I used to love bookfairs but for various reasons haven't got to one for years. So was very happy to get a 'leave pass' to venture up to the Burnie (Tas) Lions Giant Book Fair a couple of weekends back... only heard of it the day before, so sorry didn't share.
They sold by the centimetre... you didn't even need to take your books out of the bag, just sling it onto the counter against the measuring stick, which I haven't seen before. It was $2/cm (or $1/2cm). They did have a small separately priced section of "collectible" books which I take to mean overpriced stuff, but for once I found some gems there (including a fantastic book on carriage design & construction which I've been searching for, and a haul of Upfields), so that area was a bit of a haven given what was happening elsewhere...
I'm clearly a bit rusty on bookfair etiquette... I arrived 20 minutes before opening and joined the crowd around the doors. The location was right on the coast, so with the still, sunny morning it was lovely looking out over the sea. But, pockets of action once inside were shameful... in the section with local history books, there were about 5 men falling over themselves just sweeping all the books off the shelves into bags, not even pretending to be selective. After a few minutes it was like the locusts had been through. And in a confined space, it was a bit hairy.
There was also a bloke arguing that the measuring stick wasn't accurate and he was being ripped off... at those prices, and with the money going to the cancer centre... just show him the door! Unbelievable.
I dropped into a Vinnies on the way home, to enjoy a more rarified retail experience... it prices their books by the page... 50cents under 250 pages, $1 over 250 pages. I've seen books sold by weight before, but don't recall seeing the page numbers approach. Made me think of Black Books.. so that has become our current evening's DVD viewing. Highly recommended to booksellers.
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