Recent Book Acquisitions from Huge Library Book Sale
Ah, the Salt Lake City library had their annual Friends of the Library Book Sale. First, I have to say that our city library is beautiful! I’ve never seen anything like it. Glass elevators, fireplaces, shops, gardens. Love it! Just to give you an idea of how extremely lucky I am:
Photo credit: A Weekly Dose of Architecture
And don’t even get me started on the children’s area! They even have a diaper changing room, nursing room, and a wonderful coat closet! Little things like that make me very happy. I wish I was able to come down here more often, as I visit our county branches more often. But a huge book sale will get me out of bed in the morning for a 7 am door opening. On Saturday books were $1 for hardcovers and .50 cents for paperbacks. Thank goodness our in-laws were in town so we could leave the kids behind because it was absolute mayhem! Shoulder to shoulder, packed. We went a little crazy and spent more than we probably should have but I couldn’t control myself. Today was the last day and so we went back again! Everything that you could fit into a brown paper grocery bag were only $5 and each additional bag was $2! You can’t beat that. And I still found a lot of stuff and came away with two bags today.
Here’s the bounty:
First two photos are mostly fiction books. All are in excellent, like new condition. Very few were even from the library inventory. Most were donated books.
These are mostly Young Adult or Middle Grade Fiction books that I thought sounded interesting or I already loved. Most of these did come from the library’s inventory.
A couple parenting books, a few film making books for my husband, photography books, and gardening books.
And a huge stack of picture books.
Jealous, yet? Well, not to worry. I thought of you the whole time and I kept seeing books that I already own and loved. I couldn’t pass them up. So here are some books that I bought just for you that will be included in my current giveaway. I will put up my full list of books for this giveaway after this post. Honestly, I wanted to wait to post the giveaway titles until after this book sale to see exactly what I had in the inventory. With the exception of two, all look brand new and are in excellent condition.
All in all we spent $103. That also includes about 30 CD’s. Not to shabby for approximately 190 items. And because we happened to get checked out by the oldest lady in the building, we think we are overcharged $7. But I was willing to let it go. Oh, and let’s not forget the $10 parking ticket that we got on Saturday. We parked on the street at a meter because you get two hours free parking. Surely, we wouldn’t be longer than two hours!! After four hours I hadn’t thought of the car once and we had a nice little surprise when we left. My first parking ticket.
Now the only problem is: where do I put all of these??!!
P.S. I’m about six book reviews behind. Having out of town guests set me back a ways. I hope to get more reviews up soon!
Woot! Books galore! I’m green!!
on April 23rd, 2008 at 1:39 amWHOA!!! What a success shopping trip! How did you carry them all?
on April 23rd, 2008 at 4:55 amOops! It would help if I proofed my comments. That would be “successful”.
on April 23rd, 2008 at 4:56 amWhat an incredible library! Makes ours looks like a shack, and I thought it was great!
on April 23rd, 2008 at 5:27 amOoh, I’m jealous. I love the Salt Lake Library, I wish it was closer so I could get there more often.
on April 23rd, 2008 at 6:16 amVery jealous. Have tried to give up book buying… but this makes me feel like falling way off the wagon!
on April 23rd, 2008 at 7:32 amAbsolutley amazing! I am so jealous! Not to worry though, our annual sale is coming up in a couple of weeks and I am so ready!
on April 23rd, 2008 at 8:33 amHaha in October I went to a town book festival, and a huge library sale and came away with I don’t know how many books… I probably spent around $100 too but I came away with tons of great finds
Lol also Friday a nearby library is having a sale, and then on Sat the Free Library of Philadelphia is having a sale… so I’m sure between those two I’ll end up shelling another $100 out for books…. Like you, I don’t know where to put them 
I need some more shelves!
on April 23rd, 2008 at 10:41 amI am so jealous but mostly because I’m close enough that I could have gone too. I’ll have to watch for that sale in the future.
on April 23rd, 2008 at 11:08 amThere’s Gap Creek again! (I’m reading these posts backward…as usual I’m behind). I’ve only driven by the library in Salt Lake, but it certainly looks impressive. Our libraries must be so similar–we seem to share a lot of the same books! Our booksale is in July and I can hardly wait (although I think I might scale back this year–running out of room!)
on April 23rd, 2008 at 11:14 amI remember going to the library sale in Portland, OR when I lived out there. This was pre-kids so I dragged my hubby out of bed early and we took the train downtown. We got there early and there was a line snaking down several city blocks. We finally got it and oh what fun! So many great books at such great prices! The hardest part was getting them all home on the train! We were loaded down! There also used to be a great book sale every year at Pioneer Square in Portland. Again, I would take the train down and heft all the books back home. I love book sales!
on April 23rd, 2008 at 11:18 amWow! Wow, wow, wow! Dang, I could’ve gone too. Maybe. Maybe I was still out cruising though.
