For the last several years, I’ve told my family: Don’t buy me roses, I’ll grow my own. Don’t give me chocolate. I love it, but am diabetic.  Dinner. Ehh.  NO!  Get up early, put  coffee in the thermos, and go with me to the  VNSA Annual Book Sale.

This 600,000-book extravaganza has become a destination event for our family every Valentine’s weekend.  The first year we didn’t know what we were doing, and we ambled into the Fairgrounds building mid-morning on Sunday. Everything was half-price and cheap as dirt, but the books were pretty picked over.  So the next year we eased out of bed earlier and stood in line with the Sunday morning crowd.  We needed a shopping cart to carry the books the three of us picked out (yes, they provide shopping carts at the sale).  

The following year, we decided if Sunday morning provided such bounty, Saturday morning would be a goldmine.  It was, but what a zoo!  The line outside was nearly a half-mile long, and the Fire Marshall was letting the line of people in by small groups.  We had to take a number and wait nearly two hours for a shopping cart. That  didn’t stop me from shopping, but my shoulders were  so sore from lugging book bags, I couldn’t raise my right arm when we got home.

This year, I have a plan. We’re arriving 30 minutes after opening to let the initial flood – the ones who have been in line overnight – stampede the place and paw through the stacks for their literary holy grails.  I’m not (quite) that desperate, although I would like a couple of early date Nancy Drews. AND – we’re bringing our own rolling suitcases, one for each of us.

 I’ll be in the Wicca (Religion/New Age), Suspense/Science Fiction, General Fiction,  after an initial stop at the Ye Olde section (for Nancy). Last year I got the three Mary Stewart books about Merlin (hardback, $1.50 each), Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell (sorry, Hummingbird!),  a really weird Umberto Eco novel, Pillars of the Earth, The Mists of Avalon.  This year, I’m going to finish out my Neal Stephenson baroque cycle series (tough reading, but great), and pick up some Mercedes Lackey and Lilith Saint Crow for fast reads.  Anything you want me to look for??

 Hubby Paul will plow through the photography books, as well as the Western section for Louis L’Amor novels for his father-in-law. Ian will head straight for the computer section. He also likes to “prowl” for overlooked treasures. One year, someone found a letter signed by Theodore Roosevelt stuck between the pages of a history book. There have been $100 bill bookmarks.  Yes, you are allowed to keep them.  I figure Ian’s odds here are as good as my husband’s when he buys lottery tickets.

The $100 or so we’ll spend for those three full suitcases goes to a good cause. For 53 years, VNSA has been having this sale to raise money for state nonprofit human service agencies.  For the last two decades, it’s been the AZ Friends of Foster Children Foundation, Literacy Volunteers of Maricopa County, and Toby House, a treatment facility for mentally ill adults.  Nearly 5 ½ million dollars to date.