Three cities, four book sales, one morning

Is it a bibliophile's dream, or nightmare? Three cities, not too far away, four used book sales — all on the same morning, this coming Saturday, Nov. 13! Oh, and did I mention I have a family reunion to get ready for by lunch time?

If you happen to be in the Piedmont Triad area, here are the sales and links for more information. Some of them have preview nights for an admission price and the church sale is also open on Friday night (definitely hitting that!), but they all end Saturday.

Archdale Library - 9 am to 1 pm Saturday, in Archdale

Pages Past, Used and Rare Books - 10 am to 6 pm Saturday (and earlier) in Greensboro

Hinshaw United Methodist Church - 8 am to noon (or 1pm) Saturday (and earlier dates) in Greensboro

High Point Library - 9 am to 3 pm Saturday (yes it's Nov. 13, don't be fooled by the prominent post date), in High Point

A friend of mine gave me a sneak peak into one of these sales earlier this week. There I was, in a roomful of books, all by myself — did he expect me to ever come out?!

Feeling very privileged and not wanting to wear that welcome out, I brought a modest stack up to the counter to purchase and then drove home a happy woman.

I admit I bought a couple of Modern Library classics on spec (in other words, I don't plan to read them but sell them), by Faulkner and Cervantes. I bought a book club collection of James Blish's Star Trek stories. Remember all that fan fiction? I used to devour those in high school. I added a modern reprint of C.S. Lewis' Mere Christianity, because I've heard so many references to it.

I looked at some of the new nonfiction history tomes, and — I couldn't believe it — found an autographed copy of Morgan's Boone. A proof copy of Climbing the Stairs caught my eye because of the Indian films I've been watching and it looked interesting. And finally, I bought The Year of Fog, because I read the back of the book and couldn't wait to find out what happens. Isn't that one of the best reasons to get a book, after all?

So, what do I do? Limited budget, limited hours, and book sales everywhere! I also have to be a proper Southern woman and cook for our family gathering, which I helped orchestrate and have badgered everybody about for the past two months. But since it's not at my house, I could sneak away for an hour or two...

Should I just open my own book store now?