Here, bookie bookie bookie bookie...

This week you can find me guest blogging about a few of my favorite children's book discoveries over at my pal Burgin's blog, Vintage Kids' Books My Kid Loves. This past fall Burgin got an actual factual job, as the Bearenstain Bears might say, and that has left her with far fewer hours to devote to book collecting, the not-so-vicious cycle that goes something like this: hunt and gather books, read books, cherish books, hoard books, reshuffle piles of books, cull some books, box up certain books, start to really freak out over books, sell books, give away books, dump books by the truckload at local goodwill. Rinse. Repeat.

Meanwhile, I find myself with two kids in school full-time for the first time and therefore with far more opportunities to forage for books (and other vintage stuff, but mostly books) than is probably healthy. Pictured here is the result. I try to use my time more constructively—distance running, household-maintaining, even freelancing for actual money (to buy more books!), but you can see the temptation of what might be at this week's estate sales or library sales or what might've just been donated at the thrift store is all too much for me.

That probably puts me at the reshuffling/culling point in the not-so-vicious book-collecting cycle. I'm definitely not ready to part with my books by the truckload but I am able to accept that while it's okay to hoard doubles of your favorites, triples and quadruples is a bit ridiculous. Thus you will find some good ones over at the etsy shoppe. Happy hunting—and happy reading!