Every year we have a mammoth book sale at a local school and I had a sudden thought that it must be due soon so checked the web and found out it is this weekend, phew, nearly missed it. Can you imagine the angst if I had not found this out?
I have a hit list of Ngaio Marsh, Allingham and Dorothy L Sayers for starters to feed my addiction for 1930’s detective stories. I have already read the Ngaio Marsh and had the entire set on my shelves years ago and for some reason I cannot fathom, got rid of them. I now have to go and get them all over again. This is a good reason for never ever throwing out books.
They have a wonderful system at this sale. You are given a plastic carrier bag on way in, you fill it up, go to a holding station and they give you a ticket with a number on it, put it away for later collection and give you a brand new plastic bag to go away and fill up again. On a good day this process can be repeated a number of times and, indeed, has been done in the past
Aficionados know full well how to dress for this sale – ie in your oldest clothes with small bag slung round neck containing money and credit card as you have to push, shove and squeeze through the crowds and grab books. There are piles of boxes under the trestle tables for refilling gaps so you can end up crawling on the floor and meet other subterranean grovellers. It is all quite friendly and matey ‘oh I will swap my Agatha Christie for your Margery Allingham’ etc etc but occasionally you spot a book you really really want at the same time as somebody else and I tell you now, it can get a tad fraught. Politeness and courtesy do vanish under these circumstances.
The sale is, of course, targeted by the book dealers, but they are quite easy to spot as they have acquisitive quivering noses and once identified, you can knock them over and trample on them.
I will report back on my haul in due course.
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