Book Sale

Last Sunday, I went with a friend to a library book sale that is held three times a year. What is unique about this booksale is that since it is done by the Greater Victoria Public Library, its' purposes are to generate funds (instead of making profits) and to get rid of used books from all the libraries in Greater Victoria so they could replenish their shelves with newer books. It was a two day booksale and on the last day, at 1:30pm-3:00pm, instead of pricing the books individually, for these last hour and a half, they charge $5 for entrance and you can carry ALL the books you could possibly carry out within that one and a half hours.

I have been to eat all you can and drink all you can events but nothing compares to the carry-all-the-books-you-can-for-$5 experience. My friend Deb and her friend. Nadine, are "seasoned" book sale hunters, for them, this is a hunting  (and social) event they book in their calendars every year and they definitely have the entire process down to a pat. First we started with an eat all you can lunch, where we stuffed ourselves up to the brim (it was definitely a day of gluttony) before going to the afternoon booksale at 2:00pm till 3:00pm and then we carried our haul to Nadine's place where she had bowls of cleaning solutions ready for us to use and then for the next hours, we clean and talk about the books that each one of us have hauled over. As a newbee, I had wondered why we had to spend a lot more time (from 12pm -2:00pm) in our lunch going to an eat all you can place instead of the faster order type lunches and hurrying up to the booksale. As it turns out, I realized later there was a method to my friend's "madness". And it's mainly because during that one hour, that we spend actually being in the booksale, I could honestly say that I have lost every calorie (and more) that I ever have gotten from all that stuff that I ate earlier. I had expended so much energy  within that hour between physcially carrying my haul and putting them in the car for a relaod and going back again (and again), and mentally scanning the thousands of books and screening which ones I'd shove in my bags or boxes within a second (all the while having high levels of adrenaline pumped into my system whenever I chance upon books I really really liked). It was like being in a reality show. And I was actually glad there was a limit of one hour or else I would have broken my back carrying those heavy loads or Deb's car would have flat tires from all that weight we were stuffing into it. 

I realized that there is a big difference between buying books individually versus paying for the entrance fee and carrying all you can. In the former, we are in a way forced to scrutinize each book and weigh it against how much we are willing to pay for our perception of its value. In the latter, money never crosses my mind, the main pre-occupation was in scanning and loading as much as I can, and it is my bad back that is on top of my mind. It definitely was more enjoyable to pick up books and in a split second decide if you push it down your bag or move on. And after all that hauling, you already forget which books you have picked up but then get to savor them (with intense pleasure) when you are cleaning them individually later and getting surprised at seeing books which make you wonder whatever reason had made you pick them up in the first place. And this is quite a significant thing, because I have picked up a lot of books in my haul which had topics I never would have looked at or bought if I was buying the books individually. And I am learning a lot of new things outside of my normal zone because of it.

For this round, I have limited my selection to children's books. Mainly because I ran out of time before I could even go to the adult section. So I have this big piles of children's books (the lady kept giving me empty boxes to fill), waiting for me to explore and savor every night, for days....till the next book sale comes. All these for $5 bucks. Makes me re-think the value I put in five dollars. It is equal to a cup of coffee and a muffin I consume in a morning.

Maybe in my future blog entries, I'll do some children's book reviews on the books I got from the booksale. I rarely buy children's books as I could easily borrow them from the library. However, after knowing about this booksale, I definitely am starting my collection of used children's books. I already got a bunch of old fairytale/folktale books from countries I have not heard of. And I tingle with excitement whenever I read them late at night and get transported to old far away lands rich in myths and ancient folklores where candles were still the order of the day. It is an adventure on its own. A nice refuge after a day at work, overloading my head with numbers and the issues of the modern day world.

Explore your libraries. You never know the wonders you will find.

                                                           My Haul of Children's Books