Baptist Church Book Sale

This week Denise and I experienced for the first time the book sale on the front lawn at the First Baptist Church in Decatur, which is just a fraction of their huge legendary yard sale that ended Saturday.  

Earlier in the week—in the quiet cemetery-like surroundings—we scouted out the thousands of book offerings. You can easily imagine what was there—the usual books that are laid to rest: War and Peace, The Thorn Birds, The DaVinci Code, Rhett Butler’s People, Pat Conroy books, The Magic of Sex (?), and a complete hardback set of Louis L’Amour westerns.

Denise went back for the opening ceremonies on Thursday and not only picked up some Sunshine Biscuit tins (reliving the fresh baked goodness of her youth), but she brought home some great hardbacks for our library: The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion, That Old Ace in the Hole by Annie Proulx, and a copy of Jonathan Franzen’s essays, How to Be Alone. Franzen is headlining the Decatur Book Festival on Labor Day weekend, so I am stockpiling inventory.