RESPONSE: Sun Spots checked out BetterWorldBooks. They wrote: “Sell back [your textbooks] with our friends at Bookbyte and get the ultimate value for your textbooks. Bookbyte offers an expedited check or instant payment via PayPal with a $10 minimum requirement. Bookbyte covers shipping costs for textbooks you sell back to them. You can get a quote on their website today” at www.bookbyte.com/. You can contact Bookbyte by mail at 2800 Pringle Road SE, Salem, OR 97313; via email at help@bookbyte.com; or by phone at 866-456-2983. According to the map supplied by BetterWorldBooks, there are no drop boxes in Maine. The closest drop boxes are in Massachusetts.
DEAR SUN SPOTS: Hillside Sports Club of Jay is gearing up for the annual Pumpkin Walk at the Rec Field in Livermore Falls from 6-9 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 24. We are asking all groups of scouts, athletic teams, churches, families and individuals to participate. You can drop off your carved or decorated pumpkins at the AMVETS Hall in Jay, where we will have pumpkin carving and decorating from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. that day. Pumpkins will be provided.
If anyone has extra pumpkins in their patch to donate, or any decorations they would like to donate to this community activity, it would be much appreciated. Last year we had a little over 1,000 people go through the display. All are invited. To donate pumpkins or decorations, call Janice at 207-897-2122 or Bre at 207-931-6660.
DEAR SUN SPOTS: I recently purchased a book titled “Lewiston Evening Journal, Jan-Feb-Mar 1943.” It appears to have all of the newspapers from those dates. It is a very large book and seems that it would be part of a set. I was hoping you could tell me more about who made these books and maybe if mine belongs to a more complete set somewhere. Thank you for your help! — Daran N. of Minot.
ANSWER: Sun Spots asked her co-workers and no one recalls the Sun Journal selling newspapers in bound book form. Newspaper collector Phil Barber states: “Most old newspapers are genuinely rare. They were intended to be read once or twice and then discarded … Newspapers were systematically collected only by libraries and newspapers offices, for their ‘morgue’ files. They were usually bound into book-like volumes for safekeeping. … Over the years, many of these saved papers were lost, due to improper storage conditions, and to natural and man-made disasters.”
The bound newspapers you purchased may have been originally bound by a library, stored, and then sold to free up library space. Or it could have been a collector who had those newspapers bound due to the time frame which would have been during World War II. You didn’t mention where you purchased this book. Sun Spots found many sources on the Internet selling bound newspapers. Maybe a reader has a collection they want to sell or knows of a collection and will contact Sun Spots. Good luck in your search.
Use the QR code to go to Sun Spots online for additional information and links. This column is for you, our readers. It is for your questions and comments. There are only two rules: You must write to the column and sign your name (we won’t use it if you ask us not to). Please include your phone number. Letters will not be returned or answered by mail, and telephone calls will not be accepted. Your letters will appear as quickly as space allows. Address them to Sun Spots, P.O. Box 4400, Lewiston, ME 04243-4400. Inquiries can be emailed to sunspots@sunjournal.com, tweeted @SJ_SunSpots or posted on the Sun Spots facebook page at facebook.com/SunJournalSunSpots. This column can also be read online at sunjournal.com/sunspots. We’ve joined Pinterest at http://pinterest.com/sj_sunspots.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
