The Love of Books

The State of Pennsylvania was glad to see us arrive. They complained of having suffered a bad drought. Please!!! Look at the grass in the pictures from yesterday’s post. Does that look like a drought? But, always willing to do our part, we brought the rain, cold, fog, wind, sleet, snow, and for a whole month.

After a few days in the RV, we had read everything we had brought, and had to go in search of books. We checked a few outlets of used books, and came upon Canaday’s Book Barn. After leaving the Marine Corps, Ted Canaday, along with his wife Tai, decided to open a bookstore to satisfy his love of collecting. They soon outgrew their shop in Harrisburg, and found a 200-year-old stone barn south of Carlisle. They closed their Harrisburg shop and devoted full-time to completely renovating the barn, and now have a beautiful place for their over 50,000 books, antiques, Persian rugs, framed pictures, maps, and the list just goes on. The barn’s implement floor houses the main collection, but it swells up the stairs into the hayloft. It is a wonderful haven from the outside world where you can contentedly spend hours. The really neat thing we discovered was that all you have to do is tell Ted what your interests are, and he can immediately walk you right to the book or books you’re looking for. He knows every volume in the place. His collection is amazing, from children’s books and a bargain table, to rare collectibles behind lock and key.

I picked out a book, Mississippi Madness, which I reviewed the other day. Ted had to give us a milk crate to carry Jean’s selections to the truck. With a cabinet full of coffee, tea, and cocoa, and a crate full of books, we were contented for the rest of the month.

See http://www.canadaysbookbarn.com/index.html