Sunday, June 24, 2012

Library Book Sale 2012

Every year Curtis Memorial Library has a huge book sale that goes on for several days.  It is held in the gym of the local middle school, which conveniently happens to be a couple of minutes from us.  On Sunday, the last day of the sale, you can fill a paper grocery bag with as many books as you can get in there for $3.  We went last year and came home with a bag bulging with books.  I found one early on that I would have been willing to pay $3 for all by itself, so I figured whatever else I got was a bonus.  I got books that I knew I would not keep--I still have several of these on my shelf, since I have not yet gotten around to reading them--I keep getting distracted by the library website and end up with piles of books that have to be read first so they can be returned!  As I looked through the books this year, I saw several that I had looked at and then donated back to the library to be resold this year. 



This year our bag was full, but not to the same extent as last year.  I ended up walking around two tables  this year--food books and "hobby" books.  Bill headed for the arts section to look at photography books.  I did grab an older crochet book.  I will probably look at it and pass it on.  I got a lot of food books, though--cookbooks and narrative non-fiction about food.  I found a small paperback version of Laurel's Kitchen, which I grabbed--it is much more portable than my orginal copy, which Bill will bring to work to give to his co-worker this afternoon.  I found a few more cookbooks that may or may not be worth keeping--I will see.  I was surprised to see a copy of The Town that Food Saved there--that went into my bag immediately as did a book on the history of food.  I was about to put The Creators back on the table when I figured I might as well toss it into the bag--it's a look at how very creative people throughout history have worked and how they and their work have shaped culture.  Bill found several nice photography books and a bunch of Lenswork journals.  That was a great find!  By the time we were done with our three tables, we were both hot, Bill was getting hungry, and it was pretty stuffy in the gym.  There were lots of people in there--we got there just before they opened the doors and there was a long line.  This is a good thing!  I was very happy to see all those people who love books and who want to support our wonderful library!  But it was time for us to go so we took our bag and came home without looking at most of what was there.  I have no doubt that I could have filled by bag to the bulging point had I looked around.  Since Heather is volunteering there later on the clean-up crew, I am sure she would have liked it if there were a few less books there!  But I have enough--we got some great books (I think I got more keepers this year than last) and I am happy. 

Even the cat is happy.  He has a thing about paper bags.  The last time we had one, Bill recycled it on him, so this time I emptied it and brought it into the room he shares with Heather, where he was laying on the window sill looking for a breeze.  I tossed the open bag onto the floor and he was out of the window before the bag hit the floor.  He crawled into the bag and has been there since--he has napped and bathed inside the bag.  There is something for everyone at the library book sale!