The Schenectady County New York Public Library Sale. Part Two

Finding Good Books. Losing Good Manners

The following article first appeared in Book Quote on December 23, 1994. After not going to library sales for many years, I began going again last year. Yesterday, I attended the Schenectady County Public Library book sale, only to find that the article I wrote in 1994 is truer now than it was then.

"Rudeness is the weak man's imitation of strength." Eric Hoffer.

Sometimes I swear I'll never go to another book sale again, especially the Schenectady County Public Library sale here in New York State. At one sale, I was tenth in a line of around thirty people waiting for the sale to begin when I noticed a man sidle up to the front of the line with a whack of plastic bags hanging out of his back pocket. He didn't really cut in front of anyone. He just stood off to the side, nonchalantly, hoping no one would notice. I noticed.

When the doors opened, he rushed inside. Other people behind me rushed also, knocking down the yellow police barriers that had been erected to hold them back. One woman fell face first on the floor in her rush to get inside. I began to feel like I was in a starving, third-world country that had just received a shipment of food.

By the time I went through the doors, I was number 25th or 30th, not tenth. I headed straight for the sci-fi books. I spotted Arthur C. Clarke's Space Odyssey trilogy, picked up one volume, then closed my hand around volume two, only to have it ripped right out of my hand.

I looked up to see the man who had sidled up to the front of the line earlier. I wanted to punch him, but when the day comes that I have to fight another dealer or collector for a book, then that's the day I get out of the business. Besides, even if I had taken time to yell at him, I would have lost out on more books.

Last Saturday, I arrived more than a half hour early at the annual Fall sale held by the same library and was again about tenth in line. A man who entered the line behind me recognized a woman in front of me. They began talking to one another. He then told me had to leave for a minute, indicating that he wanted me to hold his place. "Okay," I said.