How Many Books Can You Buy for $33?

 The Greater St. Louis Book Sale was this weekend! I always try to go on the free opening morning, standing in line early so that I can be one of the first to peruse the book tables and find gems tucked away for extremely low prices ; )  I saved up and took with me thirty-five dollars in cash, gave myself an hour and fifteen minutes from the time they opened the gates, and wheeled one of the available shopping carts provided.

My policy is to grab any book that looks good, and if after a ten-second evaluation it still looks good, put it in the cart! If you second-guess yourself, someone else will probably grab the book, so there's not a good chance you could come back later to get something you're not sure about. After an hour, I pull off to the side, choose which books I want and can afford, and put the rest in re-stock bins. It's a good system! I'm thankful that I can speed-read so that I can scan as many books as possible.

In the end, I only needed $33 this year. If I'd had more time, I'm SURE there would have been more to find, but there's a reason I set myself a time limit! Almost all of these books are only very lightly used, almost new, or have minor damage (one of the children's books has a small crayon mark on one page). Totally worth it!

This is what I purchased in 2013.

Here's what I nabbed this year!

Several favorites from my own childhood. Harmony is now a fan!

More books for Harmony that I thought she'd like.

A few books that I KNOW Harmony will like.

A replacement for my original copy of "Ballet Shoes" that was so worn it was missing the last
pages (a well-loved novel in our home), and a book by one of my favorite childhood authors.
I'm hoping to collect all the books by Kenneth Thomasma for Harmony and I
to read when she's older!

A book for Harmony and her Irish daddy to read together in a few years.

A book that several of my older students read and highly recommended. Also, a book by Louisa May Alcott
that I had no idea existed! Harmony can read them much later down the road, but I'll enjoy
them for now. 

I've always wanted to read stories by George MacDonald, so here we go!

Never pass up any C.S. Lewis books when you find them for a dollar each!

A novel/almost-autobiography by Rilke that looked interesting, and a "Skeptics Adventures
in Narnia", also quite intriguing.

I squealed out loud when I found this! Standing in line for an hour to get in right away paid off.
Most of the highly desirable books like this get picked up right away on opening morning, which is why
I made a beeline for the poetry/novel table as soon as they let me in to the sale.
 So thankful to find this one that I've been hoping to purchase for over a year! Hooray!