This month's West Coast Speculative Fiction Association newsletter arrived in my In box early in the morning of September 2nd, and mixed in with the other event announcements was a promo for the annual four-day Friends of the Vancouver Public Library Gently Used Book Sale, running from September the 4th to the 7th.
One of the advantages of retirement is having the free time to attend things like this on a weekday, so on the morning of the 4th I geared up, selected a suitably sturdy shopping bag, and headed downtown to the Central Vancouver Library to see what was for sale.
When I arrived just five minutes after the start time of the sale, I initially thought that for some reason there had been an unexpected delay. There was a line that stretched up the stairs from the lower level sale location, proceeded down the length of the main library, and looped back around the atrium. I joined the line, expecting a brief wait while they solved whatever the issue was.
Eventually I deduced that the sale room must have reached capacity the second that the doors opened, and that the line was being fed into the room piecemeal as the initial wave of shoppers finished up and left. The line edged forward in ten or fifteen foot increments, and after about a 30 minute wait, I was ushered into the sale room.
Once inside, I felt a bit of pressure to do my shopping and clear the way for someone else in line. The selection was impressive - there were an estimated 50,000 books in the sale - and as such, it was easy to find some interesting options. That being said, I wish that I'd felt that I had more freedom to browse, I suspect that I missed some good opportunities in the two-for-a-dollar paperback tables.
Regardless, it was certainly a shopper's paradise. When I reached the point that my stack of selections was becoming difficult to balance, I decided that discretion was the better part of valour, and called it, as they say. The checkout system was interesting, in that one pair of volunteers was doing nothing but calculating the cost of books, and another set was just taking payments. I settled my bill, bagged my books, and made my way out the door and past the still impressive waiting line.
The results? Five hardcovers, four trade paperbacks, and five mass market paperbacks: total cost, $26, which seems incredibly reasonable for a bag of books whose weight made a bit uncomfortable to carry one-handed. It was a good mix of new and old texts, although as it turned out I already had a copy of Neal Asher's The Voyage of the Sable Keech*, this is what happens when you rush through things - although, with two dollar pricing on trade paperbacks, it was hardly the end of the world.
I'd never heard of Mur Lafferty** until Worldcon, another bonus for attending; I was pleased to pick up a 1969 copy of Poul Anderson's Beyond the Beyond for three dollars; I really should read the first two books in The Locked Tomb series before I pick up Nona the Ninth; and I was surprised to find out that Terry Carr's Universe short story collections were printed in hardcover, I somehow thought they were only available in paperback. The only real departure in my selections was the Black Spire/Galaxy's Edge novel - I don't normally buy Star Wars Expanded Universe/Legends novels, but how could I not buy a book that takes place in my favourite part of Disneyland?
TLDR: if you're a reader and like to own your books; if you're looking for affordable book options, if you're looking for something a little bit older or from the classics, or any combination of those three options, I strongly recommend that you keep an eye out for the next Friends of the Vancouver Public Library Gently Used Book Sale.
- Sid
* I passed over a copy of Asher's The Skinner because I thought I owned it, and chose The Sable Keech and Polity Agent instead. As it turned out, I was at least correct about already having The Skinner and not owning Polity Agent, so at least I'm two for three.
** Apparently not related to the late R. A. Lafferty, master of the science fiction short story.
