The Fremont Books store on St. Paul St in St. Catharines (what a tongue twister!) has actually been 3 bookstores in a row (formerly A Novel Idea and The Bookworm) and much of the inventory has carried over, building up over the years in the attic and basement. Unfortunatley Fremont Books is being forced to change their location as the building has been expropriated by the city as part of Brock's downtown performing arts center and they are having a pre-move liquidation sale. Its not as bad as it sounds though - the books being sold haven't been touched in years as they're from the prior stores' stock and each box that is sold brings income that will hopefully support Freemont Books moving into a new location. So head downtown and check out these great sales: All books on the main floor are discounted, but the true treasure will be found by those who venture into the upstairs attic warehouse. Banana boxes are available and can be filled for $10 (or $5 for paperbacks) which is an especially great deal for those of us who love the usually expensive big hardcover books!
Set aside a whole morning or afternoon though as the warehouse is incredibly overwhelming! I've been back multiple times and never saw the same box of books twice. You will need lots of time and patience to find the good stuff - the boxes are stacked 3 to 4 deep from wall to wall! (and bring some water cause its hot up there!) It wasn't until I had been there 3 hours and was ready to call it a day that I found a motherlode of organic gardening books all published by well known sources between the 1930s and 1990s. Along with the other novels, photography/coffee table books, biographies and craft books that we managed to fit in the box these gardening tomes pushed the weight over the edge and we ended up having to borrow shopping carts to get all the books home!
Here's just a few of my favourites (they didn't seem to do much gardening in the 80s):
Gardener's Handbook (1934) Macmillan
Garden Guide: The Amateur Gardeners' Handbook (1935) AT De La Mare
A Practical Guide to Successful Farming (1943) Halcyon House
The Complete Book of Garden Magic (1947) by Roy E Biles
Gardening with Nature (1954) by Leonard Wickenden
Plant Propagation Practices (1963) Macmillan
McCall's Book of Handicrafts (1972) McCall's
The Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening (1978) Rodale Press
New Choices in Natural Healing (1995) Rodale Press
happy reading!
ReplyDeleteps. who did you borrow the shopping carts from?
I think I know what I'm doing all day Friday. O my goodness! I have to tell you, the Rodale Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening is our bible. I have the exact same edition (although mine's a bit worn). I sort of borrowed it from my parents in the early 90's. (It was dusty. They never noticed. I did tell mom I had it last year. Only 18 years later....) There is not a single bit of information in there that does not apply to today's garden. You might not be able to find any information on recent hybrids and genetic modifications, but everything from pest control to composting, fruit tree care to propagation methods -- it's all in there, comprehensive yet clear enough for the lay person to to put to immediate use.
ReplyDeleteAli - aren't they funny little carts? They belong to the bookstore itself and they're wheelchair friendly which I thought was rad
ReplyDeleteCannedAm - I assumed it would be a great book, Rodale is a source of exceptional quality info.