
Thomas of Hogglestock and I got an early start this Saturday morning at a community book sale. He had seen signs around the neighborhood, it benefits a good cause, and we are almost always ready to take a chance on a used book sale.
The professional book sellers were already lined up when I arrived at 7:55. I have no problem with this. They do their thing. I do mine. But I always feel that they are missing out on so much. I am touching books, examining paper quality, thinking about how design is so influenced by the time of publication, remembering things I have read and books family members treasured, looking through personal notes in texts and...... I could go on a while. I bring a lot of emotional baggage to book sales. I get great happiness from the hunt, and seeing other people matched up with books they love. I would not get great happiness from super speed table searches and scanning books into my mobile. But the professionals must make a living, and I have benefited from their work when I have had to search for hard to find books.
Thomas and I always try to be good participants in the fun. No snatching or grabbing, and we neaten the tables and shelves as we look through. Just to keep things nice for the next person. Thomas goes even beyond that and will re-shelve (or table) books to their appropriate category. Today that niceness was rewarded when a volunteer asked Thomas if we would like to look through a closet of boxes that they had not been able to get to yet. Of course! The possibilities! Lead the way!

So here is our own little bookish nirvana until one of the professionals decides to nose in. He had no "nice people" invitation like we did. He just followed us, and proceeded to not only take my space but push right up against Thomas in a rude, no boundaries kind of way. Thomas tried to be nice about it, but the professional's rudeness persisted. Thomas looked a little more, but the fun had been stolen by this guy, and we gave up before looking through all the available boxes.
Most of the professionals are really nice people, bookish just like the rest of us. Inevitably though, there is always one or two of this rude variety at every sale. It is just not necessary. Come on rude bookseller from Pennsylvania (yeh, we saw you in the parking lot), just be a decent human being and a credit to your profession.

And what did I come home with today? Aside from fodder for a little rant? Three Nancy Mitford titles and an Anthony Powell edition I've been hunting for - all from Thomas. And then I bought a lovely Modern Library edition of short stories by Henry James, Empty Mansions for a guilty pleasure book that Thomas recommended, two Graham Green Penguins, a du Maurier book I have not read, a 1950s edition of The Once and Future King (too many markings inside so it may become a framed cover), a Rachman title I enjoyed and lent out but never made its way home to me, and some Julia Child letters. My daughter is a David Mitchell fan so I picked up the UK edition of Slade House for her to go with her US edition, and my son wants to read Moonwalking with Einstein which was also once in the house but disappeared with a friend.
There was also a bake sale right along side the books. Tasty. A morning well-spent with the lovely Thomas. Aside from the rude guy.