Friends of the Library Book Sale

Yesterday resumed a semi-annual tradition in Gainesville: the Alachua County Friends of the Library book sale, held in April and October. Although I haven’t been able to make it out there yet, I have plenty of time, since the sale goes on through this Wednesday. It’s quite a fun event to go to, even though the crowds of shoppers and browsers there can be a bit overwhelming at times. But you can often find a lot of books that you never thought that you would be able to get a hold of for such cheap prices as 25 cents to a dollar each. Of course, with the Internet used-book companies out there, I could find and get through the mail just about any title I wanted, but I’d also have to pay a heftier price for it as well. Since I already possess an imposing amount of used books, I’m going to have to be careful this time around to select just those books that really “grab” me. Like some Stephen King books of his that I’m missing or one of those antique Power Boys books that I used to read as a kid. I want to make sure that I have plenty of time to go browsing, since the books there, although separated by genre, are often shelved without regard to alphabetical order. And with the droves of people there, it’s sometimes a task to just browse through one section while trying to crane around folks who seem planted in one spot. They also sell old phonograph records, as well as VHS videos and DVDs. Over the years, I’ve come away from these sales with some pretty good books, so we’ll see what happens this time around!