When I was a kid in the 50's, my dad used to bring home old books from Salvation Army store. In those days, he probably paid ten cents for an old book.
They were popular novels from the early 20th Century. I liked them. They tended to have good men and women in them, and the good guys usually triumphed in the end.
As an adult, I started picking up the same sort of books, until I had a pretty good collection of them.
Probably the latest books were the Yankee Flier books from the WWII era. The rest were mostly 1900 to 1920. My favorite of all of them were the books by Gene Stratton Porter.
When my daughter was in high school, one summer she asked for something to read. I gave her an old copy of Girl Of The Limberlost, by Porter. She loved it, and asked me point blank if I would put in my will that she got that old book when I died.
Several years later, when she lived and taught in McAllen, I sent it to her for her birthday. She was truly excited, having the book and still having her dad alive, heh, heh.
When we retired, and started moving to Mexico, I gave her all the books on "permanent loan". Her husband build a special book case just for them.
She became curious and did some Internet research, which induced her to put a $5000 rider on her household insurance policy. Some of those old books, especially first edition, that I bought for maybe fifty cents, were now worth a lot of money. Once in a while, I will "borrow" one again to read, but many of them I have obtained in digital form from the Gutenberg Project.
They were popular novels from the early 20th Century. I liked them. They tended to have good men and women in them, and the good guys usually triumphed in the end.
As an adult, I started picking up the same sort of books, until I had a pretty good collection of them.
Probably the latest books were the Yankee Flier books from the WWII era. The rest were mostly 1900 to 1920. My favorite of all of them were the books by Gene Stratton Porter.
When my daughter was in high school, one summer she asked for something to read. I gave her an old copy of Girl Of The Limberlost, by Porter. She loved it, and asked me point blank if I would put in my will that she got that old book when I died.
Several years later, when she lived and taught in McAllen, I sent it to her for her birthday. She was truly excited, having the book and still having her dad alive, heh, heh.
When we retired, and started moving to Mexico, I gave her all the books on "permanent loan". Her husband build a special book case just for them.
She became curious and did some Internet research, which induced her to put a $5000 rider on her household insurance policy. Some of those old books, especially first edition, that I bought for maybe fifty cents, were now worth a lot of money. Once in a while, I will "borrow" one again to read, but many of them I have obtained in digital form from the Gutenberg Project.
