Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Thank You Lord For The Day I Discovered Reading

One of the highlight events of the year for me here in Victoria is the annual TC Book sale. Our local newspaper sponsors a HUGE second hand book sale with proceeds going to “Raise A Reader” a local literacy organization. A few weeks before the event weekend a call goes out to anyone wanting to donate books to this cause - hundreds of thousands of books are dropped off.

This year’s venue was smaller than most years, so more strict guidelines had to be put into place on what can and can’t be donated. All this to say that a mere 300,000+ were made available, where as in previous years the counts have been upwards of 400,000 – 500,000 missives.

At $1 for a pocket book, $2 for larger soft covers, & $3 for hardcover – a shopper and a reader’s heart could be nothing but delirious!!

The doors were opened at 9am, and I read in the paper that some people got in line at 3am. Why? I don’t know. I texted a friend at 8am who had been in line since 7am, and she was already substantially far down the lineup. As a young mom of three, she was treating this as an adventure away from the kids and on her own. I treasure my sleep far more.

I, and a couple of fellow bookworms decided that early afternoon was just fine by us. And to that note I would like to add that there was no wait at the door upon arriving at 1pm. However, I did hear a security person say that by that point (1pm) there had been almost 2,200 people come through.

After 30 minutes one girlfriend complained that her bag was so full that she was done. My other girlfriend and myself were nowhere near completing our rounds and hung on for another 90 minutes.

Two large shopping bags full and only $35 spent – I was content with my finds and happy to call it a day. I debated about going back the next day, but decided I needed to make a dent on what I had, and then venture back to the Library or Amazon when the time came.

Funny though – I didn’t see one copy of ANY of the Twilight Saga books ……

I should also add that over $140,000 was raised. Well-done my fellow Victorian’s.

4 comments:

Good Timing said...

Sounds like my kind of shindig!! Wish I could have come with you! :)

Lin said...

Sheesh, Sounds like I missed a great book sale! Bummer!

Pilot Mom said...

*sigh* That sounds like a perfect day to me! Almost like Heaven! :)

I wish they did that here. However, I would be amiss if I didn't share that our libraries always have an area where they put their books "out to pasture", so to speak, and each book only costs 25 cents.

Hope all is well with you. I need to go back in your blog and get caught up. I'm trying to get back into blogging. I have been so busy because we have two men who are now boarding with us. They are from our local Rescue Mission, a Christiah homeless ministry.

The Bumbles said...

People get there so early to get all the good books. The late comers - like you and me - get all the picked over ones. I however am of the belief that there are always good stories to be had. So if I can sleep in and end up with a full bag of interesting stories - that makes me all the wiser ;0)