The Homewood Library Sale was a doozy this weekend. I got there 45 minutes early and had to stand at the back of a line! The natives were getting restless. But organizers were smart and stacked hundreds of 5o cent paperbacks out in the waiting area for us to peruse. The books kept shoppers from storming the gates as they could see the 12,000 books (we were told) through the auditorium door windows. And true to their word, 99% of the books fell bewteen 5o cents and 3 dollars. By 6 pm there were about 100 folks crammed in line, chatting about books, comparing notes waiting to get in…
but once the doors opened, talk was over and the gloves came off!

I was surprised at how the demeanor changed of many of my fellow shoppers. It was clear they were there for one reason only. And it wasn’t to make new friends. They were there to buy. And if you were standing still, you were in the way. I’ve never been jostled around and elbowed by so many 60+ ladies. It was funny! There were so many books that the spaces between tables were very narrow. And then there were boxes of books on the floor under the tables. So much to look at! The only people who really got on my nerves were the ones sporting the monster backpacks. They wielded them as defense weapons and one backpacked person could block a whole table so that no one could look at those books until she was done. Great strategy!
I scored the following titles:
Fame and Obscurity by Gay Talese
John Kennedy Toole’s A Confederacy of Dunces
The Christian Significance of Karl Marx by Alexander Miller 152
and Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond (because I seemed to be the only LIbraryThinger that didn’t have this one).

The sale was fun since most of the books had been donated. That means no library markings and no remainder marks. Just good copies, loved by previous owners.

By Sunday, volunteers were replinishing the stacks with old library books, but it was still fun to poke around, though nothing of worth was found.

Hope you made it out there yourself and had much luck!