Morning Meanderings… What I Learned by WorkingThe Book Sale

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)

Good morning!

Yesterday I spent my whole day volunteering for our Friends Of The Library Book Sale.  I was really excited to do it having for years been a part of the other side of it… waiting outside for the doors to open, rushing in and working my way through all the people to find just the right books for 50 cents a piece, supporting my local library and supporting my reading habit.  😀

I eagerly started my shift at 8 am, my job at that time was to go through all the books on the tables, add books from the boxes underneath the tables if there was room, and make sure there are no trip hazards.  When the doors opened at 9:00 am and the people started coming in I was surprised to see it was a slow trickle.  My morning started out by offering to take people’s books from them to the front and bag them if they had a huge handful and filling in book gaps to keep all the books standing upright and pretty.  As it became late morning the traffic at the sale became more steady and I found myself having a lot of fun looking for books for people, or subjects, and answering bookish questions.  Here are some of the things that I was asked:

Do you have any books on WWII?  (we did)

 

Where are your books on the Renaissance era?  (nowhere that I knew of)

 

Do you have Jodi Picoult?  (we did)

 

Do you have Stephen King’s The Dome?  (we did not)

 

Where do all the books come from?  (people donate them to friends of the library for the sale)

 

Do you have to read the Sue Grafton Books in order?  IE. A Is For Alibi, B is For Burglar, C Is For Corpse…  (I had never read Grafton but was familiar with the series and told the lady that I did not believe you would have to read them in order as Sue Grafton was now on “W” and I think that would deter new readers if they thought they had to start at “A” and work their way to “W”.  However, I told the woman I would “phone a friend” (I don’t think she got my humor) and ask the ladies at the check out table.  They informed me that while the series has to do with the same Private Investigator Kinsey Milhone,  you did not have to read the books in order.

 

 

There were a few other fun tidbits of information I picked up by walking the books of the sale for 11 hours…

Author who had the most books there:  Danielle Steele (there were boxes and boxes of paperbacks and hardcovers)

 

The book we had the most copies of for sale:  Dan Brown’s The Davinchi Code in hard cover.  There were 10 of them.  I strategically placed them throughout the books hoping to entice someone, I think when I left last night they were still all there. 

 

Author asked for the most?  Stephen King

 

There were 12,000+ books at this sale.

 

For Alyce’s Saturday Snapshot this week,  if you seen my post yesterday morning, I did purchase books at the sale on Thursday:

and yes, you guessed right, there was no way I worked a book sale for 11 hours and walked out with nothing… here are my finds from Friday:

 

The Ella Minnow Pea book was a book mentioned to me by my roommate from BEA this year, Gail from Ticket To Anywhere.  I was fascinated about the book and THRILLED when I found not one, but two copies of it at the sale – both pictured above.  I plan to use this book in a way during my beloved Banned Book Week that will take place September 30 – Oct 6.

When my shift was over at the book sale I was sad to go, I really had a lot of fun talking books with people, answering questions and just being in an environment surrounded by books and bookish people.  😀

Be sure to stop by At Home With Books and see other participants in the Saturday Snapshot meme. 

Have a super day, my hubby and I are looking for a vehicle today, hoping we can do this quickly and painlessly…. and then my Saturday is open and I am glad.  I am a little tired out today and could use a day with a little book time.  😀

56 thoughts on “Morning Meanderings… What I Learned by WorkingThe Book Sale”

  6. Oh my, poor old Dan Brown, maybe he has had his fifteen minutes of fame. Also Danielle Steele, very surprised to see you had so many of hers, mind you she has written a lot! I bet it was great fun doing the sale 🙂

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  9. Years ago when we lived in Waterbury, CT, I ran the book sale for a couple years. My only problem was getting volunteers to work the sale so kudos to you for being a volunteer. We would begin with about 15,000 books and the sale coincided with a street festival so we did well. Couldn’t get rid of Harlequin romances, reference books, or Reader’s Digest Condensed Books.

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  10. An entire day around bookish people and you helped out the library. Sounds like win-win to me! And you got Oryx and Crake… I’m still searching the sales for that one.

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  12. Love your account of the day, and the pictures, and I’m glad you enjoyed your day. I volunteer at an Oxfam bookshop every Tuesday morning, and we have such fun, and it is wonderful when you can find a book that someone wants. My Snapshot is of a stone circle http://goo.gl/8P0Zp

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  13. Holy Moly!! You bought some great stuff, Sheila!!! I think it would be fun to work the sale too except I would probably keep adding to my pile!! 😀

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  15. Please tell me! Where in the world do you get all of your energy? I love to read about it and wish I had half of it…I want you to know that although I don’t often comment on them, I do read all of your posts:) Good luck on the vehicle shopping…keep us posted….

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    1. Hi! I work hard, play hard… and crash hard 😛 For instance, while I ran around today and cooked for friends tonight… tomorrow I plan on doing pretty close to nothing… church in the morning and then reading and blogging tomorrow afternoon – maybe even a nap 😀

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  16. Sounds like an awesome experience! I hope to get to help out soon (I’ve just been shelving books at our local friends of the library bookstore). I missed out on the last book sale because of my son’s play.

    I noticed the purchase of Summerhouse again! 🙂 It’s amazing the odd times that book pops into my head and I ponder yet again if/what I would change about my life.

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    1. I know I know Alyce… LOL 😛 Every time I see it I have to pick it up. Now.. it is tradition. 😀 I give them away to people. I think I currently have two copies at the cabin… it is a book that keeps me thinking as well.

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  17. This must have been a fun (but tiring) day. I love book sales! I enjoyed reading about the queries you got. Most requested author: Stephen King…why am I not surprised?

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    1. I went through a mid afternoon “oh I am SO TIRED!” and then perked up again when it got busy around 3:30 😀 I actually was surprised by the request for King… they were mainly looking for older titles too. 😀

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  18. I wouldn’t be able to work the sale and walk out with nothing either. Thanks for the interesting tidbits.

    Happy reading!

    Ashley @ Dr. Pepper Diva

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  19. I, too, worked at a local Friends of the Library book sale for my local library recently. Since my daughter was going to be visiting over the weekend, I took the set-up shift on Thursday. I found there are three kinds of set-up volunteers: those who are starved for conversation and want to discuss books with others, those who are using the set-up as a chance to shop early, and those who, like myself, were there to really work, and work hard! Lifting all those boxes and books helped tone my arm muscles, I’m sure!

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  22. That would be fun. One of the universities in our twin cities has a book sale every year. I’ve both donated and bought books there, mostly classics. The funds go to help a female university student in need to get a bursary.

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    1. I did not see a whole lot of King and had forgotten how HUGE some of his older titles are. I did buy The Stand by him at the sale mainly because it was MASSIVE and I have heard a lot of internet buzz around it this year.

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