Saturday on the Couch… with a book fair junkie

Next week, from 1 to 8 April 2017, an event of mammoth proportions occurs!

It is an event talked about within the social spheres of book lovers for months prior. An event anticipated with an excitement only those with the fever may understand. At the end of this month is our annual Rotary Book fair.

Ours may be a slightly more modest affair in comparison to our big city cousins, but nonetheless, there are some real treasures to be discovered, pounced upon and squirrelled away.

The fair is on for a week, with the tables being replenished every evening. Every day is a new day with potential pulsating within those four walls. Of course, I can’t go every day? No, no I can’t. So, one must have a strategy. Saturday is opening day, so obviously bright and early for doors opening. Then midweek, to see if anything new and exciting has shown up. The last day, the tables are sparser, however, it’s ten dollars a bag so hold me back. No, don’t, really.
Part of my strategy is the system of which has been devised to enable me to squeeze every ounce of possibility from the job at hand. I have a list, of course, alphabetized. All the books are arranged under the author’s last name so my list of desired treasures start with the letter A and of course finish at Z. (Yes, I have a Z author that I like to read, Carlos Ruiz Zafon). It takes some time’,  as you can imagine,  doing the list justice and I have some years when I literally score, others not so much. Still, it’s all in the hunt.

Once the list is exhausted, I return to A and then the search begins for those random books that catch my eye. This is where I also visit the specific genre sections such as Australiana, Classics, biography’s and so on… I don’t know if this says anything about my personality type but there you go.

I love the quiet camaraderie that is Book Fairs with fellow book lovers. We love to help each other, perfect strangers, find the book they are seeking so desperately. It is a joyful thing to find the said book and hand it triumphantly to the seeker. Pure satisfaction. Then there are the recommendations. We share about the books we love, the authors we admire and in turn, we learn of those we have never even heard about. It is an adventure.

There are many different types of book seekers I have found. Many ways to skin a cat so they say (I mean, where did that saying even come from?).

There is the Genre focused group. These guys are first in line, first day. They make a beeline for the desired section, say military, and pretty much wipe it out. (I do not say this with any Judgement, honest!)

Then there are the browsers, no real agenda, no real plan, no list, just there for the pure pleasure of the experience. They waft through the aisles, running their fingers over the spines, just being.

There are the collectors. Very discerning, they have a good eye and know a bargain and a quality book when they see it. One year I almost secured the buy of the century with the entire original collection of The Little Golden books for the princely sum of twenty-five dollars. Alas, I hesitated and we all know that he who hesitates is lost and, well, another buyer came on the scene. I willed her to move on, I contemplated the political correctness of crash tackling in a genteel setting such as this. Then I watched the Golden Treasures walk out the door. I am nothing but polite it would seem. Sad, but polite.

The five-minute dash is for those time poor, people who desperately want to handle those pages of promise yet are racing off to work/appointments/children’s swimming carnivals. These highly focused and very intentional bookworms race through the door, target a specific author, grab an armful of books by said author and head for the cash register. I admire their time-management skills.

I love the community that surrounds our book fair. For months’ prior like-minded souls amble into the collection point and donate their preloved, willing to be relinquished, books with the hope that the boot-load of goodies in the Ford next to you will,  in fact, harbour their next adventure into the unknown.

If you have the joy of attending your local book fair be prepared with bottled water, comfortable shoes and a personal favourite, the portable shopping cart. Baskets get a little heavy on the arm and impede the arm action required for the job at hand.

Book fairs, be still my beating heart. Enjoy.

Book Club Editor’s Note: Sharon is anticipating her local Rotary Book Fair, in Coffs Harbour. These fairs are held in numerous city and regional centres in Australia and New Zealand at various times throughout the year – check your local Rotary club for the date of one near you.