Library Book Sales and Defensive Shopping

I just got back from the Boston Public Library book sale. Like many things in Boston, this was an interesting and lively experience, even if it does bring out people's aggressive side. For instance, the books are just $2.00 for hardcovers and $1.00 for paperbacks, but apparently the BPL raised their prices, which caused a bit of disgruntled muttering among some of the shoppers. Also, people tend to swarm on some of these shelves like locusts. After avoiding some elbows and ducking in quickly to check out certain shelves, I emerged with five books, which cost me a grand total of $8.00. These include:

• The Year of the Rat by Grace Lin (I read one of her books for a children's lit class, and found it quite charming, so I am looking forward to reading this)
• The Best American Essays of 2003
• Modern Critical Views on Ernest Hemingway
• Modern Critical Views on Maya Angelou
• Twilight

For those of you wondering, I bought Twilight for the sole purpose of giving it away on BookMooch. Although I do not like the book, apparently 400+ people on BookMooch want to mooch it. In fact, two minutes after I listed it, someone has already requested it. While I am glad that someone who wants the book is going to be able to read it, I also feel bad for the 400+ people who will be receiving the email from BookMooch informing them that Twilight has been listed, only for them to get to the site and see that someone has already mooched it. When you are competing with hundreds of people for one book, I can imagine that this disappointment must be a fact of life, but it still has to be a letdown.