Library Sale

Today was the first day of the December Kenton County Library book sale.  I've learned that if I want to get the best choices I have to be there on the first day of the sale, which is normally Sunday.  I've noticed that there are often used book dealers there at the head of the line with their scanners, trying to find out what books are the best values for them to snap up.  I'm not totally opposed to them going to the sales as they're just trying to make a living, but it does seem a shame when regular people just trying to find a good deal have to struggle to get in ahead of them.  But anyway, Sunday is always a good day to hit the sale as you'll usually find the best selection.  Most of the books that haven't been put out yet are in boxes below the tables that you can browse through, so you're not really missing much.

When we first arrived at the library many people were lined up waiting outside.  It is normal for a few people to be waiting since the library doesn't open until 1:00 on Sunday afternoons, but there are always more on a book sale day.

I forgot until we entered that the book sales are in a new part of the building instead of the meeting room at the front of the library.  Thankfully there are handy signs to guide you in case you forget.

The room holding the sale is decently large and can hold a number of tables and people.

I have a friend that really enjoys Winston Churchill's books and so I keep a lookout for ones she doesn't have whenever I go to a sale.  Sadly she already had this one.

This was what our basket looked like partway through collecting books (okay, this was near the end, but before a couple of the best finds had been made).

I've enjoyed Star Trek for many years, so I jumped at the chance to pick up another reference volume when I saw the Start Trek The next Generation Companion.

Dragons and Unicorns, A Natural History by Paul and Karin Johnsgard is a volume that I'd never heard of before.  It is a number of years old, but looks to be an intriguing book purporting to examine the history of dragons and unicorns.

 I really enjoy reference books based upon fantasy and sci-fi universes.

 It even has maps, which is another huge plus to me because of how much I enjoy geography.

My wife really enjoyed Kay Thompson's Eloise books, so she grabbed these two as soon as she saw them.  The one on the left (The Absolutely Essential Eloise) contains the original book as well as a scrapbook of material about the book.

She also knows that I really enjoy Bill Peet's illustrated children's books, so when she found three hardcovers she put them into our basket.  I absolutely love his illustrations and his stories are so clever.  I might already have The Wump World and Huge Harold, but I think they're in paperback, and even if I have them it is definitely worth having another copy as I hope our kids read these books many, many times over the years.

No Such Things is a wonderful tale about various imaginary creatures that Peet invented and then proceeded to illustrate, like the Snoof with backwards facing feet.

I've enjoyed every one of Terry Pratchett's books that I've ever read, so a while ago I made a list of all the ones I was missing just so I would have an easy time figuring out which ones I should pick up at library sales.  I haven't seen one at a library sale and this time I found two (Guards, Guards! and Wyrd Sisters), but I already had a copy of the other one, so I left it for some other fortunate treasure hunter to discover.

I've enjoyed Jan Brett's illustrations for a number of years.  When my wife found Daisy Comes Home I knew that we had to get it as the story looked quite charming, and it is set in a different location than many of Brett's tales.  I've tried to make sure our kids get stories from around the world and not just from North America and Europe.

I lost track of the books that Donna Andrews wrote a number of years ago, but I have many of her first few books, so when I found these three I realized that it was a great opportunity to start catching up on the ones that I'd missed.  I found The Nightingale Before Christmas and Six Geese A-Slaying in the Christmas book section and then picked up The Real Macaw in the mystery section.

 Amy also found the classic volume When We Were Very Young by A. A. Milne.  I'm sure it will be fun to read these to our kids.

I didn't spot the small Tolkien section until just before I got ready to leave the sale.  There were a number of volumes that I already had (The Hobbit and various volumes of The Lord of the Rings), but then I saw these two books and knew that I had to get them. I heard about Tolkien's Roverandom a number of years ago and had mentally added it to the list of books I wanted to find.

 Tree and Leaf contains two stories by Tolkien, On Fairy-Stores and Leaf by Niggle.  They're both excellent, but On Fairy-Stories is definitely a classic treatise on the writing of fantastic fiction and the creation of secondary worlds.

We ended up with all of these books for just $17.75.  I really like the Kenton County sales as they tend to have the best prices in the area.  Cincinnati sales have good selection but are much more expensive.

I hope that you've enjoyed reading about this books, though probably not as much as I'll enjoy reading these books over the coming days, weeks, and months.  You can see all the pictures from the sale in this album.

~Matt