On The Road- Avon, Newington, and Ridgefield, CT

~Caitlin~

Avon, CT
Overall: B-
Helpfulness of Staff: C
Book Condition: B+
Book Selection: B-
Value: B+

I guess the main problem I had with Avon was the lack of trade paperbacks and chick lit. Those are just the two sections that I gravitate to first. I look for trade paperbacks because they are more pleasing on my bookshelf than regular paperbacks, but still easily portable, as i often have at least one book on me almost everywhere I go. You never know when you're going to have a spare 5 or 10 minutes to devour a few more pages. Hardcovers are great, but they tend to take up too much room. The quality of the books that were there were pretty good though. Even the older books were in gently used conditions. I also really liked that they used paper bags (environmentally friendly and you can fit more). The booksale was disorganized; I contribute this to the fact that it was the last day of the sale. All in all, it was an ok book sale and I was able to fill up a bag, but it was not the best book sale I have been to.

Newington, CT
Overall: D+
Helpfulness of Staff: C
Book Condition: C
Book Selection: D
Value: D

This was not a great book sale. First, you had to pay at the door to get in (I HATE that), then you couldn't find the books. There was a room off to the side that we thought was all there was containing all fiction and mystery books. The signs for the rest of the sale were above eyesight... hint to designers, unless someone points it out, people don't often look for signs above their heads. Its the reason why we don't hang pictures on ceilings. The selection was mediocre. The only upside to this sale was that I was able to get some bigger cookbooks that I would normally not pick up at back book sales because they take up too much room.

Ridgefield, CT
Overall: A
Helpfulness of Staff: A
Book Condition: B+
Book Selection: A
Value: A

This was a pretty damn good book sale. We started out going on Saturday where the books were an average price of $3 for a hardcover, $2 for a trade paperback, and 50 cents for regular paperbacks. We were happily browsing, being cautious about putting stuff in our bags because it wasn't a bag sale. Then it happened. Darren overheard that Monday was a bag book sale! I bought the books I had already picked up, I had found a few books I was searching for and I just couldn't part with the rest in case they weren't there on Monday, and we cleared our schedules to be able to return. This sale was so good that not only did Olia and I fill up two bags each, we split a 5th. The books were in average to excellent condition, the trade paperback selection was excellent, and the "newer" books from Olia's previous blog were included in the bag sale. The staff was helpful and friendly, and they didn't care that we had overstuffed the bags, as we tend to do often. This is a sale I will be attending again and will be on the lookout for the next date.