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I Must Be Out of My Damn Mind
May. 21st, 2023 12:20 pmI'm bidding on a 1964 set of the Childcraft Annual How & Why Library. The listing has all 15 volumes, listed as being in good condition from a smoke-free home.
And I'm buying it for the illustrations.
I had this same set as a kid, and I know I've mentioned the pleasant afternoons I spent browsing my Mom's collection of art books. The How & Why Library was part of my eye candy diet, and even when I was well beyond the intended level of the books, I liked flipping through them to enjoy the illustrations.
When I was working in Louisiana someone donated an old set just like this, and I had to keep my hands off - it needed to go to the kids' library, not into the trunk of my car. Since then I've occasionally searched around places like Etsy and eBay looking for sets, and I've asked at some of the better local used book shops. Oddly enough, Chamblin Bookmine never got a set from the era I'm looking for. So while I'm trying to reduce my personal spending, or as I sometimes put it, "stop buying dumb shit," I think this will actually be a good use of my money, if I look at it from the ratio of dollars spent to happy hours. A few years ago I found a copy of one of Mom's art textbooks I'd particularly liked and bought it, and I do not regret that purchase at all. Not that it was super expensive.
Unless someone really starts sniping at me in a few hours, I'll have this one, and the shipping is stupid-cheap for some reason.
And I'm buying it for the illustrations.
I had this same set as a kid, and I know I've mentioned the pleasant afternoons I spent browsing my Mom's collection of art books. The How & Why Library was part of my eye candy diet, and even when I was well beyond the intended level of the books, I liked flipping through them to enjoy the illustrations.
When I was working in Louisiana someone donated an old set just like this, and I had to keep my hands off - it needed to go to the kids' library, not into the trunk of my car. Since then I've occasionally searched around places like Etsy and eBay looking for sets, and I've asked at some of the better local used book shops. Oddly enough, Chamblin Bookmine never got a set from the era I'm looking for. So while I'm trying to reduce my personal spending, or as I sometimes put it, "stop buying dumb shit," I think this will actually be a good use of my money, if I look at it from the ratio of dollars spent to happy hours. A few years ago I found a copy of one of Mom's art textbooks I'd particularly liked and bought it, and I do not regret that purchase at all. Not that it was super expensive.
Unless someone really starts sniping at me in a few hours, I'll have this one, and the shipping is stupid-cheap for some reason.
