September 20, 2024
Christmas in September
I have sore arms today after schlepping my haul around the Victoria College Book Sale yesterday for two hours, but it was so worth it (and the gains, bro!). But first—it seems I’ve been remiss at posting about the Victoria College Book sale on my blog, nothing since 2016 (which was the first time I’d attended without a baby or toddler in many years). I promise I’ve been showing up since, except for during the pandemic when the sale was cancelled. On Instagram I posted about 2017 (an EXCELLENT haul!), the beautiful Barbara Pym first editions I got in 2019, last year’s stack was particularly glorious.
Once upon a time I was so broke I could only go to the sale on half-price Monday, but I’ve moved up in the world and can now afford the $5 entry on opening day, which paid off so well, because I ended up with a pile of (North American) first edition Muriel Sparks, a pristine Dutton paperback of an Elizabeth Taylor, and a copy of William Trevor’s third novel (his early works are my favourite) that is SIGNED! Plus two beautiful Vintage Contemporaries, a beautiful Percival Everett novel to follow up my reading of James, and a Debo Mitford memoir that I’ve never read (though I do have her earlier book Counting My Chickens. I wouldn’t want you to think I didn’t…)
It was especially exciting to know that I’d see my friend Amy Lavender Harris there for our annual date, that we didn’t even need to make a plan for it. We started hanging out when our children were babies, and now they’re both in high school, which means Amy and I are unencumbered as we’re rifling through cardboard boxes of musty books, same as we ever was.
Today was a significant milestone in one way, however: my first Vic Book sale in which I encountered one of my own books, blessedly not inscribed to a beloved friend. (Phew.) Look at me right there with Douglas Coupland and last year’s winner of the Giller Prize (and two books from small presses that no longer exist. Sigh.)
I also ran into two lovely people who I worked with at the Vic Library 25 years ago, back when I was a student assistant and the world’s biggest idiot.
