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In 2016 I’m doing a 365 Nature project. Learn more about the project and see all the 365 Nature posts.


By some strange accident, I had not yet visited the new bookstore in our neighborhood. I can’t explain it, I was excited it was coming and then all of a sudden it was here. Third Place Books opened a new store in Seward Park and the best part is, they have used books. It’s one of the few stores in Seattle that still carries used books since Elliott Bay Books moved and got rid of all their used books. I like new books, but I also love a store that carries used books because so many excellent natural history books are out of print. Today I visited and picked up a few books and one magazine; Mycelium Running by Paul Stamets, Was Beethoven a Birdwatcher by David Turner, Fylling’s Illustrated Guide to Pacific Coast Tide Pools by Marni Fylling and Wild Hope magazine. They all look interesting and I am particularly drawn to the Fylling’s illustrated guide as it’s beautiful. The book is slim and not a comprehensive guide by any means, but a joy to look through.

Yesterday I visited Goodwill and picked up a copy of Insect Lives; Stories of Mystery and Romance from a Hidden World by Erich Hoyt and Ted Schultz. It’s full of essays and stories from a wide variety of writers and entomologists and I look forward to reading it. It’s an older book, published in 1999. I love finding books on my favorite topics that I never knew were out there. Another benefit of used books.

Now the only problem is where to put them.

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Kelly Brenner

Kelly Brenner

Kelly Brenner is a naturalist, writer and artist based in Seattle. She is the author of THE NATURALIST AT HOME: Projects for Discovering the Hidden World Around Us and NATURE OBSCURA: A City’s Hidden Natural World from Mountaineers Books, a finalist for the Washington State Book Awards and Pacific Northwest Book Awards. She writes articles about natural history and has bylines in Crosscut, Popular Science, National Wildlife Magazine and others. On the side she writes fiction.

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