Francis A. Miniter wrote:
>
> You should see the feeding frenzy at the Glastonbury, Connecticut
> library book sale. It is held outside on the lawn of the library. The
> sale starts at 9:00 am, so by 8:45, hhundreds of people have encircled
> the tables outside the start line. At 9:00 sharp, a librarian sounds a
> horn or rings a bell, and everyone charges. Images of a movie I saw in
> the 50s about the great land rush with settlers' wagons wrecking
> themselves in the headlong dash always come to mind at that moment. One
> has about five minutes to find books other than those of niche interest.
Apparently the library encourages this by sounding a horn or ringing a
bell.
Frankly, one time at a book sale like this is more than enough for me.
(It seemed like this in Princeton one year, and that was a *small* sale!)
Bleh.
Let's remember that the goal of a library book sale is to raise money
for the library now. A book might sell for $50 if the right person sees
it but may sit on the shelf for years before that happens. The library
would probably rather sell it for $2 now and not worry about storing it,
etc. Our library has a continuing book sale, but certainly cannot put
all the books out at once, so books that don't sell for a while get
cycled into the back room and replaced with other books. This system
does not work well with the idea of pricing by market value.
--
Evelyn C. Leeper
Virtue is more to be feared than vice, because its excesses
are not subject to the regulation of conscience. -Adam Smith
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