Library Sale!

Harker Heights Library had a library sale on April 29th and 30^th, 2022.   The Friday afternoon sale hours were from 4pm to 6 pm.  The Saturday sale hours began at 8 am and ended at 2 pm.  After 2 pm on Saturday, any remaining books could be had for free.  Like most events here in Central Texas, I anticipated one thing and got something completely different. 

Stewart C. Meyer Harker Heights Public Library serves a community of approximately 30,000 people.  The library has 42,650 volumes.  That’s a small library when you compare it to the Austin public libraries which register a total of 1,125, 099 volumes or Dallas with 4,131,672 volumes.*   The Harker Heights library is not the smallest in our area.  The sleepy town of Salado down the road has only 7,000 volumes.  Most home libraries top out at about 1,500 volumes.  One exception to that was Thomas Jefferson’s personal library which had approximately 6,000 books.  

In a library of 42,650 volumes, finding books is as simple as strolling up and down the aisles.  Unless you want to know for sure if the library has a certain book, there’s no need to hassle with the card catalog.  At the Harker Heights library, fiction books are found in the stacks in the center of the adult section.  History books are shelved at the far end.  Biographies are in the low shelves there to your right as you face the Fiction section.  New arrivals and foreign language books are up front as you enter.  For young adult literature and children’s books, keep walking back.  

Picking through books late on a Friday afternoon sounded like a relaxing way to end the week so I marked my calendar.  I normally stop in at the library every ten days or so.  Staff usually outnumber patrons.  There are on average two or three cars in the parking lot.  For the Friday afternoon sale, I figured I could get there anytime. I pulled in about 4:30 pm---and joined the line to wait for a parking space. 

If the Harker Heights Library has 42,650 volumes, then the Harker Heights Library Sale had 142,650 volumes.  The event room was buzzing.  People were everywhere.  At least 50 six-foot tables loaded up with books filled the room.  More books were beneath the tables in boxes. The number of popular fiction paperbacks was staggering.  The entire side wall was lined with tables of books labeled ‘Romance.’  Carts, tables and boxes were filled with books by James Patterson, Tom Clancy, David Baldacci and John Grisham.   Mary Higgins Clark was well-represented as well.  Her books were hard cover and in pristine condition.  That’s not to say this sale was all about popular fiction. There were other categories as well—history, military, biography, cookbooks, religion, self-help, mystery, suspense and plenty of fiction not written by James Patterson or David Baldacci.  There were CDs and movies.  Back in a far corner were about 20 lonely books marked 'Classics.'  This sale had it all.   

I dove in before it occurred to me to check prices. I had set a limit of $20, maybe five or six books, not more than ten.  It’s easy to get carried away at a sale.  The Hobby Lobby Effect (my coinage) sets in quickly.  Might I quickly explain? I had never been in a Hobby Lobby prior to coming to Texas, but briefly, what happens at Hobby Lobby is that as soon as you walk in the door and see that all the merchandise is on sale,** you immediately see all the items you’ve been looking for.  Not only that, but this immediately at-hand, sought-after merchandise takes on greater value because it is now a bargain. All the artificial plants and flowers in Hobby Lobby are perfect for those empty corners.  All the picture frames and vases and scented candles fit perfectly with your décor.  At Hobby Lobby, if you leave without buying, you are obviously a foolish shopper who doesn’t know how to save a penny.  

So, with the Hobby Lobby Effect in mind, I wanted to be careful.  I checked the prices. After all, I already have a home library of some 900 books that I’ve obligated myself to read.  I checked the prices again at another table. Finally, I asked.  Hardcovers were a dollar, paperbacks 50 cents and that was regardless of size or condition of the book.  Children’s books were priced from 50 to 10 cents.  It was essentially a give-away from the start.  

We all had our bags or boxes.  The library ladies supplied nothing except the books.  Some people had scanners and were assiduously checking out titles against re-sale prices I guess.  Others took photographs of entire tables.  Some carefully consulted hand-held lists or made phone calls as they went through a table volume by volume.  One shopper wore work gloves.  Mothers had brought kids in strollers and backpacks.  All the kids were crying. All the mothers ignored them.  Others of us searched for books, no grabbing, no jostling and no talking.  The library ladies tallied up your bill with pencil and paper.  For larger purchases they used a little handheld calculator.  Cash only, everybody!  The high school kids helping out had either serious faces or wore masks or both.  They alternately helped old people lug their purchases to their cars or they scooted out from behind closed doors carrying more books.  The room stayed packed until 6 pm.  I was there until the end and spent $4.50 and came home with 5 adult paperbacks and 5 children’s books. I knew when I left that I’d go back on Saturday morning.  

I got there about 10 am.  The tables were loaded up.  The number of books was the same or greater.  I swear to it. I didn’t intend to buy but I hadn’t seen all the children’s books so I dug in.  Saturday was obviously the day for the casual browser.  There were many fewer people, a lot of home schoolers with older kids, same old retired folk ambling about, but more young women, probably free of the kids for the morning while the husbands took over. Even with fewer shoppers, the pick-up trucks were lined up at the front door awaiting their owners’ boxes of purchases.  I bought a few more books.  My two-day spending total was $12.25, just slightly over half of the $20 limit I had set for myself. 

