Two weeks ago, I walked into the book room at a local Goodwill. Dusty rainbows lined the shelves. Passion, tears, laughter, souls bound in grainy pulp, splattered with inky words, donated away. Hardbacks were $1.99, Children’s and Paperbacks just .99 cents. Someone’s 90,000 words of their life, bleeding, discarded, put up for adoption. I lean sideways, eyes hungrily searching for friends. My kin, my soulmates, my muses. The fluorescent light flickers and hums, others come in and out of the cramped little room, I barely registering them in my peripheral vision. My cart slowly fills, a pair of blue jeans for my daughter and a set of floral serving spoons, disappearing under the mountain. Christopher Milne. Barbara Kingsolver. Pearl Buck. An illustrated version of The Odyssey. Hard back, board books, soft-velvety, well-bent paperbacks. Poetry, thrillers, romance, dictionaries, random spiritual tomes, bizarre self-help, and memoir swirl like a kaleidoscope in my eyes. You are not forgotten. Your raw finger tips, blood-shot eyes, and brain that never shuts up can’t ever be truly thrift-ed away. Immeasurable worth. Crouched on my knees, sweating in my wool coat, I keep scanning, keep loving, keep understanding. Your story, your truth, your lies, your beauty is seen, it was worth it. It isn’t forgotten, even buried in a charity shop. I haven’t forgotten your sacrifice for these precious words. Each a piece of a person, an author. The cashier is now scanning them one by one, stacking them in a box for me. My children and I flip through them as we drive away. Welcome home, dear authors, we prepared a place for you.
~
A.M. Pine - Hearth Ridge Reflections 
The book shelf at Goodwill is indeed a treasure chest.
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Just this year I thought of checking out Goodwill for books and I am SO glad that I did. I used to only buy books from bookstores, be it physical stores, or online from Amazon or Book Depository. While I still do that, I’m trying to only buy books that I can’t find anywhere else, or that are so beautiful and new that I just have to have them now. But I’m realizing how great it is to just browse the shelves at Goodwill and see what I can find. Between them and the used bookstores, I’ve found lovely covers, authors who aren’t published anymore (Pearl Buch is SO hard to find!), editions of classics I adore for only a few dollars (the Penguin Deluxe Editions have shown up twice at the Goodwill so far!). I’m planning to keep a list of authors or books that I would like and maybe go quarterly or so to see what I can find. Someone has to love those old books, right?
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Yes! It’s so fun to hunt for treasures. Another great place is library book sales, I make sure I have enough time and slowly go through the different genre’s I’m interested in. I make sure to check all the books without their dust jackets, because I’ve found many beautiful ones that no sees because they are blank on their covers. ❤
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I have the same thoughts in thrift stores-crocheted blankets and needlepoint -and you pegged my thoughts on books. well done-I love the conclusion.
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Aw, this is so sweet! I never really thought of it this way I really like the idea.
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