The Booksale to End All Booksales (until next year’s Booksale)
Some random thoughts after three-plus days of the 30th annual Friends of the Library Booksale:
–My favorite part is coming home with multiple bags of books and unpacking them on the living room floor like some alternate-universe Christmas morning when I’ve picked out all my own presents. For research purposes I calculated the original value of the books the wife and I spent 44 bucks on, and I came up with a conservative estimate of $750. What a bar-goon!
–My least favorite part is dragging those bags through the admirably swift-moving checkout line that wraps its way around the inside of the building at the Friday night “pre-sale.” I vow this is the last year I’ll be too proud to bring a wheeled implement to carry my books, as my arms were more sore from lugging my bags through the line than I was last Sunday after helping move thousands of boxes of product into the Fairgrounds.
–It’s fascinating to pay attention to recurring themes among the hundreds of thousands of titles that have been donated to the sale. My unscientific survey results reveal that many readers have tired of hating and fearing the Clintons, particularly based on the staggering number of copies of Dick Morris’s Condi vs. Hillary: The Next Great Presidential Race that were available. It is comforting to know there will be plenty of kindling on hand for the next cold snap, though.
–I also saw a ton of copies of Jeffrey Eugenides’s Middlesex, which I’m guessing a number of book clubs may not have especially appreciated. There were an awful lot of William Faulker novels lying around as well, perhaps left over from Oprah’s 2005 “Summer of Faulkner”?
(On the other hand, maybe I’m just a jerk who too-possessively hangs on to books he’s already read.)
–The reaction of the super-helpful volunteers who rang up my purchases perfectly explains why I can never volunteer for that particular job at the Booksale. Upon seeing my pristine $1.00 copy of Stephen Colbert’s I Am America and So Can You and frantically inquiring what section I found it in, the volunteer cashier asked his partner, “How soon do we get a break?!” There’s just no way I could see all the fantastic titles pass me by without sprinting back out to the sale tables to hunt for more.
–Finally, I’d like to offer a general apology to any friends or colleagues I may have inadvertantly passed by without acknowledging during the sale. I suspect most of you, like me, were too busy with heads down scanning book titles to look up and have time to socialize, and it’s a wonder more people don’t get brained by head-to-head collisions during the Friday night frenzy. My own wife sadly gave up trying to make conversation with me while we waited in the checkout line that wound its way tantalizingly near the Humor, Fiction, and Magazine sections.
So it’s another Friends Booksale gone by, and another fresh set of challenges to find room to shove the dozens of books I brought home. I do have to admit I went back on Saturday while I was out “running errands,” and sure enough I came home with about 10 more fantastic titles. As I type this on Sunday afternoon, I’m also damn tempted to head back to the Fairgrounds to catch the “All-You-Can-Shove-In-A-Bag-For-$2″ red-light special . . . .
Friends Booksale Update
For 51 weeks of the year, the Friends of the Library painstakingly sort through endless boxes of donated books in preparation for one of the greatest used book sales in the United States. Starting February 15, delivery vehicles will descend upon the State Fairgrounds like landing crafts at the Normandy beaches, and a furious week of on-site set-up begins.
This amazing event is entirely driven by volunteers, and all proceeds from the February 21 & 22 Friends Booksale help fund library facilities, services, and programs at the 17 Metropolitan Library System locations all around Oklahoma County. The rock-bottom prices make it an unbeatable shopping experience for readers ($1.00 hardbacks and 50-cent paperbacks! Come on!), but the sheer volume of merchandise on offer has allowed the Friends to donate almost $2.2 million to our community’s libraries over the last 30 years.
It takes a small army of book lovers to set up the sale in the Fairgrounds “Oklahoma Expo” hall. Between 700 and 1,000 volunteers are involved, moving the carefully categorized boxes of books from the Friends “Sort Site” to the Fairgrounds, setting up the well-organized sections for every conceivable genre, working at the holding area where hardcore shoppers can store their treasures while seeking out more, and serving as cashiers at the efficient check-out line. Comparisons to the Allied preparations for D-Day are far from hyperbole.
Not only is the Friends Booksale an essential destination for regional book lovers, but it’s also a really fun event for volunteers. Anyone age 14 and up can spend a few hours helping to set up, run, or take down the whole amazing undertaking.
Volunteer applications can be submitted online, and Friends Membership forms are also available on the website. Not only is it a great way to support Oklahoma County libraries, but an added benefit to membership is admittance to a special Friday night pre-sale on February 20th. The lure of hundreds of thousands of wildly inexpensive books at this special sale draws “Friends” from all over North America — seriously, check out the license plates in the parking lot and you’ll think you’re at Disney World waiting for a tram.
I’ve said it before, but if I had the necessary carpentry skills I could make a killing in the weeks after the Friends Booksale. Enterprising bookcase-builders should be handing out their business cards at the Fairground exits for all the Oklahomans who easily add dozens if not hundreds of books to their personal collections. I know I’ll be bringing home a box (or three) and wishing I had several more shelves on which to store them.
Oklahoma’s Greatest Book Event
The greatest annual book event in Oklahoma is right around the corner. On the last weekend in February, the Friends of the Metropolitan Library System hold one of the largest used book sales in the country at the Oklahoma State Fairgrounds, and this year’s event promises to be one of the biggest yet.
The Friends of the Library gather donated books, magazines, audiobooks, and videos year-round at their massively stuffed warehouse, and hundreds of thousands of these items are sold, mostly for $1.00 or less, with the profits supporting library services and programs around Oklahoma County.
The book sale is a truly amazing scene — otherwise mild-mannered citizens gather the largest wheeled implements that can be rolled into the Fairgrounds’ “Oklahoma Expo” building and set about filling up their baby carriages, wheelbarrows, and ”Big Blue” trash recepticles with $0.50 paperbacks and $1.00 hardcovers. A special “Collector’s Choice” section features slightly more expensive items, but excellent titles are available at the regular unbeatable prices in every conceivable genre.
The literary treasures available to book-lovers are so vast that for the past two years my wife has forbidden me to attend this all-you-can-grab book smorgasbord as we’ve run out of shelves at home on which to store them. (If anyone knows of a used bookcase sale, please contact Bookmarking Blog Headquarters immediately.) It’s also interesting to check out the array of different state license plates in the parking lot, as booksale tourists from all over the country converge on this massive event.
Admission on February 21 and 22 is free, but a special bonus is available to any of the thousand or so volunteers who help put together this gigantic book extravaganza. On Friday night, February 20, a special pre-sale party is opened to volunteers and Friends members to comb through the unbelievable wealth of great books and other items for sale. Memberships and volunteer applications are conveniently available on the Friends’ website.
I might even make it back to the booksale this time after my two-year disciplinary suspension, having vowed to only buy one book for every two I donate to the sale. Sadly, the wife isn’t nearly as interested as I am in the revolutionary “let’s use stacks of books as end tables!” interior decorating scheme I have long been perfecting.
