Lost in a Good Book

I can’t say that an early Saturday morning pouring with rain was the best day to go to a book sale, but it was the annual Easter Saturday book sale so there wasn’t any question of whether I was going to go. And, in a wonderful piece of luck, there was another book sale only half an hour from the first one so, despite a lot of driving through my morning, I got to attend two book sales. With an almost 2.5 hour round trip, as well as varying levels of rainfall, it wasn’t a wasted morning as I came away with 19 books.

What I love about book sales is not only can you get great books incredibly cheaply, but you can find some incredible gems and treasures as well. I managed to add two new books to my Enid Blyton collection, the same hardback editions as the rest of my ridiculously old books which made me happy. I also found some great books that I’ve loved and never owned a copy of so I grabbed them as well. Being so cheap it also lets you take chances on books and I picked up a lot of books that sounded good by authors I did not know.

I picked up 13 books at sale one and a further 6 at the second, mainly because sale two had a much smaller selection, but all great nonetheless. Of course finding places for these new books will be hard. I have shelf space, just, but I do think if I ever get some quiet time I need another serious reshuffle of my bookshelves to gain some sort of organisation. But until then, anywhere will do and organised space or not, I have 19 new books to read and rediscover to enjoy!

 Here is what I acquired:

The White Queen by Philippa Gregory

Bad Men by John Connolly

The Constant Princess by Philippa Gregory

The Collected Short Stories of Roald Dahl

The Lady of the Rivers by Philippa Gregory

The Story of a Fierce Bad Rabbit by Beatrix Potter

Horrible Histories: The Groovy Greeks by Terry Deary

Mr Meddles Mischief by Enid Blyton

Tales of Toyland and Other Stories by Enid Blyton

1001 Cool Freaky Facts by Glen Singleton

The Light Between Oceans by M. L. Steadman

Goodnight Mister Tom by Michelle Magorian

The World’s Best Fairy Tales by Reader’s Digest Association

Lost And Found by Brooke Davis

A Confusion of Princes by Garth Nix

The Vanished Child by Sarah Smith

These Broken Stars by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner

The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova

Appetite by Philip Kazan

In the grand scheme of things, can we really say 21 books is going overboard? Can we really say I bought too many? I am going to answer no. Yesterday I went to a book sale that was selling books discarded from five branches of libraries. For the excellent price of $4.50 I got to fill a bag, the rules were even if it was overflowing it did not matter, and with some excellent Tetris and skilful packing, I got 21 books into a canvas bag and came out rather happy.

I gathered up my 21 books in just over half an hour which is excellent on my half, and it was a great book sale because not only were all the books on the tables and not half on the floor in boxes, but all the books were out ready to go. None of this we’ll unpack some later as the tables empty, or unpack it on a later date if the event is a few days long. No. It was all there, ready to go. I got there as the doors opened because you need to be there early to grab the best books.

The collection varies depending on different books sales. The ones thrown by libraries are different than those put on my second hand book shops that have a lot of donated books in their collections. Library book sales are different because not only do the books have stickers and labels on them (which annoyingly can cover author names and you will have to live with a spine sticker forever on your shelf), but you find a lot of interesting things being sold. Now that I understand the system of weeding out books from library collections to put up for sale, it is curious to notice what books have been discarded. Typically the rule is if a book has not been borrowed in 18 months, or is a few years old, and the rules do vary, but looking through the library books it’s interesting to see some titles and think, ‘Really? Why are you scrapping that?’ The other downside is less chance of finding old gems. The last book sale I went to a few months ago I was able to add to my BSC and Enid Blyton collection as people threw out their old books. But I grabbed some great YA novels this time round, and a lot of books I grabbed because they looked interesting or I wanted to read more by the author. So many chances taken with this recent bunch too so I look forward to reading them and discovering if they are good as they sound.

 I promised I’d share so here is the full list of books I bought yesterday.

The Piper’s Son by Melina Marchetta

Magic or Madness by Justine Larbalestier

Red Spikes Margo Lanagan

The Wings of Kitty St Clair by James Aldridge

Lonesome Howl by Steven Herrick

Yellowcake by Margo Lanagan

13 to Life by Shannon Delany

Chasing Charlie Duskin by Cath Crowley

The Book from Baden Dark by James Moloney

Swerve by Phillip Gwynne

Boys of Blood and Bone by David Metzenthen

Lost Property by James Moloney

The Last Days by Scott Westerfeld

Mama’s Song by Ben Beaton

Graffiti Moon by Cath Crowley

Rasco and the Rats of Nimh by Jane Leslie Conly

Rip Van Winkle and Other Stories by Washington Irving

One Foot Wrong by Sophie Laguna

Chrysalis by Libby Hathorn

Saving Francesca by Melina Marchetta

The Book of Fires by Jane Borodale

Some of these I really cannot wait to start reading. With all the books I bought this year (and it is a ridiculous amount) I am all ready for a great reading year ahead of me! And I can feel less guilty because a lot were super bargains so that justifies everything, right?