Book Junkies Are The Same Everywhere

Today was the first day of the annual Lifeline BookFest (used book sale) in the Brisbane Convention Center. Oh, be still my beating heart!

It fills two large halls at the convention center and has more than 2 million books loosely organized into three areas -- high quality, priced, and un-priced.

The "high quality" are the books in the best shape. They range from $5 - $10.

The "priced" are a little more ragged (but not torn up) and are $2 - $5.

The "unpriced"....well, I never even made it there!

Our beginning was not auspicious. I suggested we drive since Jeff is still on crutches and would have to spend his time there hobbling around on concrete floors. I knew he'd be exhausted by the end. The convention center has underground parking and there are several more parking lots in the area. I checked the convention center website to confirm parking availability.

The problem? The convention center is on the Southbank, which got heavily flooded 3 weeks ago. Underground parking lots took it particularly hard. The convention center parking lot was open -- for about an hour. By 9:30 am, it was full. I suspect huge parts of it still aren't actually dry and clear.

The other parking garages? Not even open yet. We drove around and around and finally went home.

I'm frustrated that the promotional material, especially on the web (which is quick and easy to update), didn't mention that the parking garages were mostly unavailable and people should take public transit. They've been closed for almost 3 weeks. It's not like they didn't know this would be a problem.

I'm frustrated that the signs for the parking garages still say they're open -- including the electronic signs which (again) should be quick and easy to update -- until you try to pull in and discover they are physically blocked.

I'm frustrated that the convention center sign tells you there's additional parking in the nearby Parklands .... whose signs tell you to go the convention center for additional parking.

We came back to the 'hood, parked near a bus stop, and took the bus.

Another frustration -- where the hell is handicapped access? As near as we could tell, there was one handicapped access point on the vast 2-block long southside of the convention center.....somewhere in the parking garage. God bless Jeff for being a trooper and dealing quietly and patiently with a lot of steps.

OK, enough with the frustrating parts. Let's get to the books. Acres and acres of books. Tabled into rough categories such as "travel" and "scifi" and "fiction". Yes, the "fiction" category was quite large.

Veterans know to bring something to carry your books in. We brought a backpack and a grocery roll-a-long. I saw lots of the grocery roll-a-longs. I saw backpacks. I saw suitcases. I saw shopping carts. I saw a wheelbarrow! These people have been here before.

We also saw a number of people wearing cotton gloves. Either they are perusing the rare/out-of-print book section or they are a tad fastidious. If it's the latter, a barn-like structure full of other people's books must be a bit overwhelming.

Some general observations:

* The travel section had a lot of Bill Bryson. His books sometimes get re-titled here. In the US, you would read "In A Sunburned Country" if you wanted to read about his adventures in Australia. Here, you'd read "Down Under". Same book.

* I wish the sci-fi collection had been larger. On the other hand, we got there about 11 am on opening day (it opened at 8:30) and it had already been visibly picked over. Sci-fi nerds will get up early for cheap books!

* The childrens book section was always chaos and mayhem -- and that's just on the tables!

* The crafts/homemaking/cooking section had a very steady stream of people around it. It could be tough to get a spot to peruse!

* The guy working the PA system was great. He regularly made announcements for lost spouses and children who were ready to go home if mum & dad would just finish up already! The best was for a "foreign visitor" (from New Zealand). His wife needed to remind him -- via the PA system announcer -- that they could only get 20 kg of books and she'd already picked up 18 so he could only pick up 2.

I had filled up my grocery roll-a-long in about 30 minutes. I had to stop and re-assess my loot, putting 3 books back eventually. Jeff ended up with....nothing. He was tired and sore. I'm sure we'll be sharing some of mine.

Checking out was an interesting process:

Step 1: handed my books to a lady who flipped through them and added them up....in her head! Wrote the total on a slip of paper (which she handed to me) and slid the books to...

Step 2: a lady who put them in a white plastic grocery bag and forwarded it on to ....

Step 3: the lady who tied off the bag and taped the tie shut so you couldn't surreptitiously add more books to your bag without paying. She then slid the bag along to....

Step 4: the lady who actually took my slip of paper with the total written on it (and then took my money). My final tally? 8 books for $52, which included one Bill Bryson.

It seems on the surface like this is cumbersome but it did keep things moving along (at least when I checked out).

I quickly found Jeff, who was flagging. We found the "handicapped" exit (elevator plus a mere 8 steps) and took the bus home. I napped the nap of the book-enhanced.