Books, books, and more books

There is an organization called the VNSA who have a annual book sale out at the county fair grounds.  Thankfully it is not the livestock building because that's where the Tattoo Expo was, obviously.  Basically the VNSA collects donated books throughout the year and then they have this book sale the second weekend of February.  The proceeds are distributed to other non-profits.  The Sunday is 50% off day.  So books that are MSRP at like $15 are resold here for $4 and on Sunday you can get it for $2.  Hell.of.a.deal. I tell you!

This is my nightstand to give you an
idea. 

So for the past four years Schmacey and I wake up early and grab Starbucks and load up a ginormous bag with as many books as we can manage.  The year The Boy was born I had the C-Section incision but that did not slow me down.  And the year Schmacey was like 8 months pregnant, she took a slightly smaller bag.  Every year I've spent roughly $40-50 and the stack of books will keep me in reading until the next year's sale.  I normally hit up the children's books to try and find Spanish books for Norma Rae since she is a bilingual teacher.  

There was my first year where I blew my load (literally) on a bunch of hardback by an author that Juanito likes.  I wasted precious bag room and back strength for books I would never read.  And then Juantio has yet to read them all...four years later.  So I'm very excited to finish the book I'm reading now and starting in on new books.  This year I did some damage on the kids tables getting books for The Boy.

Speaking of reading, have you heard of Goodreads.com? Its this web site where you can track all the books you've read and review them.  As I'm aging I think this is a really good idea because 1. I forget what I've read and 2. I'm totally visual so if I look at a book cover and remember if its on my Goodreads then I won't duplicate.  Honestly, I found myself reading the synopsis this past weekend and thinking is that the one where the girl falls in love with the guy at the diner?  No?  Or was it the one where the guy is totally depressed over losing his girlfriend and its in London?  No this is the one where the girls are practicing witch craft in the woods and someone who worked in a diner found them.  Or did he kill them?  Yeah, so there are are benefits. 

So there is also a section on Goodread where you can enter a drawing to win new books that are just being released.  Mined you these are NOT New York Times destined to be best-sellers, but who are we kidding its not like I read those anyways.  Please see above for proof that I read some trashy garbage sometimes.  So anyways, I entered a bunch of these and finally after a few years of doing this I won!  I won not one but TWO new books.  I really hope they are good because I have a bit of obsessiveness about books.  Once I start one I have a really hard time not finishing it.  Its like giving up on a friend and I think its safe to say that I don't walk away from friendships, like ever.  Even when all signs say you should.  So when I do not finish a book, understand that what ever book I stopped reading was really, really, really bad.

Anyways....  very excited to read.  Also, very excited that The Boy is interested in books too.  As long as they have heavy equipment and tractors in them.  Or Bob the Builder.