Lifeline Bookfest Redux
Posted 18 January 2009 in Books by Catriona
“Lifeline booksale,
Lifeline booksale,
Booksale,
Booksale,
Lifeline booksale!”
Thus goes my usual pre-Lifeline Bookfest song, which I’ll admit isn’t actually any more impressive when sung than it is when written down. (And, yes, it is technically called the Lifeline Bookfest rather than the Booksale, but booksale works better for my song.)
Still, the song does give some vague sense of how much I enjoy the Lifeline Bookfest every six months.
This January’s sale (which isn’t over yet, but Nick would have a fit if I suggested going a second time) wasn’t quite filled with the delights of last June’s sale, which was—for some reason that is still inexplicable to me—packed with paperback copies of obscure but fabulous Victorian novels.
But I’ve never yet left a Lifeline Bookfest empty-handed and I don’t intend to start now. So I defaulted to detective fiction:
Actually, I’m pretty pleased with that pile. Any sale where you find four Reginald Hill novels you didn’t already own is a good sale. (On top of not owning these four, I haven’t even read two of them, so that’s a bonus.) The Louisa May Alcott on the bottom there I’m also excited about, since it has a vast number of her pot-boilers and other stories that I don’t otherwise own.
But I also bought a number of novels on spec, mostly Kathy Reichs:
And some by authors who warrant Penguins on the spine:
See this, to me, is the fun of the Lifeline Bookfest: the books are just so absurdly inexpensive that it’s the ideal opportunity to think, “Hey, I haven’t read any Kathy Reichs yet. I wonder if she’s any good? Well, she’s got to be worth at least $2, hasn’t she?” and buy half a dozen of them.
(Which is also the theory that explains my enormous collections of Agatha Christie and Georgette Heyer novels.)
Combine this weekend’s buys with the lovely, lovely books I bought for my work at my favourite bookshop in the entire universe (note: I have not visited all the bookshops in the universe), which is also the bookshop with the world’s most alliterative name, Berkelouw’s Book Barn at Berrima, and January has been a thoroughly satisfactorily booky month so far:
Hurray!
Share your thoughts [4]
1
Wendy wrote at Jan 19, 12:32 am
I’m very envious…..
2
Catriona wrote at Jan 19, 12:59 am
Of the books or the booksale? The booksale is fabulous: perhaps second, from a professional point of view, to UQ’s Alumni booksale, which does sell many more former university library books, but then that’s only every two years, whereas the Lifeline sale is twice a year.
Then again, the Alumni sale is this year . . . I might need to think about cramming another bookcase in somewhere, if that’s possible.
3
Wendy wrote at Jan 19, 01:31 am
of the books and the booksale :)
i did get some good research stuff at the alumni one a few years ago…just can’t always guarantee to be in brisbane at the right time!
I’ve just got a new bookcase which needs filling too!
4
Catriona wrote at Jan 19, 01:58 am
I love the Alumni booksale. That’s where I find lovely critical texts—though they usually have a good children’s section, too.
Unfortunately (to use a particular use of the term “unfortunately”), my M.Phil. supervisor is heavily involved in the sale now, and she knows, firstly, that I can’t say no to a reasonably priced book, and, secondly, just which books to place temptingly in front of me.
I always end up spending a lot more money than anticipated if Joan catches my eye at the Alumni booksale.