Lost in a Good Book

I had a huge bookish day on Saturday – the first was I went to the Wallsend Library book sale. This is a huge sale where you can pick up ex library stock for free with a donation to charity on entry. The second thing was I attended a fabulous coffee, cakes and books discussion in Lake Macquarie, but that is a story for later this week.

The book sale scene was familiar, but not too familiar, I have been to a few of these in the past but this one was absolute chaos, I had never seen it that crowded. Thankfully people refrained from using a trolley because I honestly couldn’t even fathom how they would have managed. From the moment the doors opened the crowd surged in, while they all waited you could hardly see the stairs on the way in so seeing them converge on this relatively small room was quite something. Once you were in it was basically on for young and old and you got to become quite intimate with people as we shuffled around, far too close to one another than strangers should ever be. One lady joked that in some places we’d be considered married being this physically close to someone.

The table of children’s and junior fiction books was unruly as mothers emptied boxes at an alarming rate, piling up and gathering, discarding empty boxes and pulling the unopened ones under the table open with their bare hands. It was very similar to seeing a piranha in action and just devour their food. It wasn’t just that table, watching grown adults go after these books with such hunger with no real consideration for the fact we’re all stuck in here like sardines was quite something to behold.

I have been to A LOT of these book sales, not only at Wallsend but also in Newcastle and closer to home. I can’t say I’ve ever seen it as wild as it was that day, and while people behaved, it was still quite chaotic as people ripped into boxes and snatched up books and DVDs with alarming rate. I was in and out in 45 minutes because, ironically, it wasn’t actually the best sale I’d been to there. I didn’t even attempt to look at the adult fiction table because of the crowds around it but the majority of that disappeared pretty fast anyway. By the time I left there wasn’t a lot left so I pitied whoever decided to turn up a couple hours later, I almost hoped there was a second stash out the back for the lunch crowd because there was certainly only scraps remaining when I walked out.

But enough of the crowds, this was my haul:

Stuff Happens: Michael by Philip Gwynne

Stuff Happens: Jack by Tony Wilson

Stuff Happens: Fadi by Scot Gardner

The Interrogation of Ashala Wolf by Ambelin Kwaymullina

The protected by Claire Zorn

Rain Dance by Karen Wood

Love-Shy by Lili Wilkinson

Stagefright by Carole Wilkinson

It was fortunate because I managed to pick up the remaining three Stuff Happens books so I could finish reading the series. Even more fortunate because the Will Kostakis one I had actually owned wasn’t there but the other ones were. I grabbed the Lili Wilkinson and Claire Zorn to add to my collection of their books and in my efforts to expand my #LoveOzYA I grabbed a few unknown titles as well. But overall, not a huge pull and a lot of these I took a gamble on because they sounded good. Here’s hoping they living up to the blurb!

For the cost of a gold coin donation to local charity Got Your Back Sista, Newcastle City Council had a book sale today where you could take home as many books as you wanted. After tossing up whether to make the trek to see what was on offer, I caved with curiosity and the thought of new books and off I went.

I haven’t gone to a book sale in a while but there was the usual crowd waiting outside the doors, long before they opened, eager to be the first ones inside. When the doors finally did open, I went to the YA section first followed by the children’s books. I snagged a few YA books, some familiar titles, some I hadn’t heard of but by authors I knew and loved so in my bag they went.

Book sales are fascinating things, while I look for books it’s always a curious endeavour to watch people look for their own discoveries. Mothers in particular are non-apologetic in their determination. In the past I’ve seen them devour a box of children’s books and start ripping the tape off unopened ones underneath a table in order to rifle through it. It’s quite admirable really. Eldery ladies are also quite persistent in pushing in to get at what they want. Today the popular items were the non-fiction section with dozens of people circling and rifling through box after box. I stayed away bar a quick walk by and focused on the fiction and the YA.

While there is a lingering sense of urgency in the air, there is also a combined joyful experience as people joke about the amount of paperback romance books available, “all with the same picture on the front” it was remarked to me. It was also good to see the teamwork as people asked what other people were looking for and handing over books when they found something someone was looking for.

With my own determination to systematically make my rounds I was in and out in 45 minutes with three loops of the room and a thorough investigation of all the YA, children, and adult fiction boxes. I had made a promise to myself not to pick up any old book just because it looked good. With those restrictions I still managed to pick up a few good ones, no real gems like the last time I came to this library book sale, but I am happy. In the end my haul was 6 books:

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

Dark Hollow by John Connolly

The Seal’s Fate by Eoin Colfer

Lies We Tell Ourselves by Robin Talley

Loop by Brian Caswell

All I Ever Wanted by Vikki Wakefield

Now I only have to find room for them on my shelves. That shouldn’t be too hard…I hope.