This weekend was one of my favorite events of the year, the VNSA Used Book Sale. We've went to this every year that we've been in AZ ... 13 years. It's 600,000 used books in a building at the fairgrounds for two days every February. All the proceeds from the sale of the donated books (collected throughout the year at drop boxes around the Valley) go to local charitable organizations, including:
- Arizona Friends of Foster Children Foundation - is organized to promote the self esteem, and enrich the lives, of Arizona’s foster children. AFFCF funds activities, education and other opportunities that provide the children with quality experiences while they live in difficult circumstances.
- Literacy Volunteers of Maricopa County - teaches individuals age 16 and older to read, speak English or prepare for their GED. LVMC has family literacy programs, operates two Learning Centers in Phoenix, and offers one-to-one tutoring county-wide.
- Toby House, Inc. - was the first psychiatric halfway house in Arizona and continues to help adults with serious mental illness learn to live successfully in the community. To do this, Toby House operates various levels of residential and outpatient treatment programs.
The book sale, now in it's 50th year, raised $425,000 in last year's sale and has given over $5 million to local non-profit human service agencies since the sale began in 1957.
Some of the highlights of my purchases:
- Imperial America - Gore Vidal - Vidal is one of my favorite novelists and I've been reading his books for 20 years. This is a collection of some of his most recent essays on our current government.
- Touch the Top of the World - Erik Weihenmayer - Weihenmayer was the first blind man to scale Mt. Everest. Even though I've never went mountain climbing, I'm fascinated by it. Two of the better ones I've read: Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer and Touching the Void by Joe Simpson
- Ghosts of Everest - another mountain climbing book
- History of Art - H.W. Janson - I'm an art moron. I love art but probably can only identify by sight a dozen or so artists. This book is extensive and has a lot of nice reproductions.
6 comments:
Impressive........ Maybe I should book a flight over for the next one... Then again... I already need a bigger house for the books I already have... so maybe not... [grin]
Yep, I'm the same way. I have six bookcases and I still have books in boxes.
I have 8 floor to ceiling bookcases groaning under the weight, 2 half units likewise as well as books piled in rooms all over the house (except for the bathroom).
My name's Cyberkitten & I'm a bookaholic.....
The first step is admitting you have a problem. :-)
dbackdad said: The first step is admitting you have a problem. :-)
Indeed. All of my friends know I have a 'problem' with books. Not helped recently that its taken me 6 weeks to read my present book (of just over 1000 pages) and yet I bought 8 books last week alone.... But I'm sure I could stop any time I wanted to...
Actually its not as bad as it sounds... I did manage to read 2 non-fiction during the last 6 weeks and have started 2 others...
I go in spurts like that too. I've been stuck on "God's Politics" for a couple of months but have managed to read a couple of other things during that time. But the rate in which I'm reading right now is certainly a lot slower than my rate of buying.
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