Now came the moment of truth.  Was I going to go back at 2 pm for the free-for-all?  We had a church festival to go to, dinner to plan. It was getting to be a warm afternoon and we had our granddaughters for the day.  They needed to run around for a couple hours at the playground.  I managed to get to the library just before 2.  

We lined up outside and once the bell tolled, we went inside.  Now the race was on.  Patrons were scooping books into their plastic bins at alarming rates of speed, seemingly indiscriminate in their choices. The library staff was in high gear doing the same. Empty boxes had suddenly appeared everywhere in the large event room.   As soon as one of the high school kids had cleared a table of books into a waiting box, another high schooler folded the table up and carted it away. The boxes were filling up quickly.  Neither side could get its books fast enough.  The room was humming.  It would seem this sale couldn’t end too soon for the librarians. One of them fairly flew past me with her sweater tails flying.  She was directing the high school kids who were pushing dollies of books in every direction.  I didn’t leave until the center of the room was cleared of tables. When I left, there were yet the 'Romance' novels by the hundreds waiting to be packed and carted off. 

All told, I came away with 45 books. Don’t be alarmed.  I spent not a dime over $12.25 so my cost per book was 27 cents. Not bad if you ask me, and, more to the point, I was careful.  Most of the books are soft-cover and most are children’s books.  A lot of these books will be happily read once or twice before they are moved along to other locations.  Some will get tossed but don’t tell.  I mean, for 27 cents……

 

Abigail and me with my 45 books.  

Among the 45 books are two prize purchases, Snippy and Snappy by Wanda Gag and Joan of Arc by Mark Twain.  The hardcover Snippy and Snappy is a reprint of the 1931 edition but I'm still happy with it. The soft-cover Ignatius Press edition of Joan of Arc by Mark Twain was stranded in the ‘Classics’ section before I rescued it.  Though a hardcover version might have been preferred, this book is in very good condition.  All this for $12.25!  I would have paid that amount for just these two books alone at that crazy antique bookshop in Salado!

 What a sale.  What a weekend. 

*The NYPL system has over 20 million volumes and the largest library in the world, the Library of Congress in Washington DC has some 170 million volumes.

**In my area, the Hobby Lobby 40%-off coupon option for your highest-priced item is no longer available.  

To Write or Not To Write in Your Books

In 2004,  the classical pianist Lang Lang came to our East Village neighborhood music school during a summer piano workshop.  Young and totally without affectation, Lang Lang arrived in socks and sandals with his father as his manager.  He was great with the kids, easy-going, engaged and entertaining.  As a kind of wrap-up to the afternoon, our director had suggested that students bring a copy of the music they were currently working on for Lang Lang to sign.  

I happened to be standing near-by as the first student approached.  Lang Lang looked pained.  He demurred.  He politely shook his head no and said that he couldn't sign the music.  Perhaps thinking he didn't understand, our director cheerfully explained that it would be a souvenir of the workshop and that the students would appreciate it.  Lang Lang, still troubled and with careful language returned the explanation that he didn't want to sign the music because it would be disrespectful to the composer and disrespectful to the music if he were to scribble up the score with his autograph.  I was mildly surprised at the nature of his concern, but I think of his response every time I consider the matter of writing in books.  

Writing in books was something I was taught not to do so I suppose I actually agree with Lang Lang after a fashion.  Except for writing your name or a brief dedication on the inside cover, writing in a book was tantamount to 'ruining' the book, messing it up and demonstrating a careless disregard for one's belongings.  To the extent that I've even given thought to writing on a music score, I suppose I don't go for that either.  Except for fingerings or extra dynamic markings, my opinion has always been that all that scrawling on your music meant that you didn't know the piece very well!

No more! I still don't like mussing up my music, but as for books, I attribute my change in outlook to C.S. Lewis who wrote that writing in the books you're reading is a way of making them your own.  How true. What better evidence that I've been round the block with a book than finding my notations and pencil markings among the pages!  A little question mark here or there means I'm confused about this or that and need to re-visit the passage.  Underlining can be used to highlight new vocabulary, a name, date or important idea. Bracketing is nice for an important paragraph that contains a summary or pivotal idea.  An exclamation point usually means That's weird or Who would have thought.  Occasionally, I offer an opinion in the margins or a brief phrase that summarizes the subject covered on that page.   

I do now and again still find the idea of marking up a book objectionable particularly if the book is printed on fine paper stock or if the book is just beautiful or very old.  In these circumstances I may still use faint pencil markings, though faint pencil markings is generally all I use.  No pen whatsoever.  I do admit to finding it easier to mark up a paperback. I do not write in library books or books that I borrow from others and I generally do not bother much with writing in a book of fiction. Writing in a Bible is a bit off in my estimation though writing in a study Bible is fine.   I don't like to see writing in children's picture books. I think it's only good discipline to tell young children not to write in their books.   

You can see that there is judgment to be exercised when it comes to writing in books. I acknowledge that one does have to make certain considerations.  Overall, however, writing in books is a practice that I can endorse as a worthwhile and enjoyable adjunct to reading.  It would be useful to hear what others have to say on the subject.  

As for Lang Lang on that long-ago occasion, it should be added that he had brought along promotional materials.  For the students, there was an over-sized sort of post card with a picture of Lang Lang standing in front of a grand piano.  On my son Phillip's card Lang Lang wrote 'To Pillip,' and Lang Lang did not seem to mind that his big, loopy letters were written all across the picture of himself on the front of the card.