Library Book Sale Spoils

Twice a year, our local library holds a book sale.  Quite a large one–for weeks before, I could see the area over the parking lot looking like it was about to bust.  Lots and lots of books.  I usually troll the sale for reference books, since it’s easy to check out the novels at the library.  The spoils:

• Descriptionary, A Theamatic Dictionary.  It takes a topic like firefighting and defines some of the common buzzwords. 
• Illustrated Reverse Dictionary: Find the Words on the Tip of Your Tongue.  This is a dictionary that helps you if you can’t remember a word.
• National Geographic Traveler San Diego.  Full color, lots of photos!  Even a spiffy section called “Tide-pooling” with a pretty good description of a tide -pool’s features.  That’ll be useful for SAND DOLLAR MAGIC.
• Compass American Guides: Santa Fe .  I like this series because it’s not just a tour guide but gives a lot of information about the place. 
• Underwater Wonders of the National Parks.  It’s a tour book for divers, with awesome color photos.
• The Ultimate Kaua’i Guidebook, Third Edition.   It’s Hawai’i.  Need I say more?

Library Sale The Sequel

The second and bigger library sale is this weekend.  It’s located in a permanently fenced off area of the underground parking lot.  Rows and rows of books, all neatly organized by category.  Since I had to return books to the library, I hit the sale after 9:00, which was when the library opened.  Unfortunately, the library sale didn’t open until 10:00.

So I waited around as a line formed to get into the sale.  Who said reading is dead?  People were lining up to buy books last week and this week also.

My topics were the same–Nature (Seashells), Travel, and Antiques.  The Antiques section had more auction books this year, from recent auctions in 2007 that not only featured artwork, but furniture and vases.  I passed on these because I got what I needed at the last one.

Nature was categorized under Ecology, and most of those books were more science-related.  No seashells.  I also tried the Animals section, and that was just on cats and dogs.  I’m sure they must have had some books on the subject, but there were so many categories that it was anybody’s guess where they might have been.

The travel section is where I hit the gold mine.  I found a number of books on California.  This is where it pays to look through the books and see if they’re what you need.  Though I grew up in California, there are still details I need to research for the next book.  Some are just a refresher, some are details I never knew, like my setting was a part of South Central California.  Three of the books looked good for research–more informational than tourist listings–so I snatched them up.

I also checked out the map section and found some National Geographic maps of California and Nevada.  Only a quarter each, so I also picked one up of Hawaii.  They were nice-looking maps with the map part on one side and state information on the other side.

On the way back home, I had an unfortunately typical occurance in Washington, DC.  While I was waiting for a light, I heard a siren.  It kept coming and coming and coming–why hadn’t it reached the interesection?   No one would get out of the way!  Every place I’ve been, everyone pulls over and gets out of the way.  Here, people don’t want to give up their spot because they’re all in a hurry and all think they’re more important than everyone else.

The traffic finally cleared, but the ambulance had to go around a mini-van who had pulled out into the intersection to make a left turn (this was knowing the ambulance was right behind him).  I’d like to say this was uncommon, but it’s not for DC.

Gas price today: $2.69.  Last week it was $2.99, so that’s a .30 price drop.