What Books Say About Their Readers

Get ready for books, games, fried chicken, corn and more at MGH Women's Board's 91st Annual Picnic and Bazaar this Tuesday, July 26! For several years, I’ve volunteered to help weed through donated books in order to select ones in sellable shape for the huge Used Book Sale. The Olney community has always been so generous, providing thousands of tomes of bestselling fiction and nonfiction, children's books, cookbooks, test prep guides and more.

Fellow volunteers and I often wonder about the reader who owned and donated a specific eye-catching title. When we receive boxes of books on one particular subject, we know that issue was certainly on the donator’s mind. Some of the most interesting contributions we've seen include:

• Self-help guides involving marriage and family from Dr. Phil, Dr. Laura, and Dr. Ruth

• The Complete Illustrated Kama Sutra

• Advice books from the 1950s on how to be a good wife

• Several copies of Alcoholics Anonymous' 12-Step Program

• The Metrosexual Guide To Style: A Handbook For The Modern Man (look for stylish guys around town)

• An autographed copy of an Ansel Adams photography book

• A photo of George H. Bush, signed "To my good friend Michael" (I guess Michael wasn’t that good a friend)

• Women Who Do Too Much and Women with Attention Deficit Disorder: Embrace Your Differences and Transform Your Life (an apt description of many Olney women)

• The Lawyers' Book Of Ethics by Judge James N. Court (all of the pages are blank)

• Religion guides (are people spreading or shying away from faith?)

• money management guides, like Rich Dad, Poor Dad, Investing for Dummies, and books by Suze Orman (in this economy, people either have no money to invest or have given up and chucked any financial advice)

We also receive in boxes from people cleaning out their attics/basements/houses: outdated encyclopedias; mildewed magazines from the early 1900’s, especially Life and National Geographic; obsolete travel, computer, and software guides; appliance instructions; yearbooks; and moldy, ripped books. I think many people have a packrat mentality, a fear of throwing out or even recycling something because SOMEONE could use it.