The Friends of the Ashgrove Library hold a book sale in the library basement twice a year: the first Saturday of October and the first Saturday of May, nine to two. I have been to nine of them now and I have finally worked out how it goes.
The night before
Members get in on Friday evening from five to eight. Membership is twelve dollars a year and it is the best twelve dollars available in this town. Friday is when the good cookbooks go, and the field guides, and anything with a dust jacket worth having. If you want the preview and you are not a member, you can join at the door, which everybody treats as a secret and nobody actually hides.
Saturday morning
Doors at nine. There is a line by eight forty, mostly the same eight people, and the mood is friendly but focused. Paperbacks are a dollar, hardcovers two, children's books fifty cents, and there is a table of records nobody has priced in four years. Bring cash in small bills. There is a card reader and it works about as often as you would expect from a folding table in a basement.
The tables are sorted by category at nine and sorted by nothing at all by noon. If you are hunting something specific, go early. If you are open to anything, go late.
The last hour
From one o'clock it is five dollars a bag, and they hand you the bag. This is when I go, if I am honest. Last October I came home with fourteen books, three of which I have read, one of which I think about constantly, and two of which have already gone on to a neighbor. That is a good ratio for five dollars.
The part people miss
All of it pays for something. The money from the two sales funds the summer reading program, the seed library by the front desk, and the museum passes you can check out like a book. Nobody puts that on the poster. So when you are standing there at one fifteen wondering whether you really need a fourth copy of a novel you already own, the answer is yes, you do, for civic reasons.
Next sale is the first Saturday of May. Bring bills.
