bumper book shopping

Book, book, book, book, book, book, book...

Way back in the dawn of time when I was a wee lad (okay, maybe not THAT wee... but I would still have been in some form of schooling) one of the libraries near our house would have regular book sales (and I count it as a proper "book sale" when fiction books are about 50 cents a piece or less). Big ass book sales too, like "hire out a big educational gymnasium" type book sales... which is why any number of books in my shelves have library shelf stickers on them...

But the last proper book sale was probably over ten years ago, and the only book sale that has come close in recent memory was back in October last year... and it took me a long while to find anything I wanted... plus I don't think I've read more than a couple of those books yet...

Which brings me around to today...

Prospect Library (which, I guess really means Prospect Council) had a book sale this morning (which Ma and I found out about when we stopped off at the Library during SALA)... so after we'd done a very early bout of shopping (I think it turned out that way because firstly I went out to meet Ma at the car when she got here and we went straight out and secondly because I don't think I bought that much stuff, or at least bought stuff quickly) we headed over to Prospect Town Hall and rocked up just a few minutes before the doors opened.

We also discovered Honeysuckle Lane, a little backstreet/laneway near the Town Hall that is sanctioned as a place for street art... I'm going back tomorrow (weather permitting) with my camera to take some snaps...

Anyway, there was a massive line stretching around the front of the building, but because we came from the back of the building, we chose to ignore the line and just stand with a bunch of other pushy people near the doors... and got in pretty damn quickly... woohoo...

I will say that I was in Book Pig Heaven... I snatched up my first book (not that I have any idea what it was) within about the first minute or so and didn't look back, dumping everything in an empty cardboard box. I'm not sure how long we were there, and we might have stayed longer, but the other book sale participants that made me want to leave, rather than running out of books to look for... these people had no idea about Book Sale Etiquette! Grrrr...

Anyway, I think I ended up with about fifteen books and Ma wasn't far behind... then we came home to unpack the groceries and compare book purchases...

Of course, because Ma and I sometimes think with one single mind (which is both scary and wrong, but not really surprising) we both thought it would be an idea to go back again after we'd finished at my place. And it was...

There were a ton less people, and I found a bunch more books... I ended up with 35 books in total (including the original fifteen), for about the price of an average paperback ($17.50)... and some of the books were essentially brand new... there were a mix of library books and donated books, so some of them don't even look like they've been read once. Woohoo!

Sure there are books that I'm not sure why the hell I bought them... and some that I have a feeling I'm either never going to get around to reading or else read and wish I hadn't bothered. It was a case of going "I'm not really sure about this... but, hey, 50 cents!"... and as I said to Ma, we can always pile up any of the crap ones and send them back to Prospect Library for their next sale...

Anyway, after much book-related joyfulness we headed down the road to Makin Mattresses... since I'd gotten all inspired last week to replace my bed with something new, it seemed like a sensible first stop on the quest for a bed... I was actually surprised, given the enormous size of the building, at how few mattresses there were on display... but then it's their factory as well as the showroom, so I guess it makes sense when you think about it.

We wandered about a bit and then were set upon by Nice Salesman... who was actually quite nice and fairly helpful, I guess I was just taken aback by the price of a decent mattress. I was leaning in the direction of the latex type (partially because I thought it would be cheaper), but it seems that they have pretty much the Rolls Royce of latex mattresses... $1895, just for the mattress! Which just seems very steep to me... granted he was talking about the mattress lasting about 25 years (by which point I would be about 60, which is scary)... but he also said something about the people who invented the latex stuff saying that it could last up to 100 years (by which point I probably wouldn't need it anymore)... I'm not exactly sure on that bit, I think I'd gone into retail shock by that point.

On the one hand, having a mattress that's going to last for 25 years at least makes sense... although the one I have at the moment was like a $90 piece of crap from somewhere and it's mostly lasted at least ten years, although it's all lumpy and awful now... but dropping over two grand (once you factor in the frame I was looking at from Ikea) on a bed does seem a trifle excessive to me. And I kinda wanted to buy it all by myself, with my tax cheque which wasn't anywhere near that much... so essentially I am a world of indecision at present.

After the Mattress Shock, we went down to Arndale for a little bit... I got a new, yet cheap-ass, mop and bucket... I've never really liked my mop, even less so after last Monday's cleaning frenzy, and this one looks like it will dry better afterwards. Granted it will probably fall apart in five minutes, but you get that...

We finished off the day with a trip down to Glenelg for pies from Orange Spot by the sea and a somewhat pointless wander along Jetty Road...

Now all I have to do is find somewhere on my already full bookshelves for all these new books... *sigh*... and it might also be time to snap a photo of my bookshelves again...

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