York County People Love to Read
While spending about seven hours today, along with a host of other volunteers, sorting thousands and thousands of books donated to York County Heritage Trust for the annual Book Blast book sale, I once again contemplated the love of reading that has always been a part of York County life.
(The YCHT Book Blast will be open to the public from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Thursday, August 13th and Friday, August 14th and from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, August 15th. It is held at the Agricultural and Industrial Museum, 217 W. Princess St.)
Click here for a video of a previous Book Blast.
Yorkers’ tastes in reading are quite eclectic. History ranges from ancient Greeks to Rush Limbaugh. There is always a large array of religious and self-help books. There is no way to know if the previous owners really read them, but at least they had good intentions. Crafts and cookbooks abound, as does art. Besides the gamut of non-fiction, there are tables and tables of hard and soft cover fiction, including thousands of mysteries. (I don’t know what I am going to do on an airplane now that Margaret Truman has died and won’t be writing any more of her Washington mysteries.)
Books on varied subjects goes back a long way in York County, as shown by the ad below, run by John F. Osterloh in the 1831 York Gazette:
Cheaper than ever!!
The subscriber has received in addition to his present stock the following new works, viz:
London Annuals.–Ackerman’s Forget me not 1832.
American Annuals.–The Token for 1832. Atlantic Souvenier for 1832. The Christian Offering for 1832. Affections Gift, 1832. The Ladies annual Remembrance, 1832. The Gentlemens Pocket Almanac, 1832. Purdon’s Digest, 1830.
Russel on Crimes. Digest on Revenue Laws. Graydon’s Forms, 3 Vol. new Ed. Graydon’s Justice.
Foraday’s Chemical Manipulation. Parson’s Anatomical preparations. Bell on the Arteries. Great Sympathetic Nerve. The Cerebro-Spinal Axis,
Wirt’s Life of Patrick Henry. Biglow’s Travels Hunter’s Sacred Biography in 1 Vol. Holy Living and Dying,
Condensed Eng. Chancery Reports. Vol. 1, History of America, Spanish discoveries.
2 Vol. Lardner’s Cyclopaedia containing the History of France, England, Scotland and the Netherlands.
Counsels of Matrimony. Life and Death of Lord Fitzgerald by Thomas Moore, 2 Vol. Bickersteth the Chief Concern of Man for Time and Eternity. Cobb’s Manual of the Priesthood. Coleridge, the Friend. Series of Essays in Politics. Morals & Religion. Coleridge Study of the Greek.
Butler’s Geographia. Classica of Ancient Geography, and a variety of new Toy books, and other small books for children.”
Whew, not exactly light reading.
Click here for more on what Yorkers were reading in the 19th century.
