Scavenger Hunt #2: Used Book Store Find
by Jenners • 04/02/2009 • Book Talk • 12 Comments
I’m participating in the Good Books Inc. Scavenger Hunt hosted by the lovely and talented girls over at Padfoot and Prongs. The challenge is to complete 10 different book and reading related challenges within a few months. Today I’m doing challenge #2:
Go to a used book store and find a book with something written in it. Take a picture and send it to us. (Buying the book is optional but you should do it anyway.)
We don’t have a lot of used book stores near us, but the library has a little “Friends of the Library” book shop that sells paperbacks for 50 cents and hardcovers for $1.00. (I totally scored two Tracy Kidder books while there — Among Schoolchildren and Old Friends.) So when my son and I visited the library this past week, I spent quite a few minutes scrounging around in the books looking for something that had been written in one of the books. Well, I hit the mother lode with my find! Not only was it inscribed “To Debbie, Hope you enjoy this. Love, Grammy Giffard,” it was also signed by the author! No way, you say! Yes way! Why would someone leave a book signed by an author in a library used book shop for anyone to walk away with for just 50 cents?
Well, take a look at the book and maybe you’ll understand better. Keep in mind, it wasn’t a first edition but a ninth printing — with more than 60,000 copies in print! (Clearly stated on the book cover.)
I am now the proud owner of “So You’re A Teenage Girl.”
First printed in 1966
A glimpse of the author — Mrs. Jill Renich
The book covers many topics of interest to teenage girls
The inscription from Grammy Giffard is on the left.
The signature of the author is on the title page.
What a lucky girl Debbie was! I wonder if the book was helpful.
Now how is it, Jennifer, that we have done almost the exact same entries for this?? I did do #7 first, like you did, and then I did #2, then come here to find you have done it too without me realizing it. Now if I had also completed #6, that would have been very strange…I guess great minds think alike, right?
What a great find, Jenners! My day is just getting started, and this put a big grin on my face – esp. the air-brushed photo on the front cover … is this edition from sometime in the 70s?
We have tons of kids’ books from used sales. It always makes me a bit sad to see an inscribed book given away (why is that?)
To Heather —this book was written in 1966, just 3 years after I graduated from high school. In those days, some of my friends were planning on marrying right out of high school, so yes, I think they might be interested in Choosing the Right Life Partner, although I bet most of them chose with their hormones rather than their heads. Another huge bunch of girls got jobs, mostly as secretaries with the intent of finding husbands. College-bound girls like me, or those going for other post-high-school training, were still in the minority. Our guidance counselors steered young women to become 1.homemakers, 2.secretaries, 3.nurses, or 4.teachers. I studied education and taught for 32 years, but I often wonder what I might have chosen to study if I thought other fields would have been open to me.
I love used book stores. My very favorites are one in Easton, PA that a friend took me to in the early 1980′s and Twice-Loved Books near Boardman, OH. It’s difficult to resist purchasing something, even though we are attempting to rid ourselves of “too much stuff” and now use the library for most of our reading.
I used to collect post cards and loved reading the messages on the back. It was kind of like peeking into someone’s diary.
Thanks for stopping by my blog! I hadn’t heard about this scavenger hunt…I’ll follow along, because it sounds like a lot of fun! Cheers!
I’m hoping to go to a used bookstore this weekend, I keep forgetting about this one that’s not far from me!! (never been there!)
I wonder if Ms. Renick published any updated editions to this book…imagine what she would write about in 2009…*shivers*!
Oh, this is precious! A great find (as are any Kidder books – did I know you were such a big fan, too? like me?)
What a great find! You might consider giving us a taste of Jill’s advice… I’d be curious to see how it sounds.
Good luck with the rest of this challenge!
What a fun challenge! And, that book is a trip. You gotta love Grammy Giffard for picking out such a book, LOL!
Woot Woot! I was very excited to see what people would come up with for this challenge. What an excellent find! Haha. Yes I harkon myself back to last year when I was officially still a teenager. I can tell you finding the right life partner was right up there in my list of concerns. Along with learning how to wake up before noon and the nutritional value of Taco Bell.
I kid I kid.
“Choosing the right life partner.” Really?!? Do teenagers really worry about that? Sheesh. What about me? I’m 24. Is there a “So You’re an Adult (and Still Single?)” book for me?