More Book Sales

Regular readers of this blog (all three of you) know that I love used book sales, the kind put on by many public libraries. I probably would be going to these sales every so often even if I weren't a librarian, because books and bargains are two of my very favorite things. But now the sales are a big part of building up the collections at the two small libraries where I work. I can't claim this as being my original idea of acquisitions on the cheap. When I was teaching at a small private school, the librarian there built much of the library through used book sales. So I had a good role model in thriftiness.

I went to two book sales recently, and only bypassed a third because my budget is almost spent. The first sale was a new one for me, at a library about a half-hour away, but somewhat on the way to our other campus. So I was able to stop there on my way to work. It turned out to be a great sale, although a tad more expensive than the one here in town. Still, it's one I plan to return to. The library itself was easy to find, and the parking was close and convenient, a plus when you're lugging bags of books. The sale itself wasn't very large, but there were many children's books, and while many were definitely "used", others were in like-new condition. So I grabbed many for our education program. I also wanted to get second copies of books we have at one campus to have at the other, books like Stephen Covey's The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. I also found The Audacity of Hope (which I bought for both libraries) and Dreams from My Father. I'd wanted these for the library for a long time, but only found them used now. No matter what the results of the election, I thought, books by a recent president will always be something we have room for. I also found some books on beauty and manners and autism and Alzheimer's, all fairly new editions and in good shape. A few gems: Economic Facts and Fallacies by Thomas Sowell, Stop Walking on Eggshells, On Writing Well by William Zinsser, and An Anthropologist on Mars by Oliver Sacks.

The sale here in town never disappoints. True, I've gleaned many of the best items from it, but there are always new books that people discard. I got Kevin Aucoin's Face Forward and Making Faces, which are old, of course, but he was so important in the world of makeup that I thought they would be great for our cosmetology collection. (Plus he's a Louisiana native.) Both books looked slightly dirty, but I thought they were fixable. When I got them back to the library, though, I saw that one had a few pages that were water-damaged. That's a deal-breaker for me, so out it went. I almost always absorb these losses myself. The downside to these sales, especially the one in town, is that they're crowded and the lighting is bad. It's not always easy to see the titles, let alone the true condition of the books. That's the chance you take.

I did something this year that I normally don't do: I went back to our local sale for the last day. I had hoped that it was "dollar-a-bag" day so that I could get some paperback fiction very cheap for the library, but it wasn't. Instead, I got almost a dozen books for myself -- on exercise, gardening, housekeeping, and decorating. All things I love but don't have the money to buy full price. I was pleasantly surprised to find so many good books at the very end of the sale. All in all, a success on all fronts.