The quiet before the storm. The book sale is set up and ready on Friday.
It was a lot of fun, I'm very tired, and it's over.
The West Virginia Book Festival concluded today. It was a good event, not nearly as well attended as last year, which is undoubtedly due to the price of gas and the uncertainty over the economy.
People were lined up outside at 7:30 am, waiting to get inside to the giant used book sale.
When the doors opened at 8am, the crowds ran--literally--into the sale room. Amazing! People running to get at the books! Where did they head first? The West Virginia books, of course.
A crowd stayed in that area for most of the morning until there was little left to be purchased from that section.
I worked in the collector's area for a couple hours and enjoyed watching people making their selections. I love these old books best. Aren't the covers pretty?
I left the book sale at 10am to put on my storytelling hat and join the storytelling guild's booth. We had an opportunity to do a live recording of the guild's storytelling concert this year. Bob Webb came with his equipment and after a bit of testing we were ready to go. While Bob worked on the sound quality, I taught the audience the participation parts of a song and story I planned to use for the recording. When it was time to tape, the audience performed brilliantly! It was so much fun. I'm not sure if I will get to use both stories and the song on the final CD, but I hope so because the telling and the audience were perfect.
It turned out to be a long set, almost 2 hours long. Afterwards, I MC'ed for our featured teller, Donna Washington of North Carolina. Donna is high energy, a lesson in how to involve and interact with audiences. Her stories and her performances were popular with our audiences. The guild's panel discussion was not a success; low attendance means we probably won't try one again at the festival anytime soon.
Tonight I'm tired but satisfied with a good weekend. The firepit provided a welcome place to relax, renew and remember another great festival.
Susanna, wish I could have been there. But,then again, I don't have room for the books I have now.
ReplyDeleteMe either, Janet. But I still came home with some. A few were investments that I thought might be worth buying for resale. It turned out to be a good gamble, as I ended up with 4 books with a total value of over $300. But this year I bought far less than usual, simply because of the space issue.
ReplyDeleteThe sheer volume of the sale was overwhelming, thousands and thousands of books on very topic imaginable.
Sounds great - and thanks for showing those lovely old book covers. Wish I could have been there. Hugs, Ellouise
ReplyDeleteSounds like the book sale was a big success. You have had a busy weekend and if memory serves me right you have a busy week ahead.
ReplyDeleteSusanna,
ReplyDeleteI made it to the used book sale on Saturday but just had time to skim over the books, Shirley was hurrying me up since she had a lunch date and we were already a half hour late in getting there. There sure were a lot of books this year. The West Virginia books were wiped out by the time I got there. I also looked for an anthology on poetry to no avail. There were lots of American History books which I loved. All in all, I did buy a few books. I bought a book on Farming Lore, another on Archaeology in Virginia. I also got a huge coffee table book about the old tall tale postcards from the early 1900's, pretty neat to see a postcard of a 2,000 lb ear of corn. My best purchase was a book on American barns, it has blueprints and all the different types of barns. Yes, even some German barns!!!
I went back on Sunday hoping to get another stab at the used books, but Granny Sue told me it is one day only!! (Note to all...On Sunday, Granny had on her blue jeans, so I think she was just playing the role of Susanna that day, It was odd and mildly disconcerting to see Granny without her Granny-ness).
I looked through the new books and talked a little with our friend Rebecca Bailey who just wrote a book called "Matewan Before the Massacre" (WVU Press). She's really nice.
Hey Granny...tell us more about that antique Christmas book you showed me that you bought. It looked interesting, I wished I had looked closer at the Table of Contents (but of course I got sidetracked talking about the German Belsnickle). Speaking of which, we have the Belsnickle, Belsnickling, and the mummers parade in Pendleton County.
I had fun at the book festival, there were a lot more books this year. Wished I had bought more.
I wish I'd bought more too, Matthew. I had very little time to shop. It sounds like you found some interesting books. I only spent $24, and could easily have spent ten times that if I'd had the time. So many fascinating titles!
ReplyDeleteI can totally understand people running for the books as I LOVE books myself !
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