Book Junkie

Yes, I am confessing. I am a book junkie. I always wanted the library room from the movie Candleshoe. I went to two used curriculum sales in the last week. Dangerous, dangerous territory for a book junkie. I went in with low expectations. I told myself to only look for the handful of things I was already planning on buying so I didn't expect to find anything. First sale I scored:

I was planning on buying the Story of the World books as well as the Trail Guide To U.S. Geography, the rest were cheap bonuses. I stuck mostly to my plan. I picked up another book not in this picture for a friend because the price was so good. This sale was busy, packed with people. Lots of bumping and feeling pushed away from tables. I only spent $4 on my extras, though. Good on me.

Last night I went to the other sale...... I was weak.....

In my defense a lot of these things came out of free bins! Seriously! I was searching for the Singapore Primary Mathematics Level 1A and 1B, Who Owns the Sun, The Usborne Book of Everyday Words in Spanish, Usborne Time Traveler, The Well-Trained Mind and Beyond Five In A Row. I only spent about $10 more than I did at the first sale, but came away with so much more. The people at the second sale were chatty. They didn't want to take things back home so they were more likely to strike a deal. It was far less crowded and more conducive to book buying.

Some of these things would have been $20-45 and the most I paid for any one item was $10.

There is another sale next week, but I've gone through my little stash of cash :( Bummer. I'm fighting with myself. I would like to hit this other sale, but there's only two things I've got in mind that I really want. The chances of finding those two things are incredibly slim, but the likely hood of coming home with another armful of books is very high.

Have you ever found that ever elusive holy grail of books at a garage sale or used book store? What was it? How good of a deal did you get?