Eulogy for Old-Fashioned Book Sales

All right, for anyone who does not already know this - I am potty about books. Actually, I think it is more like obsessive compulsive. I even like books that I don't even want to read! There is nothing like sticking your nose inside the middle of a book and smelling the paper and ink! The feel, the look, the idea of them just makes me happy. Well, for months now I have been really yearning for a book sale. The swell old kind that happened all the time when we were growing up, like when the libraries used to close their parking garages off and fill them with tables and boxes, are pretty much gone. Mansfield now bought a building which is only open one weekend a month for four hours a day. Mount Vernon is going the same route now. The last good one is the AAUW sale that happens every October in the basement garage of the Mansfield Red Cross. It is the last of the old timers to still be holding on and the lady who does it is in her eighties! We know that it is on it's last breath, but every year it is thrilling to still be able to experience even a remnant of what it used to be like.

We used to fill our van with full boxes of books, bringing home a thousand or two at a time to keep or trade. It would take us weeks to clean, sort, and put away all of our new "gems". Now at a really good booksale we might get a box or two and a hundred books is a huge addition. A lot of times we are replacing beat up copies with nicer ones, or getting a second copy of a book that we each would like for our kids.

We are way over ten thousand books now, and Mom and I are going to really try and start cataloguing this year. We are trying to fill up any holes that we find in the different collections. Then, of course, WWII and British history are never done! We are debating on whether to replace our leaky sliding glass door in the dining room, or build another book shelf unit and put a single door in instead. We grew up getting rid of the sofa whenever we needed more book room. I keep telling Mom, who needs a double door to look outside with? Books are way more important! I love my record collection, but nothing compares with the books.

Yesterday was the day that the Mansfield book sale book shop was open, and as we were planning on going to Mansfield to get Dad some new dress pants, I asked Mom if we could go to town in the morning instead of the afternoon since the book sale closes at 2:00pm. Boy was it ever worth going! We got two banana boxes of really good books. A lot of British history and political books. I got several about the fall of France, one written by a Frenchman in 1941. A couple WWII ones and several Lloyd George biographies. Of course, a book sale wouldn't be complete without getting some Agatha Christie mysteries! I actually have outgrown the two shelves that are set aside for her, so I had to go poking behind the fiction to find half an empty shelf behind Louisa May Alcott!

One of the fun finds was "Beyond the High Himalayas" by William O. Douglas. The subject doesn't really interest me, but this is the book that Princess Grace is "reading" in my very favorite scene of hers from Hitchcock's "Rear Window". Sarah found it and she was like, "This is the book that Grace Kelly is reading!" I was thrilled. Who would have thought that they would have her reading a real book?

So, it was a very fun morning. We ate lunch at Panera and then went to Kohl's where Dad got two pairs of gorgeous wool dress pants and some new black shoes. We got some more wet food for the kitties and then headed home. While Dad and Sarah did some dishes, I cleaned all of the books and sorted them. I love to clean books. There is something so satisfying about it. You get to feel each one and look at them. Simply wonderful. Thank you God for books!

"Do you understand what you are reading?" - Acts 8:30