Sept. 12 - Welles-Turner Memorial Library Sale (Glastonbury)

My second venture last Saturday was to the book sale at the Welles-Turner Memorial Library in Glastonbury. I should state clearly and unequivocally that this entry should not be taken as a canonical review of this library's sales, as I've been before and had much better experiences.

I arrived late--around 1:30 p.m.--partially because I spent the morning at the Simsbury sale and partially because I got stuck in nasty I-84 traffic for about half an hour (rainy-morning accident). The latter led to my arrival in a fairly foul mood. I found a nice parking space in the public lot across the street from the library, where I've previously parked for this sale.

The Glastonbury library sale is typically held outdoors on the lawn of the library. This can be marvelous if it's nice weather, but this particular day was NOT nice weather. Their rain venue is the parking garage at the bank next door to the library, so I headed down there. While doing so, I spotted something I hadn't spotted before: the fact that there's ample parking right behind the library, which negates the need to park where I parked and scuttle across the street (not a fun feat upon a return trip to your car, if laden with books). Therefore--that's something for folks to be aware of: turn into the parking lot between the library and the bank.

The parking garage as a rain venue has the advantages of keeping folks completely dry and providing plenty of room to spread out the book tables; however, the down side is that the lighting in there is abysmal--so, although this may sound a little ridiculous, you may want to bring a small flashlight to aid in quick scanning of titles if you know the rain venue will be in use, particularly if your vision is dimming with age. There was a table of coffee and goodies on the sidelines (I didn't partake of any goodies so am not completely sure if they were complimentary or if this was a bake sale to augment the book sale--either way, it's a nice touch).

This library had another book sale several months ago (my memory is saying May, although I may be a little off). I believe that that's part of the reason that the selection really seemed to suffer this time--just not enough time between sales to "refuel" properly. My own lateness to the sale may also have contributed--it's possible that the books were picked over pretty well before my arrival. The hardcover fiction selection was pretty nice--spanned several tables--but I didn't find anything particularly desirable. Trade paperback fiction was very skimpy; some mass-market stuff for sci-fi, mystery, etc. Most of the genres seemed a little skimpy also--seemed like everyone and his nephew wanted to look at the Humor section so it took me several tries to get there, but when I did it was completely not worth it. The general nonfiction spread was pretty good--lots of political commentary from both sides. CD selection was good in quantity--about six boxes--but didn't particularly suit my taste (lots of movie soundtracks at this one, for some reason, along with the ubiquitous Backstreet Boys). The last sale had a LOT of VHS tapes, many of which carried over to this sale (about three tables worth) and a few DVDs.

The Glastonbury sales use a technique for children's book selling that I'm of two minds about. Cardboard boxes of little kids' books are typically spread out on large tarps on the ground. For direct accessibility to little kids, this display mode is really appealing, and that's something I don't see often at book sales. Most of the time, little ones have to struggle to peer over the edge of tables, and often books for them are displayed in cardboard boxes out of necessity (i.e., their slimness won't support the horizontal line-up that most adult book displays use), creating yet another visual/height barrier. With the box-on-ground method, kids can look for themselves easily. However, in contrast, it's mighty hard on older folks' knees or backs, and I have to wonder how many adults are the ones doing the real browsing and purchasing (either for their own kids or for classroom libraries like mine). This time, the kids' books seemed very picked over (about six boxes still on display, most of which were only half-full). Again, I'm not sure if this resulted from lots of earlier sale-goers or from the short time between sales--last time, I got a TON of children's books from this sale.

I ran into a friend while perusing the children's books (although it took me a minute for who she was to really register, mostly because of the terrible lighting!). She said that I was actually the one responsible for her being there, because I'd mentioned on my Facebook page that the sale was going on. Rather flattering, although I'm not sure she found too much either.

Sale staff were pleasant and attentive, although the one I dealt with didn't know who checks should be made out to. Pricing was pretty standard (DVD prices possibly a little high, at $5 a pop; CDs were $2, and I think all kids' books were 50 cents.) This time I left the sale with only one bag in toto--probably about eight kids' books, a CD and a DVD. That's very low, for me. I'll be back because I know of this sale's reputation, but were I a first-time goer, I may well have been more discouraged.

Best Finds: Innocence Mission's first album, which is rather hard to come by. A nice children's book, Ten Amazing People and How They Changed the World--I'm always interested in multiculturalism and humanitarianism for the classroom library.