Another Remarkable year for VNSA

Hundreds of thousands of books lined the tables and displays at the 65th annual book sale hosted by the VNSA at the Arizona State Fair Grounds. It’s a book lover’s dream: the paperbacks, the hard covers, the classics, the suspense and thrillers. Fantasy, sci-fi, westerns, art and literature, historical, romance, and everything between.

Patrons began lining up at 12:01am on February 12, 2022 to secure their spot and be allowed entrance at 9am. (Ty, the kiddos, and I did not partake in that particular adventure). Armed with only a rough list of what we wanted to search for, we arrived around 10:30, expecting to wait in line for over an hour under the bright sun of this particularly warm February morning, but was pleasantly surprised at how quickly we were welcomed inside. Maps of the organizational layout were provided upon entry by friendly volunteers and we decided our best chance was to start at one side of the building and work our way through to the end. We grabbed a ticket for the next available cart (a system that worked exceptionally well as there were hundreds of people and many of us expected to buy more than we could carry), and made a bee line for the classics.

Shuffling through the well sorted titles Ty and I both ended up with an armful of classic novels in excellent condition. Most of them priced at only ONE DOLLAR. But as the kiddos were getting bored and tired, I decided to take them to the children’s section so they could pick out a dozen or so books for their own bookshelves. Ty is definitely more of the classics reader than I am anyway and I knew he deserved to mingle through the tables and boxes in search of his treasures.

The Children’s section was bigger than I expected. As I hadn’t paid any attention to that area the last time I participated, I was overwhelmed by the sheer volume of kids books that took up at least 10-15 tables, not including the overflow of boxes displayed under each table. I found it difficult to explain to the boys that “we’re not reading these right now. If you think it looks cool, we’ll buy it and read it later.” They both were insistent on inspecting their treasures from cover to cover.

When Ty met us a little while later, I tagged him in for child duty and headed over to the standard fiction paperbacks. This section was generally organized by last name, making it some-what simpler to find specific authors. I spent around 30 minutes in the ABC’s section before realizing I still had the whole alphabet of writers to explore. With my arms full, I heard our ticket number called around the hour mark. I breathed a sigh of relief and stretched by back after placing my finds in our newly procured cart.

“Attention VNSA shoppers! We are looking for a Mister Edward Abbey.” My ears perked up. “Mr. Abbey if you could meet your party at the information desk, they are ready to meet you at Information!”

I chuckled to myself. Edward Abbey was the name of the author Ty had been in search of finding, but what were the chances there actually WAS a patron at a book sale with the same name.

“Oh my gosh did you just hear that?” Ty said over my shoulder. I smiled wide. I told him I had and thought it was hilarious someone was searching for a person with the same name. “No! That was ME! I asked them if they could help me find Edward Abbey and they misunderstood me. I was so embarrassed that I just turned around and walked away.” (If anyone is concerned, Ty eventually did successfully find Mr. Abbey in the American Western fiction).

I looked around me and realized how overwhelmed I was starting to feel. Ty informed me he was heading to the Rare and Unusual section and after I finished up in the general paperbacks I headed to the suspense/thriller/mystery section. I could feel my eyes glaze over as I searched for names, covers, and authors that stood out amongst the rows and rows in front of me. Volunteers bustled around, rapidly restocking and organizing each section.

My personal interaction with each volunteer I came in contact with was very pleasant and informative. Every volunteer was trained to answer questions about location of each section, bathrooms, and more.

I had finally realized my exhaustion and decided that after four hours, I needed a break. I made my way to the Rare and Unusual section to wait for Ty to finish his search. This section was blocked off from the rest of the fair as many of these books and items were highly valuable. There were strict rules including: no outside merchandise, no backpacks, and if you leave the walled off section then you’ve purchased the product. Ty made out like a bandit with a priced $15 rare book that was valued much, MUCH higher. We agreed that, with this find, our growing hunger and exhaustion, we were ready to check out.

The check out line wrapped around to the outside of the building, but was so efficient we spent less than 10 minutes waiting. I paid for our four heavy bags and one of the volunteers assisted me to our car as Ty pulled it up to the exit for a quick load-and-go. The volunteer even returned my cart for me.

After leaving the fairgrounds, we were ravenous. We stopped for lunch on the way home and exchanged the best parts of each of our experiences at the sale. Our excitement couldn’t be contained at the moment, but the second we got home and unloaded the car we sat on the couch and promptly fell asleep.

This event is something I have looked forward to since my last visit in 2020 (before the pandemic). The VNSA books sale has literally something for everyone: from the casual reader, the browser, the thrift store owners and book dealers looking for product and so much more. This week we’ll probably be thrifting for a new bookshelf, followed by trying to find space to put the shelf in the house. Ty and I are already marking our calendar for February 2023!

Happy reading!

Holly