. I have more than 200 at last count…. my kids love them… and I have tonnes of other books as Im always grabbing them at car boot sales and stuff…. I have more childrens books than my kids probably ever care to read!

  19. I collect old picture books like these too, only I wish I could organize them so pretty like yours! My kids bookshelf is a disaster.

  20. Hi,
    I’m writing from Poland. I saw this little golden books, and I’ve realized that I do remember it. My mum had three of those, and gave it to me. I do remember only that one with Pinokio.

  21. Anonymous says

    You might consider some type of shelving that lets her see the covers. Have seen these but can’t remember what they are called. More likely to pick it up and read it if they can see the cover.

  22. There is always room in my house for a Little Golden Book! I collect them, too. My kids love them, and I especially love the older ones that I remember from my childhood. I just posted an entry on my blog about some of the kids’ books I’ve recently found in thriftland. If you’d like to check it out, I blog at annespocketfinds.blogspot.com.

    I am glad I found your blog!

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