The 33th Annual, 2012Friends of the Library Book sale.

• Dates: Saturday and Sunday February 25-26, 2012, 9am - 5:30pm
• Members Only: Friday, February 24, 2012, 5:30pm-9pm
  Join online for $10.
• Location: Oklahoma Expo Hall, State Fairgrounds, OKC

Each year the theme changes, but one thing never changes -- it's an amazing sale with enough books to keep many hundreds of bibliophiles satisfied. The reason they are all smiling is the sheer number of books, estimated at over 400,000, and the cheap prices.

Most hardback books can be purchased for a dollar or two and paperbacks for fifty cents. But if you wanted to be a big spender, the Collectors Choice area is the spot to be. Books that are barely "read" can be purchased for $2.00 to $3.00.
Hours before the doors open the parking lot fills with cars from different states. Folks line up surrounded by empty shopping carts, boxes and plastic bins on luggage carts. Anyone who has been there before comes prepared, but the cleverest person was someone who came with a few dozen flat cardboard boxes and a roll of shipping tape. The boxes were assembled as needed. It was a light bulb moment for me, why didn't I ever think of doing that?

The first time I took my (adult) daughter, she laughed when she saw me bringing a two wheeled shopping cart. She wasn't laughing an hour later as we both filled it to the brim. Susan collects baseball memorabilia and found a treasure trove of baseball books on the sports tables. Meanwhile I found enough mysteries and suspense books to keep me busy until the next year.

I also bought a half dozen price guides ($4 - $7.), a huge Webster Dictionary ($3.), and the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations ($1.75). The two of us bought 53 books for $109.

Page Two -- Auction area and the history of the sale.