Book Fairs, Library Sales - Dates & Times

[judy-oz]

Let's continue the great thread from the 'old' boards and share information about Library Sales, Book Fairs

[peteepie]

Correction

My apologies, the book fair at St. Michaels, Kalorama is on Sat 18/6 & Sun 19/6.

Not 11-12/6 as noted above.

[peteepie]

reviews we 11-12/6

Toorak library  11/6

All books $2  all categories.  small to mediumsize sale.  More non-fiction than fiction.

Surprisingly for a library sale fiction not alphabetical.   5/10

St . Michaels Camberwell  11/6

50/50 fiction/non-fiction.  Small-medium size (smaller than expected)

Fiction mainly p/b.  $3-$5 unsorted.  bit disappointed.  5/10

Miners Rest Community Hall Market  12/6

Book fair held in room at back of hall.  They try to give you stuff on the way in-I took a University of Ballarat cap for that ejoocated look.  

95% fiction, 80% p/b.  Most hard covers are library books, p/b donated.  Quality variable, but a lot of good ones.

There are a lot of books crammed in here in whatever order they come out of the store room.  I enjoyed fossicking through them and the very friendly atmosphere.  Good quality free bags for your books.  Payment for books is by donation tossed into their barrel  Sausage sizzle, raffle, locally made products in the fair section.

Loved this fair but imagine there isn't a great amount of turnover between fairs every 2 months.  8/10

visit to Clunes  12/6     (15 minutes from Miners Rest)

Clunes in non-booktown mode is still a book town.  Several stalls around at about $3 p/b, $5 h/c.  A number of book shops open.  Personal favourite to visit is "Index on Literature" on the corner of Bailey and Service Sts.  Great range of beautiful, quality books in great condition (starting at $16!), in a warm, pleasant atmosphere  Best range of short storiy anthologies I've ever seen.  Clunes Farmers Market operates on the second Sunday of the month which lines up with the Sunday Miners Rest book fairs (note the two book fairs held in summer on on Friday evenings.

[peteepie]

review of St. Michaels Kalorama 19/6

A beautiful spot but the book fair was half the size of the last two.  Maybe because they had a car boot fair on Saturday as well and I didn't get there until one o'clock Sunday.  Maybe they are concentrating less on the books as it seems they have a new Vicar.  Anyway only bought three books for $7.  Disappointed in that side of it, thought the setting is lovely and sausages always taste great.  5/10 

Had better luck on the way home at Bayswater Vinnies (see op shop thread)

nb   The stars have aligned with Canberra Book Fair 24-26/6, Camden Book Fair (near Campbelltown) 25,26/6, and the mighty Blues playing at the Sydney Olympic precinct 25/6.  Taking the opportunity to combine books and footy in a lightning 3 day raid, report to follow!

[peteepie]

The lost weekend 24-26/6/16    starring peteepie, no Oscar though.

Friday worked til 4.30am, hit the road 5.30, still copped a glancing blow from Melbourne traffic around Point Cook.  Arrived Canberra right on 2.00, checked into Mercure (pretty luxurious, $114 on booking.com) and headed for...

Southside Book Fair at Erindale Vikings Club  24/6

Blah!  A quarter of the size of the big fair in canberra earlier this year, probably similar in size to Geelong.  Similarity to Geelong ends there.  50/50 fiction/nf.  Fiction nearly all paperbacks.  Prices as marked in pencil inside.  Majority $3-$5.  H/c virtually non-existant, and pricing all over the place with many ordinary small p/b's costing $4.  Unsorted.  Lots of volunteers who largely seemed to be just reading and getting in the way.  Quite a lot of cd's and dvd's for $2 and up.  Bought 7 books for $23.  Very, very disappointing   3/10

Buggered, early night.  Slept in because the bed was so comfortable.  Lucky the Mercure has 11.00 checkout.  Hit the road at 10.20, arrived Camden a bit after 1.00.  Camden feels like the last country town before Sydney.  Within 5 minutes of leaving Camden you are in big city traffic, but Camden itself is a pretty spot.  Might stay here a couple of nights next year because

Camden Book Fair  25/6

is very good.  Medium sized fair that is probably 60% non fiction.  Huge kids section at 10 for a dollar.  Other books as marked in pencil with most $1-$2.  Bags $2 and gold coin donation entry.  Heaps of quality h/c.  Two sections of older books.  A lot of "interesting" books.  Noted the h/c were generally very good condition but quite a few had writing on the flyleafs.  Volunteers attentive and helpful, very friendly fair all round.  Had a special going when I walked in; all cookbooks for a dollar.  Bought 21 books for $30.  Very happy, will call in again tomorrow on the way home.  8/10

Now the panic...checked in at Ibis Budget in Campbelltown (next door to Hooters, at $69 is overpriced but it's clean), and battled the Sydney traffic confusion to get to Spotless Stadium 5 minutes before the first bounce.  Lost by ten goals but it was nice to get food at the footy at normal prices at least.  Skipped the ice hockey.  Would have liked to see  Wayne Gretzky in person but $92 for the cheapest seat was beyond the pale.  Could have gone to the rugby next door, but, well, it's rugby.  Back to my friend the telly and another early night.  Up early enough Sunday to get back to Camden on the way home.

