My favorite local event happens the first Saturday of each month. It's the Priest River library book sale.
This is the event sponsored by the Friends of the Library to raise funds for the 
latest releases, guest speakers, and supplies for the various children's craft events held throughout the year.
Because this year has brought so many donations, all of the recent sales have been $2 per bag sales.
That method of payment got my young grand-daughter completely confused when she accompanied me to the September sale.
She knew I'd paid $2 for a plastic grocery bag, but she didn't realize that I wasn't going to pay for each book she chose. So in spite of my urging her to take what she wanted, her bag wasn't getting full.
I finally convinced her, but she still couldn't quite believe that the library was giving us those books "for free. "I kept saying "they're not free, I paid $2 for your sack." But it still didn't make sense to her.
Finally I asked her if she really thought her old Grandma was silly enough to pay $2 for a used grocery sack… She said she guessed not, but every time she'd been to a book sale with her mom they'd paid a few dollars per book, so this just didn't make sense.
I'm just thankful that she's growing up with a love of books.
I always get there when the doors open at 10:00 – because by 10:30 it's almost impossible to see the books. The library has been trying to get the voters to approve an expansion to the building for the last couple of years, but so far without luck. Meanwhile, they're out of space, so on sale days they set up tables and rows of chairs in the meeting room and the back office and pile them with boxes of books. Shoppers have barely enough room to meet and squeeze past each other in the spaces left for walking.
Today, even by 10:15 it was difficult to move around, but everyone was cheerful and we juggled ourselves around so everyone could get a good look.
It's fun to listen as friends find books they've read and tell others "You should read this," and as parents or grand-parents lead small children to the kids' section. Today was interesting - listening to a woman urging her Mom to set that sack down somewhere - "It's too heavy for you."
Usually I choose Westerns for my husband and "light" murder mysteries for me, but sometimes other titles catch my eye. Today I got Sean Hannity's "Deliver us From Evil," and Sarah Palin's "America by Heart," along with one about how dogs think.
All in all I came home with three bags full of books. You just can't beat that as a way to spend $6.
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