Book sale anticipation
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- July
- 23
My favorite used book sale is this weekend, and I feel an adrenaline rush usually reserved for when you barely miss getting hit by another car at an intersection.
I learned a long time ago that driving to the Pequot Library to drift through what this year are 140,000 books makes my legs weak, my heart beat faster and my breath start to come quickly. It’s an odd reaction, but it’s there.
The Pequot Library at 720 Pequot Ave. in Southport, Conn., has been holding its giant book sale for nearly half a century. This year, the 49th annual, runs from July 24 through July 28. The library opens its concert/lecture hall and puts up a huge tent off the side of the building. After nearly 20 years attending them, I know just where to go to find what I like.
The first day of the sale, everything is double price, Saturday and Sunday is regular price day (paperbacks about 50 cents, hardbacks about $1, depending), Monday is half price and Tuesday is $5 a bag. I remember when all the books left by Tuesday were free, but that changed a couple of years ago.
Last year, I picked up whole stacks of recorder consort music for a song, got a steal on a bunch of mysteries and got out-of-this-world deals on some old science fiction. Really.
Like most of the other people in the area, I’ve not only bought, I’ve contributed. The sale is filled with donated books, so each year there’s the chance something old and interesting will show up from somebody’s attic or from an estate sale. A couple of years ago, there was an entire 10-book seet of Arthur Ransome novels from the 1930s (I think); I’ve certainly purchased most of my Jeff Farnol novels during the sales, although they’re getting harder to find; and I’ve picked up better (and better illustrated) copies of old classics, including a lovely (although battered) 1925 illustrated copy of the Three Musketeers.
If anything really interesting shows up, I’ll post something about it. Bibliophiles who haven’t been to the Pequot sale, though, ought to drop by. It’s worth the trip.
This entry was posted
on Thursday, July 23rd, 2009 at 8:10 am by Randi Weiner.
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Great. It’s not bad enough that the 1,000+ plus books in my one-bedroom place are threatening to crowd me out. Now I find myself tempted to take Tuesday off and go get myself a bagful more.