Are You Finding What You’re Looking For?

What are you looking for when you go to a book sale?

Books, of course! you might say. But today I discovered that in the lives of us humans, there’s much more to it than that.

It’s tempting to think that “book people” are all the same, but after two and a half hours at the St. Philip’s annual book sale today, I encountered enough quirky characters to fill a Jan Karon novel.

This book sale was one that I’d been looking forward to ALL YEAR LONG. And as the much-anticipated date on the calendar finally got closer and closer, the health of a loved one began to decline. So as I drove to this book sale, I knew I wasn’t just looking for books. I was looking for something to brighten my spirits through the simple act of quiet browsing, good deals, and some human connection.

Human connection.

Well, there were humans there, all right! I wasn’t quite prepared for what I encountered there upon my arrival.

I encountered a cast of quirky characters that rivaled any found between the pages of a small town slice-of-life novel on the shelves.

First, there was the guy near me in the fantasy section, mindlessly picking up books and stuffing them into his shopping bag as fast as possible. Did he even know what he was putting in his bag? He was acting like he hadn’t eaten in a week and had just found a table full of pie. Excuse me, sir, are you going to eat all that? What exactly is going on here? were questions I would have liked to ask him if circumstances had been different.

And then there was the guy in the science section informing his companion as they browsed, “See, I’ve read this one. And I’ve read that one. I’ve read all of these. I’ve read that one, I’ve read that one, I’ve read that one….” (You get the idea.)

Next, there was the guy carting around multiple crates of books on a cart behind him as he went through the rows of books. It looked like he worked there, but he was actually shopping. I noticed him after hearing an older lady saying loudly to her husband, “I want to just LOOK at the book. I’m just going to LOOK at it. I’m not going to buy it; I’m not going to TAKE it. I just want to LOOK at it.” I turned to see the cart-hauling man look genuinely confused as the lady then picked up a book off his cart and browsed his chosen merchandise.

A little while later, I began to hear an overly sweet-sounding voice of a mother entering the sale with her children. I noticed her because her “whisper” to the kids was so loud, it was actually more disruptive to the scene than whispers are usually intended to be. I ended up saying some silent prayers for her as she turned out to be the mother of children who would soon begin screaming angrily at the top of their lungs on a regular basis.

Mixed in with this cast of characters were the men (yes, more than one) who decided that they were going to browse near me—slowly browsing closer and closer—likely thinking I’d either look up at them or move out of their way and give up my spot in the browsing line-up. (I decided to do neither, and felt victorious in my small, silent stands for myself.)

I’d waited a year for this sale.

Was I finding what I was looking for?

That wasn’t just a question I was asking myself. A friendly, well-meaning book sale volunteer caught my attention and asked if she could help me find anything. This was, no doubt, because she had seen me there for over an hour, and could see that I was still only holding two books in my hands after all that time. I smiled and told her, “No, I’m good, thanks,” and then quickly became self-conscious.

I could have told her it’s been hard to see ALL the books, what with the large crowds and close-browsing characters, but instead I ramped up my book-hunting skills and decided to finally take a look inside a group of large bags filled with donated books on the floor that seemed to be waiting to be shelved. I had seen them a couple of hours ago when I first got there, but had avoided looking through them, feeling sheepish about whether it was “allowed” or not.

As I finally decided to dive in and search through the potential untouched treasure trove, I suddenly heard a woman saying, “Excuse me. Those are my books.”

For some reason, the first thing out of my mouth was, “Oh. Really? They’ve been there for quite a while!” and that was the end of that exchange.

Then I walked away and browsed a nearby shelf I’d browsed many times before, as I marveled at the fact that “oh really they’ve been there for quite a while” was the first thing out of my mouth when confronted about the books. Why did I say that? Where did that even come from? Where was my filter—I didn’t even THINK about those words before they came out. That was so weird, and she should really label those books as SOLD!

Was I finding what I was looking for?

I continued to browse, and thankfully, the crowds began to disperse—making way for me to eventually find three more books that I wanted.

It was during this last browse-through that an older woman looking at books right next to me (but not too close) suddenly asked, “I’m not really sure of the pricing here. Do you know what they’re charging?”

Ah. Sweet relief. Someone with a good vibe who felt comfortable enough with me to ask a vulnerable question. I instantly liked her and wanted to be helpful. I told her what I thought was likely the pricing system, based on things I had seen online. She smiled cheerfully, thanked me, and we parted ways.

I decided it was finally time to check out and pay for my books. As I approached the checkout area, I saw that I had been slightly wrong on the pricing I had told the older lady. I went back to the book area to find her, and when I did, I let her know what the actual pricing system was.

“That’s so nice of you to come back and tell me! Thank you!” she responded as she gave me a warm smile.

And just like that, I realized that I really did find what I was looking for today.






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