Our latest “Find of the Week on the Used Book Floor”
unveiled our first ever plant, or deliberately placed find. How do we know it was deliberately
placed? Well….you will see.
The book
that held our find is a First United States Edition copy of ‘The Children’s
Book,” authored by A.S. Blatt in 2009.
While the title suggests that this novel must have been written for a
younger audience, the truth is actually quite the opposite. The author, six years prior to writing “The
Children’s Book,” wrote an Op-Ed article in the New York Times that criticized
the writing of Harry Potter due to, in her opinion, its lack of writing for
adult interest. It was easy to see what
a child would find interesting about the famous series, she stated, but the
books were missing “a real sense of mystery, powerful forces, dangerous creatures
in dark forests” and “that shiver of awe” that would be needed to keep an adult
interested in the books. Blatt’s
response to her perceived lack of adult content in the Harry Potter series? What else but the writing of “The Children’s
Book,” which contains many magical stories, settings and characters, and is
anything BUT a book that should be read for children.
But, back
to our first ever deliberately placed find (that we know of). Hidden away between pages 238-239, we
discovered a folded note card that stated the following message:
Hey,
book detective- we’re looking forward to seeing you on June 22. Good luck sorting through all these used
books.
Hey, book
detective, we thought? Good luck sorting
through all these used books? That
sounded like a challenge to us, and someone who knows we spend time sifting
through thousands of books to discover the forgotten items tucked away in their
pages. June 22, we asked ourselves? We love a good mystery, and this had us
briefly puzzled.
Then, we
remembered. Our beloved former employee,
Josiah, who had scheduled his wedding for June 22 and invited us, must have
donated this book at some point, complete with hidden message, to see if we
would find it! We’ll admit, it took us a
couple of months to make the discovery, so no, Sherlock Holmes we are certainly
not, but alas, out of the pages of “The Children’s Book” finally fell his “book
detective” note/challenge. Josiah, if
you are reading this, we say, well played!
Despite the countless used books that surround us each day, we
(eventually) found your note and happily accept the title of “book detective.”
The copy
of A.S. Blatt’s 2009 First United States Edition printing of “The Children’s
Book,” complete with find, can be yours for the price of $6.99. You can catch up with our previous finds of
the week on the used book floor at bayswaterbooks.com and on facebook. Better yet, stop by the store in Center
Harbor and check out the used book floor for yourself!
