I went to my first used book sale on Saturday! I think it’s an annual thing at my town library, but for some reason, this was the first year my mom and I were aware of it. We went after my 5K race since it was open from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. that day. They were having a bag sale on Sunday, meaning for $5 or $10, you got a small or large size bag and you could fill it with was many books as you could fit.
My mom told me last week that a library in the state is shutting down, and I said that if our town library was ever going to shut down, I’d chain myself to the front of the building. I have an unhealthy obsession with the library, and I was excited to go to the sale.
We got there after noon and it was pretty busy. The sale was set up in a room with tables and tables full of books. To say I felt overwhelmed was an understatement.
The tables were organized by fiction, mystery, horror, humor, biographies, etc. I spent most of my time at the fiction tables. There were even some more books under the tables in boxes. The books were in great condition, and some of them were pretty new releases.
My mom got eight books and I got five, and we spent around $23.00 for 13 books. That’s the price normally of just one hardcover book, so we were pretty happy with what we got.
Here are the books I got:
- The World According to Garp by John Irving
- Lost and Found Sisters by Jill Shalvis
- My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry by Fredrik Backman
- The Admissions by Meg Mitchell Moore
- How to Walk Away by Katherine Center
I’m starting with The Admissions first since I have a weird obsession with college admissions, even though I work in the marketing department. It’s my 27th book of the year, so that means I’m definitely going to hit my goal of reading 30 books this year by the end of the summer.
I felt like I was little picky with choosing books because of how I feel about buying books. I instantly picked up the Fredrik Backman book because I loved Beartown and A Man Called Ove. I read one of Jill Shalvis’s other books and really liked it. The Admissions and How to Walk Away had good ratings on Goodreads, and The World According to Garp has been on my want to read shelf for a while; I think it appeared during my reading-the-classics-phase.
Have you been to a used book sale before? What was the last book you bought?
Ooooo I’ve been to one! The library where my parents live has one every year. But it’s based on donations. Like you could take a wheelbarrow and pay 10 cents lol when I went I picked up like 13 or so books and I gave her a $20 and she asked how much change I wanted and I was like “naw it’s all good! Keep it” haha
LikeLiked by 1 person
I went to a state book fair once when I lived in Raleigh. They took all the books from libraries across the state that weren’t in circulation anymore and filled the livestock pavilion at the state fairgrounds. It was the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen. I waited in line for an hour just to get inside. They had it open for three days. I think the first day it was a dollar for paperbacks, three for hard covers. But each day, the prices dropped. I went on the second day and walked away with more books than I could comfortably carry back to my car. Now, where I live, I can’t even find a decent used bookstore, much less an event like this.
LikeLiked by 1 person
That sounds awesome! I don’t know of too many used book stores around my area, so I’m already looking forward to the library event next year.
LikeLiked by 1 person
What?! What a steal for some awesome books. I’d love to attend a used book sale!!
LikeLiked by 1 person
It was my first one and I’m going to go back next year! It was awesome and they had a lot of newer books, too.
LikeLiked by 1 person