A book sale in Atlanta

Every year the American Association of University Women (AAUW) has a book sale in one of the malls in Atlanta.  Since 1960 they have raised $1 million and distributed it as scholarships and programs for girls and women.   We have been going to their book sale for years - and have the books to show for it ... The 54th Annual AAUW BookFair started this year on the evening of September 23, 2013, with a $10 admission for Opening Night.  Then the BookFair was free from Tuesday morning September 24th through Sunday 29th.  We went on the morning of the 24th.

I took my little Lumix camera but frankly I became so involved looking at books that I did not take many pictures.  As advertised they offer 75,000 used books - some look brand new.  They display them in 50 categories, such as Southern Authors, Popular Fiction, Art, Photography, Military, Mysteries, Science Fiction, Reference, Cookbooks, Foreign Language, Children's Books, Philosophy, Religion, Nature, Romance, Biography, Politics, History, Poetry and much more.  This year it was held again at Perimeter Mall - north of Atlanta.  In previous years it was held at Lenox Mall, in the Buckhead area of Atlanta.  Perimeter Mall is remodeling so the BookFair did not have as much room as in previous years and was located in the lower level of the mall only.

We arrived around 10:15 am and left, after having a late lunch, around 3:30 pm. I tried not to choose too many books since I already have so many at home, may of them still unread.  I usually go directly to the Foreign Language section as they have some French books, but not many, most of them are dictionaries or language books to learn French.  I did find some books though.

The books used to cost only 25 cents, 50 cents and one dollar, but now they are more expensive.  They have little dots to indicate prices - red is 50 cents, blue $1, green $2, yellow $3 and orange $4.  Some of the "coffee table" books are more expensive and some that are autographed.  I usually buy the 50 cents and dollar books.  After going to Foreign Language I find the Travel Section - and I found some interesting ones this year again.  I also like to look at Mysteries to see if I can find some Agatha Christie books that are not in my collection - I was lucky this year (I'll show my books below.)

Then this year I went to the History section and then on to the Cookbook section.  I have so many cookbooks already that I really should not get any more - but who knows, there may be an exceptional one ... I took a quick look in the bins.  I could not get to the last bin because a lady had stopped there for quite some time - she was reading recipes in one book.  I tried to take an oblique look at the bin in front of her.  She became agitated and told me that I was not to look over her shoulder. She said I should just wait until she was finished, whenever that was.  So I went away to take some pictures and just now realized that she is in the picture - she is the lady with a bun on top of her white hair at the end of the row.  I did get a small cookbook for 50 cents, and I'll tell you why below.

My husband was looking at the autographed books, and did get one (for $2) but I did not get any this time.

Then I went to the African American section and did find a book I was looking for.  I also found something in the Literature Section.

There were some lovely volumes on the Coffee Table book section.  A picture book on San Francisco was tempting - but I resisted!

I walked around all the sections, in case I had missed anything of interest.

By 2:00 pm I went to look for my husband who was in the "Animal" section.  He did get a really lovely new book by Jane Goodall "Hope for Animals and their World" for $1.  It was time to go so we would not be enticed to look deeper in the sections and find more books.  He had found 14 books and I ... well, I did not count them.

At home we inspected our lucky finds.  I usually take a look and remove the little stickers, but I have not looked at all of them yet.  I took pictures of the books to show them here.  Click on the collages twice so you can read the titles better.

As you can see above I found some good French books: Victor Hugo, Cocteau, Camus, Appollinaire, Georges Simenon, Irene Nemirosky.  I also found some books on Paris (I always look for them) including Gertrude Stein's Paris France.  When I was reading about the 20s and 30s in Paris and the bohemian life of the American writers there, I saw the name Djuna Barnes but had never read any of  her books - there was one there, for 50 cents - Nightwood.  On the back cover Dylan Thomas is quoted as saying "One of the three great prose books ever written by a woman."

I brought my list of Anne Perry and Agatha Christie's titles of books I have and was pleased to find books I did not have.  The book "Journalistas" sounded interesting - it said on the cover "100 years of the Best Writing and Reporting by Women Journalists."

In the African American section I had found "Complicity - How the North Promoted, Prolonged and Profited from Slavery" by Anne Farrow of the Hartford Courant (Connecticut) - may be there is some thought provoking research in it (pictured above near the green Simenon book.)  I also was very pleased to find a great copy of "The Bondwoman's Narrative" by Hannah Crafts.  A friend had just been telling me about this book written by an African American woman.  At the time of publication - 2002, there were questions about its authenticity.  However, a professor in South Carolina just found out that this was indeed written by a former slave who had escaped from a plantation before the Civil War and written it around 1850 or so.  The other book called "Willie Mae" by Elizabeth Kytle is "the true and captivating story of an African American servant in Georgia."

When I went to Montana, my first mother in law gave me several thin cookery books.  They were written in the late 1950s, have little illustrations and are charming.  I found one such booklet, from the same era, on Cakes and Tortes, shown below on the left.  The booklets on the right are those that were given to me.

Below, in yellow, "A Blue Hand" about Allen Ginsberg in India, and the blue book "Finding George Orwell in Burma" were found in the Travel Section.

Below "Reality Sandwiches" is a small book of poems by Allen Ginsberg.  The book on the right is "From a Native Daughter - Colonialism  & Sovereignty in Hawaii" by Haunani Kay Trask.

I was very pleased to find the little book "Emily Carr and her dogs" written and illustrated by her, and a biography about her by Maria Tippett.  Since I visited Emily Carr's house in Victoria, BC, Canada, I have read most of her books and enjoyed going to museums and looking at her paintings.  Emily Carr was quite a remarkable woman and a great Canadian artist (1871-1945.)

I almost forgot to mention the book below "The Far Side of the World" by Patrick O'Brian.  I heard about this book several years ago when it was made into a movie called Master and Commander (starring Russell Crowe.)  In the book the naval fight in the South Seas in 1812 is between a British whaler and the American Frigate USS Norfolk.  But, the movie was made in 2003 and the director thought that the American public would not go and see a movie where the bad guy - the American frigate - is American.  They thought it would be a better seller if the bad guy was changed to a French one (because of the Iraq war) so they turned the USS Norfolk into the French privateer Acheron.  It will be interesting to read the story the author wrote and not the biased Hollywood account of it.

There are a few more books that I have not photographed including those my husband found.  We had a great time at the AAUW BookFair.  Now I'll have to wait for next year's BookFair - but I have plenty of books to keep me busy until then.

Basic Necessities by Deborah DeWit Marchand, Dutch-American, born in 1956