More Books!

Today is the first day of the annual Seattle Public Library book sale, one of the few events I know of during which people stand in line to buy books. I thought I was getting there nice and early this morning (it opened at 9:00 and I got there at 9:30), but when I went to my usual parking lot, it was completely full--people were double parked! After nearly being hit a couple times by other people searching for spots, I decided I would go for a walk. I drove to a parking lot about half a mile away, on the waterfront, and walked back to the sale by going up the Kite Hill and through the Sports Meadow. I figured it's healthy to walk, and besides--it's the first warm spring day we've had this year.

As I walked toward the sale, I ran into Hope and Peter walking their dogs. They'd just come over the hill from the sale, and were shaking their heads at the craziness of it. Peter said he'd seen people camping outside the doors last night to make sure they were the first ones in!

In spite of this rather ominous warning, I continued on my walk, savoring the warm air and enjoying the site of bunches of kids playing what I think is some sort of competitive frisbee game--they were organized into teams, had team uniforms, and were throwing frisbees in some sort of keep-away game. Coaches were yelling from the sidelines and parents were cheering. It was all very festive. As I walked away from the Sports Meadow, several lacrosse teams were just arriving.

I made my way through the crowded parking lot and into the book sale building. It was insanely crowded, as usual, but since I've been to several of these by now, I knew where to go. Thank goodness they always organize them the same way! I headed to the reference book section first, because I wanted some books for my office. I found a great ESL dictionary, a wonderful book of American quotations, a terrific little grammar book, and a few others that I'm sure students will appreciate.

Then I made my way to the tables full of mystery books. Before I left the house this morning, I'd made a list of all the Agatha Christies and Mary Higgins Clarks (etc.) we already have. I browsed the tables until I'd filled my bag with books that aren't already in our collection, even finding a Stephen King we didn't have--the screenplay for Storm of the Century. Since I had all I could reasonably expect to carry for half a mile, I didn't browse the literature tables. I figure there will be plenty left on those tomorrow.

I walked back to my car, enjoying the sunshine, and stopping for a few minutes to watch the lacrosse games--it looks like a fun sport. By the time I got back to my car (lugging 40 pounds or so of books), my shoulders were aching a little bit, but it was worth it. We'll have plenty of books for summer reading. Especially after I go back tomorrow to browse the literature tables!