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The Loot, Or How I Fared At The Phoenix Booksale

There are precious few things that will rouse me out of bed at 4:45 in the morning, and that small list dwindles to next-to-nothing when I am on vacation.

An awesome book sale makes the list.

So does a flight, however after the Great Missing of the Flight Debacle of 2009 I will not be booking any flights that require such an early arousal.

This particular trip–as you know–was all about the book sale.  HRH and Andrea may have raised their eyebrows a bit when I showed up with my carry-on inside a larger suitcase with a duffel bag stuffed in there somewhere.  There may have been a bit of internal mockery when I printed out an enormous spreadsheet of books that I currently own.  And when I reminded them that we needed to walk out the door by 5:00 a.m. I felt some interesting energy suggesting “WHAT THE CRAP!  ARE YOU A CRAZY PERSON!?!?”

However, when we arrived at the Phoenix Fairgrounds at 5:35 and there were already several hundred people in line ahead of us, my madness began to make sense.  When we had filled-to-overfilled a shopping cart (magically procured by HRH, a million thanks!) with approximately two hundred pounds of books, my crazy-talk began to settle in.  As we sat and sorted through our loot, I consulted my list and quickly discarded any potential duplicates, and I seemed practical, not crazy.  Later that day as we stuffed every square inch of every suitcase and handbag full of books, I think everything fell into place.

The book sale.  It’s a big deal.

Six-hundred-thousand books sitting in a warehouse waiting to be adopted.  One-hundred-thousand people fighting for rights to this book or that volume.  It’s best to throw elbows.  Really.

As we sat in line drinking hot chocolate and munching on bagels, playing music and chatting with Steve–the retired dude behind us in line–

Here’s the thing–I have gone to the booksale with friends in previous years.  In fact, I have always dragged someone else with me.  But I’ve never had the pleasure of attending with book-loving friends.  I can hardly explain how awesome it was to rummage amongst the classics and toss each other recommendations.  I can think of no better way to get a recommendation than to have a book hurled at your head (carefully and with a lot of aim and accuracy.  Obviously.  We are not derelicts.), accompanied by the statement “I love this!  You must read it!”

In approximately two hours the three of us had completely filled our shopping cart, as well as a couple of bags and as many extra books as we could carry.  I don’t know why Barnes & Noble doesn’t have shopping carts for their customers, it really makes one’s experience so much more enjoyable.

I walked away with 63 books for a grand total of $117.50.  That, my bibliophile friends, is a STEAL!  I have hardback classics and a stack of paperbacks to try.  I have a couple of Lonely Planet books to peruse for upcoming vacations.  I have a gorgeous illustrated hardback copy of Anne of Green Gables and Heidi that will be loved forever.  I found books that were printed in the 1920′s, and ones with tidbits from their previous owners, receipts, lists, notes, a hospital admission form from 1964.  I have rounded out my collection of Steinbeck and Ayn Rand and have quadrupled my “To Read” pile.   I even bought some Jane Austen and have plans to blunder through, despite really disliking Pride and Prejudice.  (I know, I’m supposed to like it, but I don’t.  Can we still be friends?)

Next year I think I/we will do things a little differently.  I have every intention to camp out in line–this eliminates several problems, the first being having to wake up at 4:45 a.m. while I’m on vacation.  Hey, I’ll do it for cheap books, but I’ll try and find a way around it if at all possible.

I have included a list of all the books I brought home, if you have any opinions on any of the below, I would love to hear it.  Books that I have already read have an asterisk, which means I have just added approximately sixty volumes to my already towering “To Read” pile. I can’t wait.)

A Long Fatal Love Chase, Louisa May Alcott
A Room of One’s Own, Virginia Woolf
All Quiet on the Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque
Anne of Green Gables, L.M. Montgomery
As I Lay Dying, William Faulkner
Beloved, Toni Morrison
Candide, Voltaire
Catch-22, Joseph Heller
Collections of Shorts Stories of W. Somerset Maugham
Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Czechoslovak Fairy Tales, Parker & Fillmore
Death Comes for the Archbishop, Willla Cather
Dubliners, James Joyce
Essays, Poems and Addresses of Ralph Waldo Emerson
For The New Intellectual, Ayn Rand
Galapagos, Kurt Vonnegut
*Heidi, Johanna Spyri
Interpreter of Maladies, Jhumpa Lahiri
Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte
Jude the Obscure, Thomas Hardy
Lonley Planet: Australia
*Lord of the Flies, William Golding
Love in the Time of Cholera, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Love, Toni Morrison
Madame Bovary, Gustave Flaubert
Metamorphoses, Ovid
Mrs. Dalloway, Virginia Woolf
Naya Nuki, Kenneth Thomasma
Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck
Out of Africa, Isak Dinesen
Palm Sunday, Kurt Vonnegut
Persuasion, Jane Austen
Selected Short Stories of Franz Kafka
Selected Short Stories of William Faulkner
Sense and Sensibility, Jane Austen
The Age of Innocence, Edith Wharton
The Bonesetter’s Daughter, Amy Tan
The Bostonians, Henry James
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Diaz
The Color Purple, Alice Walker
The House on Mango Street, Sandra Cisneros
The Idiot, Fyodor Dostoyevsky
The Invisible Man, H.G. Wells
The Island of Dr. Moreau, H.G. Wells
The Lost Stories of Louisa May Alcott
The Magician, W. Somerset Maugham
The Namesake, Jhumpa Lahiri
The Old Curiosity Shop, Charles Dickens
The Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemingway
The Portrait of a Lady, Henry James
The Prince and the Pauper, Mark Twain
The Rogue Guide to Morocco
*The Scarlett Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne
*The Secret Garden, Francis Hodges Burnett
The Stories of Anton Chekov
The Virtue of Selfishness, Ayn Rand
The War of the Worlds, H.G. Wells
*The Wizard of Oz, L. Frank Baum
To A God Unknown, John Steinbeck
Tortilla Flat, John Steinbeck
Utopia, Thomas More
We The Living, Ayn Rand
Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte

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