Book sale

I went to a book sale at a local library recently. I haven't been to many of these before, although I always intend to when I see these sales advertised. I'm glad I acted this time and went.

The sale started at 5pm; I arrived at about 4:45pm, intending to browse the library's shelves while I waited for the sale opening. This library was across town, so it was not my usual haunt; I was looking forward to the newness of it all. Well, there was a line when I arrived. I at first was amazed. This is a simple, small library book sale after all. What did these people think they were going to find? But then, I thought, well, these people are like me...hoping to find just one treasure in there, amidst all the piles of library "discards". It made me happy to see other treasure-seeking book lovers, but I also felt a bit territorial. Nobody better grab MY treasure!!

The doors opened and we all filed in; didn't take very long....lots of anxious treasure-seekers. The energy when I first walked in was palpable. The hunt was on!!! Not much talking, lots of scurrying for an open spot to do our seeking. My first glance through a box of potential treasure ended in heart-sinking disappointment. I resigned myself to the fact that I was going to find diddly-squat!!! And then I thought, do I really want to pay $2 for a bag that is filled with two or three books??? But I persevered and tried to politely edge my way to the kids' section.

That's when I saw a book pirranha in human form. A woman had a stack of books in her arm that was about 18 inches high, and we're talking a stack of kids' books; i.e., THIN picture-book type books, so you get the picture of how many books she had snatched up. And boy was she still snatching!!! I was kind of close, but had no desire to get any closer. I was a bit put off by her borderline frantic grabbing from the boxes. There's no way she was being at all discerning as to WHAT she was grabbing. She simply wanted to grab for grab's sake. I inwardly shook my head, and thought, well, if she wants the stuff that bad, I won't get in her way. And she seemed to have a support system there, like she'd done this many times before. Others with her that took her stack when it got unbearable to handle. A serious library sale pro, I guess.

Well, I walked away with two bulging plastic bags of books, more books stuffed in these plastic bags than I ever thought possible! Imagine that! I was patient, kept an open-mind and methodically browsed almost every box (except for the video and non-fiction box, which seemed to be filled with how-to manuals mostly). And I surprisingly stumbled upon some good stuff. And whaddya know??? I even found a few kids books that the vulture left for us underlings, books that I thought Matthew would like.

I found a Dickens book ("The Pickwick Papers"), "Freckles" by Gene Stratton-Porter, Steinbeck's "Cannery Row", "The Master of Ballantrae" by Robert Louis Stevenson, to name a few. All in all I was very pleased with the success of my venture.

No real treasure....no first editions or signed copies overlooked by the library that could've put me on "Antiques Roadshow" and allowed Tom and I to retire early, but truth be told, aren't all books treasures??