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It is that time of year again. No, not the time of year when everyone falls off the “New Year New Diet” bandwagon.  Not the time of year when every retail establishment is smothered in red and pink hearts and barfy sentiments about love.  Not the time of year when one feels she will die from lack of Vitamin D due to the dark winter days and pollution so thick it literally blocks out the sun (Thank you, damn Salt Lake Inversion).

It is time to finalize plans to go to Phoenix for the Booksale.

Can I please get a collective SQUEE! from across The Interwebs?

[SQUEE!]

If you are new here, or have amnesia, let me fill you in.  Every year Phoenix hosts an absolutely enormous Used Book Sale; 600,000 books are sitting in a warehouse, organized by genre and quietly waiting for someone to adopt them and take them home. (Are you interested yet? Because if you claim to like books AT ALL you should be sitting on the edge of your seat by now.) These books are donated all year long throughout the greater Phoenix area and are then sold, with all proceeds benefiting a literacy program for the metro area. Paperbacks are $1.50, hardbacks are $2-3 dollars, and big, shiny coffee table books are $5-$10 dollars. (Are you drooling yet? You should be!)  Due to terribly sad and tear-inducing circumstances completely beyond my control, I couldn’t make it last year.  But here’s the post from 2008, a very good year at the Booksale.

Go ahead, go read it.  I’ll wait.

Did you see those books?!  Stacks of books!  Piles upon piles of books! Heaps and mountains of books!  Wait…you didn’t click over there?  Ok, fine.  Be lazy.  Allow me to make your life easier by one click:

This photo was taken in the first 10 minutes of the sale, I was standing in the center of the warehouse, which is about 200 yards long and stuffed with books ready to be taken home with me.  If you didn’t SQUEE earlier, you can do it now.

[SQUEE!]

People, it is time to rock the booksale!  Travel companions Andrea and HRH have been recruited.  Plane tickets have been booked.  A room has been secured at the Casa de My-Brother-Who-Is-Putting-Me-Up-In-Return-For-My-Saving-His-Place-In-Line-At-The-Booksale.  I have put together a spreadsheet of the entire inventory of my current book collection (537 books in my apartment right this minute, for reals).  I have made lists of the classics I still need to acquire and the more current stuff I would love to find.  These lists are grouped according to the area’s at the booksale for easier location of books on said lists.  All lists and spreadsheets will be printed and carefully tucked into my carry-on size suitcase, along with a large, sturdy duffel, and then the whole thing will be stowed in a larger suitcase and checked.  Southwest allows you to check two cases for free and I intend to fill both of them with books. One hundred pounds of books, coming home with me via the lovely people at Southwest.   If that last statement isn’t the sexiest thing ever, I don’t know what is.  Squee and Double Squee!

*Another note: I have now organized every single book I’ve read in the last three years by a 5-star system, so if you are ever curious as to my favorite reads and/or my least favorite reads, it is now documented and periodically updated for your viewing pleasure.