“FILLED WITH A NUMBER OF THINGS. . . “

“The world is so full of a number of things/I’m sure we should all be as happy as kings!”    That was a little couplet I grew up with in my children’s set of books, edited by Olive Beaupre Miller.

I wrote in the last posting about the terrible tragedy that hit close to this home and then the need for all of us to … then …  go on.   And we do.     So, a little “dazed,”  I took part in one of my favorite local “things”  –  our library’s Used Book Sale.     Come with me, see how it was:

Well, that’s a LaCrosse field.  Together with soccer games,  there were eight fields in use by the children at school, and consequently all the parking lots were overflowing.So   —   You get to park “out of the lines”  (of the parking lot)  and wherever you want to!   Or wherever you can find room for your car.

Then a walk to the right building, following the signs:

It’s not that round, gray building, it’s the white one,  way, way over in the distance.   It’s been a half-mile walk.    A fast one,  because I love books.     And then – a familiar sign:

First glimpse through the door at what awaits.    And it’s another familiar sight.

Those are the people at the table that you’ll see on your way out.  They’ll count your books and take your money.  And they’re waiting!

A little conversation and hello to friends,  but mostly we’re all pretty seriously concentrating on book titles –

Who can resist books for 25 cents?   50 cents?   Or be wildly extravagant and choose a specialty book for $1.00 or $3.00!

Each table holds one category of books.    Fiction, Science Fiction,  Music,   Crafts,  Business,  Computers,  Foreign Language, Mysteries,  History,  Religion.      Here’s the Cooking –

There are many, many audio books and CDs and DVDs  too.

But by now we notice the room is hot and stuffy, and our backs hurt from bending over and our arms begin to protest holding all those books we picked out.    As exciting as it is to arrive,  it begins to feel that it’s time to go.

Check out with the nice people who chat about your book selection as they count up the cost for you.  I had chosen a big audio book set of Homer:  the Iliad and the Odyssey.   I’ve been reading them and studying them for some time now, so I thought I’d have them on in the background and listen to the cadences of the words –  in English,  but nevertheless they were meant to be heard.   I was astonished when the man who was checking my books said,  “You’ll like Fagles!”

Fagles?    Fortunately he went on to discuss various translators, and he explained that Robert Fagles is his favorite translator of Homer.    “He’s the best,”   the man said.    I thanked him for that assurance;  kind of an affirmation that I had chosen well, however inadvertently.

No matter how much you know about something,  there is always someone who knows far, far more than you do.

As I left the book room,  I glanced upwards:

Familiar sign,  new date.   There’ll be a next time.

I was fairly restrained in my book choosing this time.   I walked out with all my books carried in one hand.     Holding a large bag.

Then I got to do something unusual – way out of bounds! –  driving deliberately on the grass at school.

A few weeks ago my house had a little “accident.”    All by itself a book shelf let go and collapsed….

I’m not surprised.  It was overstuffed anyway.   I sort of fixed the shelf, worked around the broken little supports – and then I solved the problem permanently:   I bought another book case to thin out the shelves a little!

And then I had a little empty space in the new bookcase….  just in time for the Used Book Sale.

“The world is so full of a number of things/I’m sure we should all be as happy as kings!”