Friends Book sale: Algonquin Public Library

You may or may not know this, but pubic Libraries have these amazing book sales every once in a while. There is even a book sale finder online to find these book sales.  Volunteers and donors of local libraries are called "Friends". I've been to a couple in my area and there can be some amazing books. They are usually only a dollar and sometimes you can find rare ones. I decided to go to a book sale 4 hours from my home. That is not a typo: 4 hours. The book sale finder said it was "Exceptional". It was the only one which said exceptional, so I wanted to see what "exceptional" means.  The town was Algonquin, a suburb of Chicago. I didn't want to go alone so I asked my sister if she would go and she agreed. Trips are always better when someone fun comes along.

The special thing about this suburb was the small town feel. It was quaint and quite. It did not look like a place which would have a gigantic book sale. This sale was very different than the others to which I've been. Unlike other book sales they had a special buyers night. This means for a $10 admission you can shop the books the night before the sale starts.  The basement of the library is where all the books are kept. Upon entering and paying the $10 fee you are given a pink piece of paper with a number on it and a list of where all the books are held and what sections they are located. When the sale opened and people started walking down the stairs we entered the basement and some of the people flocked straight to a center book shelf like it was a Black Friday sale.  There were several shelves and also some special books which were old or signed. These were the ones I liked looking through. I love their smell. Some were so old.

My main question before the event was, "What kind of people show up this early for a book sale?" I found out. There were people who hand finger scanners connected to their phones and they looked like auditors. They basically scanned as many books as they could and determined the value to buy the books. I've never seen anything like this in my life. One lady even seem to pick a fight with a guy who was looking at books she was scanning. "Get out of my personal space" she screamed. (Using expletives I won't use here).  Most everyone was nice. The staff was exceptional. They knew what to do. They held customers items up front so they could keep shopping. They helped people with large boxes (Me) to their car (if you are reading this, thank you Rishi).

I spent $52. I got a ridiculous amount of books. I know I don't need them. I know the world and any information I need to know is at my fingertips with the internet on my phone, but I love having them. I love actually reading them. A giant books of pictures and descriptions of Russia and Ireland, or Nancy Reagan's autobiography, and even a couple of mysteries from writers I've never heard of, now grace the shelves of my personal library. I also know when I tire of them I will donate them to the next big book sale and the cycle will begin again.  Until then I will keep exploring libraries and library book sales, possibly avoiding ones that allow people with scanning devices.