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A Frustrating Return to the Friends of the Library Book Sale
To say the pickings were slim is too generous
As an unrepentant book hunter, I love the sales held every year by local libraries or their supporting Friends of the Library organizations. Living in a large metropolitan area, pre-COVID I could count on there being a sale in a nearby town almost every week, and though the pandemic brought that to a halt for roughly two years, they are starting back up this spring.
Of all the local library sales, the one I love most is held by the Friends of the Arlington Library. Rather than an annual sale, they hold two each year, one in October and one in April, and the recreation center where the sale is held is special to me as well. It’s in the neighborhood where I grew up, and it is on the very basketball court where the tables of books stand that I first dreamed of being Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Forget MJ, Kobe, and LeBron; Kareem was the greatest NBA player ever.
So, for both the books and the nostalgia, I make the trek to the old neighborhood twice a year, and because the sale is held during the day I don’t have to bring a shotgun and body armor. As a kid, I didn’t know I lived on the wrong side of town; today there’s no way to miss it. But I digress.