Camden Book Fair revisit 26/6

Table are all still stacked full.  As soon as you take one the crew are replacing it.  There are still huge boxes on pallets around the edge full of books.  At least a pallet load of kids books still packed despite the huge amount of them on display (10 for a dollar as mentioned above).  Even more h/c fiction than yesterday-an extra couple of tables worth.  Picked up 19 books including a couple of dearer ones at $6 and $8.  Nice surprise when I got to the checkout and the lady just counted them and announced $19.  Tempted to go back but decided to leave a few fish for the next person.  Spent nearly an hour here and I still had to get back to Geelong.  9/10 today.

Home at eight.  Bed.

nb:  Camden had so many books still packed that I'd have liked to have been able to go back for another visit later on Sunday.  They operated 9-4 both days.

[peteepie]

coming soon (28/6/16)

rated where known

1,2,5/7  Altona Library

             9.30-1.00 each day  7/10

2,3/7     Abbotsford convent moved to 23,24/7 due to election, see below

2/7        Glenroy book market

             Wiseman house, St. Matthews, Melbourne Avenue Glenroy 

             first Saturday of each month, 10-12

8-10/7  Bega book fair  (rotary club fair)

            Bega showgrounds  Fri, Sat 9-5, Sun 9-1

            Looks like a nice size fair and not too crowded.

9,10/7  Yarragon book fair

            Yarragon Public Hall, Campbell St, Yarragon.  9-4 each day

             $1 p/b, $2.50 h/c, $5 box of kids and cook books

             fundraiser for local fire brigade.

9/7       Williamstown book sale

            104 Ferguson St, Williamstown.  

            second Saturday each month, 10-12.45  6/10

21/7     Bairnsdale library book sale

            Nicholson St Mall.  Library books and donations.

            Third Thursday each month, 2-4.30

14-24/7  Melbourne Rare Book Week 

              see their web site for events

22-24/7  Melbourne Rare Book Fair  (part of Melb Rare Book Week)

              Wilson Hall, Melbourne Uni.  Fri 6-9, Sat/Sun 10-5

              Antiquarian book fair; bring your wallet/credit card.

23,24/7 Abbotsford convent book and music fair

             1 St. Heliers St, Abbotsford.  9-5 each day.

             Books, sheet music, CD's and vinyl records.  Believe books are $1-$3 range.  Gets a big crowd.

             Pretty spot; pack a picnic.

29,30/7  Albert Park Writers Festival book fair   (rotary club fair)

              Albert Park College, 83 Danks St, Albert Park.  Fri 6.30-8, Sat 10-4

              "offering an extensive range of books at bargain prices"

              13th year of this fair.

30,31/7   Emerald Library book sale

               Emerald Hall next to library, 400b Belgrave-Gembrook Road.  9-3 both days.

               Books .50 cents to $5

note Daylesford Primary book fair moved back from first weekend August to 3,4 September this year.

[peteepie]

Have started a very basic blog on book fairs.  It's not a lot different to this but at least it can be updated easily.  Early stages but you can see it at "bookfairsblog.wordpress.com".  

[sqaukibuf]

I have bookmarked your blog Pete. Wish I'd thought of doing that years ago, in the heyday of this board. A few of us did have a closed FB group that has long bit the dust.

I went to the Yarragon book fair today. I always enjoy this book fair, you can leave your bags of books at the register to be looked after while you still browse. $5 per bag of kids, teens, sci fi & fantasy (that was 90% fantasy) and romance. I found lots for ebay and for my website, some for family & even a couple for me. The volunteers are a pleasure to deal with, handing out bags for free, helping find certain book series in the teen section, offering to carry bags to cars, 2 CFA people even used their fire truck to take my haul of 8 or 9 bags & full granny trolley to the train station for us. My lower back problem was very appreciative, just above & beyond they went. I think this is the 10th year I have been to it and I highly recommend it. No mrforgetfulsbooks this year but his offsider was there. Did you make it Pete?

[serendipityricho]

Hi Sqauk-attended as well-you must have been in the..tent with the ,kids books.

Mr forgetful is on holidays-but his loyal worker Dennis was there-filling bags.

I was very happy spending $27.00 on 15 local books that i collect.

Echo your thoughts on how well it was run-gets better every year.

Lucky i got there at 8.30-doors opened a few minutes later.................Richo.

[sqaukibuf]

Hi Richo. We had brekkie at the cafe with a fireplace cos train got us there before 8, coffee was great, food we ordered not as good as expected. So we got to the hall around 8.45 & realised it was open already. Straight to the back room with the teen books for me. My Aspy teen was helping Dennis at times, plus "helping" the lady restocking the teens books table and very helpfully letting her know which books his mum wanted. I have trained him well.

[serendipityricho]

Hi Sqauk.

Great you have another pair of hands and eyes--being trained up.

I went straight to the Australian book section inside the door of the back room.

A quick ferret before others arrived and was gone by 9.15.

Happy hunting...................Richo..