Heck yea, you can come. It's easy to find. Jolana's coming too. I'll give you some plants to trade if you want some. Gardening books are great to trade too. I also have lots of plants you can take home. Our plant swap is the best one around.

I hadn't dropped by the site in a while. Thanks for the reminder. It's funny, to me, that there is so much bashing of formal spaces that look like they couldn't be used or enjoyed. I look at them as if they were a beautiful piece of art. The room on the cover of Michael S Smith is to die for, IMO. It combines warm and cool in a way that is so perfect that it appears artistic. There is no way that the sofa could be comfortable or the side table useful, but I would be elated to just walk into that room on a daily basis. It is stunning.

I agree with the thought of buying cookbooks. Can't do without a classic like "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" by Julia Child, I think there's two volumes (her biography is good too). The Martha Stewart Living cookbooks are incredible, I've never had anything out of those books not turn out fabulous. Cole's "Cooking A to Z" is an awesome technical book that any novice can follow and learn from. The Foodnetwork stars cookbooks are popular, but they tend to be faddish so I don't know how long they would stay current in circulation. The best in my opinion would be the ones by Paula Deen, Ina Garten, and Giada DeLaurentis, following them is Tyler Florence and Rachael Ray who are very popular with the younger crowd. If you like Louisiana style cooking Emeril is for you, but I'm not personally fond of his recipes. Other non-foodnetwork cookbooks I love are by Sarah Foster and Nigella Lawson (her "How to Eat" is the best one). Of course we can't leave out the "Cook's Illustrated" cookbooks, they possible have the best test kitchen in America and the cookbooks are fabulous. I forbid you to buy any cookbooks by Sandra Lee or Robin Miller, those aren't "cookbooks".

Thanks for all your responses and here's an update. The book sale was a great success and we took in significantly more than last year. I bought lots of books for my children and here's what I found for myself: The Bookseller of Kabul by Asne Seierstad History of the English Speaking Peoples (whole set) by Winston Churchill Life of Elizabeth I by Alsion Weir The Essential Gesture by Nadine Gordimer Snow by Orhan Pamuk When You Lunch with the Emperor by Ludwig Bemelmans of Madeline fame The Gourmet Cookbook by Ruth Reichel Complete Book of Breads by Bernard Clayton Weird New England by Joseph A. Citro (my son and I had a grand time before Halloween reading this together) As for the children's books, I was most pleased with finding both hardback Christopher Paolini books and the Scribner Anthology for Young People. Also found a couple "You Were There.." histories that I remember reading as a kid. Now my problem is where to put all the books and what to read first.