Ten things that will get you 'funny' looks at Book Fair!

My local library district hosted its annual book fair this weekend. It is one of the biggest book fairs around here, with table and tables full of BOOKS! Though it is held in the local convention center, there is not room to display all of the books at the same time, so volunteers are continuously opening boxes and filling in the gaps as books get sold from the tables. Browsing a table just once is definitely not enough! I spent over three hours browsing shelves — and I came out with quite a haul!

And THESE are just the books I actually purchased! I originally had at least twice as many in my stack (and could have had much more!) But I TRIED really hard to be reasonable, taking into account what is already on my shelves that I want to read. I narrowed my stack down to only books I thought I would actually find time to pick up and read before the next book fair rolls around….and then threw in a few more that I just couldn’t part with. And the whole haul cost me less than $30! I’ll tell you more about my haul in the coming days. I will read these all at some point — hopefully in the next year — and then offer them to friends. Any that aren’t claimed by will be returned to the library’s book fair collection box to be resold at the next book fair and they will have money to buy MORE BOOKS for me to check out! Win-win, right?

In addition to my wonderful haul, I also learned there are some things that will get you some funny looks at the book fair. Here are a few of them ….

1. When you progress through the line repeating ‘Read this one, read this one, read this one...’
2. When you come across a book you’ve read and announce ‘OVER-rated!’
3. When everyone is moving down the line of book steadily until a back up begins behind you because you have found the motherload of good reading! (There may be a little nudging of elbows to go along with the funny looks.)
4. When your stack of books becomes so high that the next one you place on it  topples the whole stack...AND knocks over the stack of the person next to you. NOT cool!
5. When you move along line, see a book you’ve read, and groan ‘ughh’.
6. When you see a book you struggled through and announce to anyone within earshot, ‘Worst book I ever READ!’
7. When you come to the next book you didn’t like and announce ‘No, wait, THIS is the worst book I ever read!’
8. When you see a book you really liked, and in mint condition, and sigh ‘I don’t need that! I read that one, remember?’
9. When you see that book you loved, it is in mint condition, and it is SIGNED by the AUTHOR, you turn to the person next to you and cajole ‘You should REALLY get this one. Look! It’s signed by the author!’
10. And finally, when you pick up THAT book — the one you were really hoping to find but expected to not find today — you so a fist pump and yell ‘SCORE’!

Do you attend a local book fair? If you do, don’t tell me where it is — I don’t need any more reason to purchase books! But DO tell me about your experiences, and maybe even show off your haul!