Literary in the City

Spring brought blooming flowers, dappled sunshine, and… a used books sale. My local library hosts one annually, and it’s kind of a big deal! Flyers are hung up all around town, volunteers sort through piles and piles of donations, and some folks even make baked goods to sell alongside the books. How could I not attend?

You know, bookstores are wonderful, but there’s something really special about a used books sale. Searching through the stacks, I know that some of these books are hidden treasures that haven’t moved beyond the shelf they were on until now. It’s magnificent knowing that other people have read the same stories, other hands have flipped the same pages. I feel this strange, long-distance sense of unity.

However, you need to have a game-plan with these used book sales. Otherwise, you run the risk of getting lost in the copious and various stacks for hours. As dreamy as that sounds, the time-constraining reality of society often hinders that fantasy.

My game plan is to comb through the mystery boxes first. I love a cozy mystery, and used books sales are usually chock- full of them. Cozy mysteries are perfect for beach trips, train trips, plane trips–all the trips!

Once I’ve exhausted that, I start searching for French literature. To me, these are the gems of the whole experience. There is always an old, dusty book with a title I can just comprehend, and I love it. At this particular book sale, I was thrilled to find a copy of Les Trois Mousquetaires by Alexandre Dumas. At another one, I found a copy of Mal Vu Mal Dit by Samuel Beckett. These books will probably take me a while to get through, but I know that they’re worth it. 

Here’s the treasure that was not a part of my game-plan, but still thrilled me nonetheless. I found a CD (yes, they do have CDs!) containing songs from The Phantom of the Opera sung by the original cast. Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again, Think of Me–absolute classics and putting them on as I do a load of laundry or make some hot chocolate has made me so immensely happy.

I’ve seen people walk out with armfuls of romance novels. Someone seemed determined to uproot the entire birdwatching section. Some search for Shakespeare collections. One person scoured through stacks and stacks of books until they found Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand by Helen Simonson.

My point is, there is something for everyone at a used books sale. Your own pocket of joy might just be hidden in the corner of a box that’s been  shoved underneath another box. If you’re patient, tenacious, and are willing to sift through a bunch of dust, you might just find your very own vintage magic. 

H.