But there is sale coming up here in my neighborhood, not at the library, but just at their house. So I’m excited for that.
(Thanks for visiting my blog. Glad you found me!)
on April 23rd, 2008 at 11:32 amWhat an awesome library! Congrats on all of your purchases!
on April 23rd, 2008 at 2:00 pmI am so jealous…..
on April 23rd, 2008 at 5:43 pmomg…I’m soooooo jealous!!!! what an amazing library and such a bargain on all those books!!!
on April 23rd, 2008 at 6:52 pmThanks everybody for your awesome comments. If I say so myself, I’m quite proud of my new little collection.
We had these nice volunteers who would take our grocery carts full of books out to the car for us. I heard a few people talking inside and saying that’s all the books we can take, we can’t take them all on the train. I don’t know how you would lug that many books home on a train.
on April 23rd, 2008 at 8:05 pmI see you bought the Westing Game!
Oh what a cruel, cruel post. *Tarie weeps from envy*
on April 24th, 2008 at 12:58 amoh, i’m so envious!
i love the book shots. and woot!
lots of books to own.
am i eligible to join your giveaway?
i reside in the Philippines (Asia).
hmm. *sigh*
on April 24th, 2008 at 5:35 amWhat great pictures! I love book sales like this- they remind me that the chain bookstores are just not for me. I like the notion of digging around and finding surprises, not to mention that you can get so many more books for the same money.
on April 24th, 2008 at 7:27 amI love pictures of people’s book collections. It suffices when I can’t get to a sale myself.
Wow, what a fantastic haul. I just went to a book sale and it wasn’t too fruitful. And I even had to wait in line to get in!
on April 24th, 2008 at 9:45 amLiving in a town with a not so great library, I am jealous by the look of yours - just beautiful!
on April 24th, 2008 at 7:20 pmTarie - So I take it that The Westing Game is really good then?
I’ll read it sooner than later.
Ivan Girl - Yeah, for this particular contest I have to restrict to those in the U.S. simply because I have ten winners. I can’t take the risk of even half going out of the U.S. If I did, I’d be broke before I know it. But stick around, future contests won’t always be that way.
TheElementary - I love going to the secondhand shop to find “surprises.” It gives you a little thrill.
Tara - Thank goodness no line, but once inside you could hardly move.
Stephanie - Great isn’t it? Don’t make it too often to this one, but I love just going inside. It’s amazing.
on April 24th, 2008 at 7:42 pmOk, that is a GOREGOUS building! Our little library doesn’t begin to compare. You got a great haul. I love photos of books almost as much as I love my own stacks. A lot of really popular stuff there too- I noticed 19 minutes, and The boy in the striped pajamas, both of which I’ve seen in the blog rounds lately. Our library sell is always so sad and pathetic that I don’t even bother any more.
on April 26th, 2008 at 5:56 pmLisa - They even have all kinds of little shops - a garden shop, book store, cafe, flower shop. I believe that the building itself has won many awards for it’s innovative architecture. I visit our county branch library most often and don’t make it to this one as often as I would like, but when I do, I think, man, how did I get so lucky!
on April 26th, 2008 at 10:49 pmThat is the most beautiful library I have ever seen! We like our library because it is right on the lake, but it doesn’t hold a candle to this one. And what a haul you got, way to go!
on April 27th, 2008 at 4:53 amI have two sisters in the Salt Lake City area and have had the privilege to visit your beautiful library. It was too short of visit! But also impressive is the park on the roof with the beautiful views. Love it!
on April 27th, 2008 at 11:04 amWow, I’m so jealous!
I think I’d leave those stacks lying around my house for ages so I can look at them over and over again! 
on April 28th, 2008 at 9:30 amI am jealous. Not only of your haul but of that absolutely gorgeous library!
on April 30th, 2008 at 10:58 pm