Well, I went to that book sale the other day ... and what a bummer!
Thousands of books and almost none that interested me.
I was trying to find 2 books from a certain series and, of course, those were like the only 2 from the series they didn't have. There were none from another series I was looking for. The kid's section was really small, and I was hoping for a large one.
And the section I was most interested in - classics - was in a tiny, crowded, dead-end aisle with boxes and boxes of these classics stored under the folding-tables holding the displayed books. But to go through them, you had to kneel or squat in the aisle (which hurts the ankle I broke earlier this summer), take out one heavy box at a time, look through those books, pull out another box and put it on top and go through those, and on and on until you had boxed yourself in (with no room to turn) and boxed others out. I gave up after a few boxes.
But I did manage to find two books that were on my "want" list: Tarzan of the Apes and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. So that's good. Plus I found a big novel on Henry VIII, which I was happy about. (He oddly fascinates me. Must be the castles and kings and queens thing. Plus, he's just such a strange, disturbed person. Very bizarre.) And then I went home and found the same book (unread) on my bookshelf. Oops!
But one good thing (not about this particular book sale, though) is that - within a few trips to used-book stores - I was able to find both the Little House on the Prairie and the Anne of Green Gables series (complete) for a friend who was looking for them. Score! A wonderful feeling for book lovers. (Now I can sleep easy.)
[Does anyone else do this: Let's say you're trying to collect a whole series, and you already have 3 books out of 7. And then you find the complete series at a used-book store. But because it's from a different publisher and has a different look than the 3 you have at home, you buy the whole series. And now the 3 books you had at first are extras, duplicates. But you couldn't pass up the whole, complete series because they all go together and look alike, like a family, and you couldn't bear to break them up, leaving some behind. And then ... since you still have the 3 original ones who need the other 4 to be complete, you start keeping your eyes open all over again for the other 4 to complete another set of the series - not necessarily for you (or maybe for you, because it's from a different publisher and has different qualities than the one you have), but maybe to have on hand to give away if you find someone who wants them. Anyone else do this? No? Just me? Okay then. I'm just saying that it's really hard to take just a few books when you see the whole series sitting there, looking all cozy and complete. It almost makes me want to apologize to the ones left behind, to let them know that someday they'll find a good home, someone who's been looking for them, who needs them to complete the partial set they have at home that's been waiting for them. Just me? Yeah, that's what I thought.]
You know, I've been a bit obsessive lately about buying books. It started during lockdown last March, when I decided to buy and read The Lord of the Rings (I tried before, years ago, but struck out). Before I knew it, I was buying up all the Tolkien and C.S. Lewis books I could find, mostly ordering them online.
And then our library decided to shut down for remodeling during lockdown, and I think that's what started the panic buying: Panic Book Buying. The prospect of being stuck at home with no books and no library sent me on a quest to start my own home library.
And suddenly I was scouring used-book stores for whatever I could find - books that I've always enjoyed (Little House on the Prairie series, Wind in the Willows, Alice in Wonderland, The Pilgrim's Progress) ... or ones that I've always (or recently) wanted to read (Jane Austen books, Anne of Green Gables series, Treasure Island, The Princess Bride, The Never-Ending Story, the Narnia series) ... or ones that just struck my fancy at the time (Under the Tuscan Sun, the books on Henry VIII, The Literary Lives of the Inklings, multiple biographies of C.S. Lewis, Under the Black Flag - a book on pirates, along with several other books on pirates; I blame my mild addiction to the Pirates of the Caribbean movies).
[I seem to gravitate towards the classics and books for young people. I totally agree with C.S. Lewis that (my paraphrase) "The best books, the ones most worth reading, are the ones you can enjoy at age ten and at age forty-six and beyond".]
And a couple weeks ago, I had to buy a new bookcase just to hold them all, besides the piles I have crammed under various end-tables around the house. (I'm so proud of myself!) I'm almost at the end of my "need-to-buy list," just a few more random books to go (I'm not sure what they are yet, but I'll know when I see them). But I enjoy the hunt so much that I'll probably have to find new ones to keep an eye out for. It's just too much fun to stop now. And all those books just look so good in the bookcase!
Ah, simple pleasures.
(I kinda wish I was as obsessed with cleaning my house as I am with buying and reading books. Or maybe it would be nice if there were pills you could take that made it fun to clean. Yeah, that'd be great.)
