An evening at the Used Book Sale

The Cherry Hill Libary (to which I pay $25 every 2 years for membership) has a used book sale twice a year. Tonight was the first “open to the public” evening, so WM and I went after work.

He adores used book sales. He’s partial to history and religion books – you should see our bookcases! While he dove into the stacks and boxes, I took note of the titles available.

Most of the books are donated by the community so these were cast-off books. Some of the books were very old, so I assumed they were donated after the original owner passed on. Others were “trendy” books like the DaVinci Code and the Harry Potter series. Books that EVERYONE read once, but while some attached themselves to the books, most moved on and the books ended up donated.

There were heaps of self-help books, which is pretty telling about us as a society. I saw 3 copies of “7 Habits of Highly Effective People,” 5 copies of “How to Win Friends and Influence People,” 4 copies of “Passages,” and 4 copies of “Simple Abundance.”

There was also an old family Bible with the names of a couple and a date of 1947 engraved on the front. A wedding gift, perhaps? I believe there is a special place in hell for people who’d dump the family Bible in the library donation box, and my belief has nothing to do with religion.

The saddest boxes of all are what I call the “dream deferred” boxes, like the one above which mostly holds books bought by and for aspiring writers. There were three of them like this, replete with Style Manuals, Market Guides, and freelancing tips. Did these writers succeed and decide they didn’t need the books anymore? Or did they put away their pens and notebooks permanently? We’ll never know. I prefer to think of the aspiring writer who’ll find these books in their boxes and follow their own dream.

WM and I came away with 12 books. His were, as I predicted, all history and religion. I picked up “Good in Bed,” “Atonement,” “The Jane Austin Book Club” and a book of daily devotionals.