It’s Scholastic Warehouse book sale time! This is the fun book event that keeps me going in between sporadic library sales and the biennial Newcastle University book sale (2019 bring it on!).
One thing I love is the fill a box for $40. If you put your Tetris skills to good use you can pack a fair few into their tiny boxes [Current record was previous visit, 21 paperback books in a box!].
Sometimes I don’t find enough I want to fill a box with and it’s been known to happen where I leave without getting anything at all. But lately there has been a wide range of titles and it’s these little bursts of joy when you find a great book on their bays that get your box filled fairly quickly. It also lets you take a chance on things you might not otherwise read because for that price it reduces the overall cost of the books inside.
This year I went a tad wild with the picture books. In my box and in the other discounted area. There are so many beautiful and clever books these days that it’s hard not to collect them all. I found myself picking up favourites that I’d read before and needed to own, I found a few new ones that caught my eye. My favourite books I got were The Great Paper Caper by Oliver Jeffers, What the Fluffy Bunny Said to the Growly Bear by P. Crumble, and The Wild One by Sonya Hartnett. A mixture of funny, deeply profound, and all beautifully illustrated.
In total I walked out with 30 books: 6 paperbacks and 24 picture books. I am certainly calling this a win and thankfully picture books take up a lot less space than paperbacks. Going to the book fair isn’t just about getting books cheap or to collect more than I will probably be able to read. Being among all the books is such fun. Finding titles I might never have heard about or appreciated I now own and will read, and getting to see behind the scenes in a small way the infamous Scholastic where I bought countless books during primary school is also a little bit amazing.
If you ever get to go to one I recommend it, as I say, it can be hit and miss, but there are some wonderful gems as well.
Lost in a Good Book 