My fingers wrap around your words

Tonight I broke into a little dance when I left the library.

Sadly, that’s not an entirely unusual thing; I think it’s becoming an annual tradition. The occasion? The Friends of Emmet O’Neal Library Book Sale.

Last year was my first visit to the sale, and the trip resulted in the purchase of 36 books for $7. I’ve been talking about the event ever since.

My strategy this year was to begin with the Friends Preview Party on Thursday night, then return on Sunday for last-minute bargains. With my fellow bibliophile Monica in tow, I wrote my check to become a Friends member, grabbed a book tote and faced the books.

I intended to use today only for books that were absolute must-haves. I’d already snagged a few while volunteering with the Friends group over the past month, and I knew there would be plenty of classics left on Sunday. I’m running out of shelving space in my tiny apartment, and frankly I haven’t finished reading all of last year’s purchases. (Perhaps I should tally that number!) 

$54 later, I was set for the night. There was only one book in my stack that I questioned its must-have value, but it was a $2 purchase–so why not?

1. Downtown Birmingham Architectural and Historial Walking Tour Guide by Marjorie White, the Birmingham Historical Society
2. The Art of Eating by MFK Fisher (includes Serve it Forth, Consider the Oyster, How to Cook a Wolf, The Gastronomical Me and An Alphabet for Gourmets) (one of the big finds of the evening! Can’t believe I only paid $2 for this)
3. Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg
4. Big Fish by Daniel Wallace (yes I’ve read it, but I didn’t own it)
5. Chez Panisse Menu Cookbook by Alice Waters (this is the other big find!!!)
6. Wayside School is Falling Down by Louis Sachar (I loved these books as a child!)
7. A Thin Difference by Frank Turner Hollon (have read two of his books, big fan, plus he’s a Bama boy)
8. The God File by Frank Turner Hollon
9. Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein (for $2. SERIOUSLY.)
10. The New York Times Large Print Big Book of Easy Crosswords (for my grandfather!)
11. Endless Feasts: Sixty Years of Writing from Gourmet edited by Ruth Reichl
12. Early Days in Birmingham: A Printing of the Original Papers of the Pioneers Club whose Members were Eye-Witnesses to the Events of the Founding of the City (I just thought that was too cute to pass on! I love Birmingham history.)
13. Somebody Told Me: The Newspaper Stories of Rick Bragg
14. Leaving Birmingham by Paul Hemphill (one I’d been hunting for two years!)
    
15. The Prince of Frogtown by Rick Bragg
    
16. Gilead by Marylynne Robinson
    
17. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman
    
18. Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi