What Going To A Library Booksale Can Show You About Your Reading Habits

All avid readers know the feeling.  You see the sign in the local library stating that the booksale is coming to a large complex or ballroom near you.  You quickly try to add up how much money is in your checking account, your savings account, the ugly bowl you throw your change in, and how much credit is left on your credit cards.
Then you walk into a an extra large room and see tables and tables of books ready for you to run your hand over them looking for something interesting.  And it’s better than a library because you can KEEP these books!  They.  Are.  Yours.
Yes, I know the thrills of landing books for cheap.
“Paperbacks are twenty-five cents today?”
“All the books I can fit in a paper bag for $5?”
I know how it feels to cart boxes of new-to-me books to my vehicle.
“No, I didn’t borrow this wagon, it’s my son’s!”
Last weekend, I happily left our local Friends of the Library book sale with 30-something mysteries.  Some hardback, some paperback, some favorite authors, some new authors.
On the way home it struck me that I hadn’t even looked through the biography/autobiography section.  I love history, so a presidential biography might have been a nice addition to my haul.
I did browse the general fiction section, but I only took a couple of those – and only from authors I had previously read and enjoyed.
They had an art section, a military section, a home and garden section, and an entertainment section.  If I walked by them, I barely noticed.
What a shame that I could have found something interesting to read, but I was too focused on purchasing every Janet Evanovich and Scott Turow I could find.
So, my friends, now that my local book sale has ended, take a lesson from me – next time you find a book sale, a secondhand book store, or even Barns & Noble, take a saunter down those aisles you do not notice on other visits.   Especially when you can get a bargain, try something you wouldn’t normally read.
And if you don’t like it, you can always give it to the sister who annoys you!